Mahadevi Verma was a Hindi poet, freedom fighter and educationist from India. She is widely regarded as the “modern Meera”. She was a major poet of the “Chhayavaad”, a literary movement of romanticism in modern Hindi poetry ranging from 1914–1938 and a prominent poet in Hindi Kavi Sammelans (Gatherings of poets).
She was the Principal, and then the Vice-Chancellor of Prayag Mahila Vidyapeeth, a woman’s residential college in Allahabad.
Mahadevi Verma was born on 26 March 1907 in Farrukhabad. her education was at Crossthwaite Girls’ School in Allahabad. At this school, she met fellow student Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, who would later go on to become a prominent Hindi writer and poet, like Verma herself.
Varma is considered to be one of the four major poets of the Chhayavaadi school of the Hindi literature, others being Suryakant Tripathi ‘Nirala’, Jaishankar Prasad and Sumitranandan Pant. She drew a number of illustrations for her poetic works like Yama. One of her other works is Neelkanth which talks about her experience with a peacock, which is included as a chapter into the syllabus of Central Board of Secondary Education for 7th graders. She has also written Gaura which is based on her real life, in this story she wrote about a beautiful cow. Mahadevi Verma is also known for her childhood memoir, Mere Bachpan Ke Din and Gillu, which was inducted into the syllabus of India’s Central Board of Secondary Education for the 9th grade. In addition, her poem “Madhur Madhur Mere Deepak Jal” is a part of CBSE curriculum (Hindi-B) for 10th grade. From one of her memoir, Smriti ki Rekhayen, an account of her maid-friend, Bhaktin, is included in Class 12 Hindi Core syllabus of CBSE.