This collection, a part of Katha Studies in Culture and Translation Series, brings to the reader 11 incisive and insightful essays on the plight of the Indian woman. Recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Bharatiya Jnanpith Award, Mahadevi Varma is a celebrated Hindi poet. These essays offer a host of perspectives on the circumstantial obligations of Indian women.

Now available in English for the first time, Mahadevi's poignant memoir-tales bring to life the degrading experiences of the faceless and nameless multitudes. Whether it is Binda, the lonely orphan girl victimized by her stepmother; Bhabi, the emotionally and physically abused child widow barred from any contact with the outside world; or Sabiya, the poor sweeper woman deserted by her husband shortly before the birth of their child, the subjects of Mahadevi's memoir convey her universalist vision to resurrect the inner dignity of "these wounded and mauled lives". Through her recollective tales, Mahadevi connects the exploitation of her characters with the subjugation of all women, indeed of all oppressed people. Her compelling memoir transcends the borders of culture and time.

The Only Woman To Have Become A Major Figure In Modern Hindi Letters, Mahadevi Varma Is One Of The Leading Poets Of The Romantic Chhayanad Movement That Resolutionized Hindi Poetry In The 1920S And 1930S. This Is Her Biography.

Mahadevi Varma was one of the leading poets of the romantic movement in Hindi poetry during the 1920s and 30s. She was also a writer of prose sketches, a translator of Sanskrit, and a literary theorist. This study combines intellectual history, biography, and literary criticism to create a vivid portrait of this important writer and her era.

My Family is a collection of pen portraits on a few of the many animals with whom Mahadevi Varma chose to spend her life. Set in a time when human and non-human worlds were still permeable, the book describes the singular personalities of Mahadevi's adoptive animals and the unique relationships she enjoyed with each of them. There is Gillu the frisky squirrel, Neelkanth the gorgeous caring peacock, Sona the affectionate doe with liquid eyes, Neelu the imperious yet loyal mountain dog, and others whom Mahadevi magically brings to life on the page. Brilliantly translated by Ruth Vanita and peppered with Mahadevi's sparkling wit, these sketches depict a memorable life lived with a special chosen family. In her erudite introduction, Vanita analyses various dimensions of Mahadevi's life and work, illuminates her historical and literary legacy, and reviews the myriad debates on humans' coexistence with animals.

Mirabai, an iconic sixteenth-century Indian poet-saint, is renowned for her unwavering love of God, her disregard for social hierarchies and gendered notions of honor and shame, and her challenge to familial, feudal, and religious authorities. Defying attempts to constrain and even kill her, she could not be silenced. Though verifiable facts regarding her life are few, her fame spread across social, linguistic, and religious boundaries, and stories about her multiplied across the subcontinent and the centuries. In Mirabai, Nancy M. Martin traces the story of this immensely popular Indian saint from the earliest manuscript references to her through colonial and nationalist developments to scholarly and popular portrayals in the decades leading up to Indian independence. This book examines Mirabai's place as both insider and outsider to the developing strands of devotional Hinduism and her role in contested terrain of debates around the education and independence of women and the crafting of Indian and Hindu identities. Mirabai offers a comprehensive and multi-layered portrait of this remarkable and still controversial woman, who continues to be a source of inspiration and catalyst for self-actualization for spiritual seekers, artists, activists, and so many others in India and around the world today.