Mahadevi Varma was born on March 26th 1907 in Farrukhabad, India. She passed in September 11th 1987. She became a Hindi poet, freedom fighter, and educator who was widely recognized as “modern Meera”. Her family were very liberal compared to others who follow old Indian traditions that would frown upon Mahadevi. She set a trend for Chhayavaad, literary movement of romanticism in modern Hindi poetry. As an educator, she became the principal and Vice-Chancellor of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth. As a child, she attended Crossthwaite Girls’ School where she met the young Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, prominent Hindi writer and poet. Before attending Crossthwaite, she was originally pose to attend a convent school but she rebel and refuse to join. While in Crossthwaite, she started to understood the strength of unity in the hostel as students of different religions lived together. Within time, she started to write poetry secretly with the inspiration from her mother but eventually the other students and her senior, Subhadra found her hidden stash. Mahadevi’s talents were exposed and she started to write with Subhadra in their free time. At times, the two would send their poems to publications and was successful in getting them publish in magazines. In addition, they would attend poetry seminars and meet great Hindi poets until Subhadra gradated from Crossthwaite. Mahadevi after finishing school was considering to become a Buddhist nun as she studied and earn a master’s degree in Buddhist Pali and Prakrit texts. She took a year to figure out and became a teacher at a village school in Allahabad. Mahadevi was a follower of Gandhi but did not participated in the political activities. She then founded an opportunity as first headmistress of Allahabad Mahila Vidyapeeth in 1933 which was a private college that taught cultural and literary to girls. After headmistress, she became the chancellor where she organized conferences to promote poetry, writing, and short stories. Even working at the college, she continued to write for Hindi magazines. As one of the four major poets for Chhayavaad, she has done “Yama” which was an illustration book. She has also created, “Neelkanth” which talks about her experience with peacocks and is in the 7th grade syllabus for the Central Board of Secondary Education. In addition, she wrote “Gaura”, “Mere Bachpan Ke Din” and “Gillu” which respectively reflect her life and childhood. Mahadevi had the talent to be a great writer and poet. Although she was not sure what her future holds after schooling, she followed her inspiration to become someone in the field of literature due to her mother and with her friend Subhadra. It was impressive that she used her platform to inspire others and was able to embed multiple literature work in the school system. She was a great role model as an educator and is willing to express herself freely in her platform.

click here