Deepshikha

{{Short description|Hindi poetry collection by Mahadevi Varma}} {{About|the poetry|other uses|Deepshikha (disambiguation) }} {{infobox book | name = Deepshikha | title_orig = दीपशिखा | image = Deepshika_(poetry_collection)_cover.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Title page of the first edition | author = Mahadevi Varma | illustrator = Mahadevi Varma | country = British India | language = Hindi | orig_lang_code = hi | pub_date = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1942}} | genre = Poem | publisher = Kitabistan and Bharati Bhandar (former); Vani Prakashan and Lokbharti Prakashan (current) | media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback) | pages = 75 ''(first edition)'' | isbn = 8180311198 | isbn_note = (2008 edition by Lokbharti Prakashan) }} {{Italic title}} '''Deepshikha''' ({{langx|hi|दीपशिखा|translit={{transliteration|hi|ISO|Dīpśikhā}}|lit=Crest of the Flame}}) is a collection of lyric poetry in Hindi composed by Mahadevi Varma and published in 1942. It was Mahadevi's final major poetry collection to embody the sensibilities of Chhayavad. Thereafter, she turned her focus toward prose writing. As suggested by the title, many of the poems are addressed to a lamp, through which she conveys introspective depth, emotional nuance, contemplation, and motivation. The original edition comprised a fusion of painting and poetry, with the poems rendered upon subtle watercolor backgrounds.

==Background== Deepshikha was completed in 1939 but its publication was delayed until 1942 due to disruptions in the publishing industry caused by World War II.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schomer |first=Karine |date=1983 |title=Mahadevi Verma and the Chhayavad Age of Modern Hindi Poetry |url=https://archive.org/details/mahadevivarmachh0000scho|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-04255-1 |page=250 |url-access=registration|access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref> The initial editions featured an integration of painting and poetry, with the poems set against delicate watercolor backgrounds in the style of the Bengal School of Art and the text rendered in Varma’s own handwriting.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poet's visual expression |last1=Das |first1=Soumitra |last2=Dey |first2=Sreyoshi |last3=Chakraborty |first3=Showli |work=The Telegraph |publisher=ABP Group |date=5 May 2013 |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/poet-s-visual-expression/cid/1287164 |access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref>

Preceding the poems, the volume includes a substantial introduction along with reflective prose passages on various concepts such as the relative and the absolute in the perception of truth and art, the shifting forms of truth in human relationships, and the portrayal of women in progressive literature.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Varma, Mahadevi, and Her Poetic: Vision and Philosophy of Life |journal=Journal of Oriental Research of the University of Madras |volume=32 |year=1986 |page=45}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Orsini |first=Francesca |author-link=Francesca Orsini |title=The Hindi Public Sphere 1920–1940: Language and Literature in the Age of Nationalism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780198062202 |chapter=Women and the Hindi Public Sphere |pages=34 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198062202.001.0001 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198062202.001.0001 |access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref> The book comprises 51 lyric poems on various subjects characteristic of the Chhayavad literary movement. In the first edition, each illustrated leaf was counted as a single page, while the accompanying prose section, spanning 24 pages, followed conventional pagination.<ref>{{cite book |last=Varma |first=Mahadevi |title=Deepshikha |language=hi |publisher=Kitabistan |year=1942|location=Allahabad}}</ref>

==Themes== The imagery of the lamp, along with the motif of a waiting woman holding a lamp, appears recurrently in Mahadevi's poetry—from her debut collection, Nihar (1930), to her final work, Agnirekha (1990), which was published posthumously.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Saxena |first=Rajeev |title=Hindi Scene: When Words Betray the Truth |journal=Indian Literature |volume=35 |issue=1 (147)|jstor=44292340|pages=138–145 |year=1992 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44292340|url-access=subscription|access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref>

As noted by critics, the sentiments and philosophical undertones conveyed through the lamp motif evolved in Varma's works over time. This symbolic identification of the woman with the lamp reached its culmination in Deepshikha.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Piano |first=S. |title=Il «dolore» e la «separazione» nella poesia di Mahādevī |journal=Indologica Taurinensia |volume=2 |year=1974 |pages=240 |language=Italian |url=http://www.asiainstitutetorino.it/indologica/volumes/vol02/vol02_art12_Piano.pdf |access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bhatnagar |first=Ram Ratan |author-link=Ram Ratan Bhatnagar |title=Mahadevi Smaran Granth |editor=Sumitranandan Pant |chapter=Mahadevi-ji Navmulyankan |publisher=Lokbharti Prakashan |year=1967 |pages=185 |language=hi}}</ref> The poetic voice in the later verses articulates what may be regarded as a new phase of the love-myth in her oeuvre—where love, once directed solely toward an unknown beloved, expands into a form of universal love, and personal sorrow is transformed into a broader empathetic compassion.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schomer |first=Karine |title="Playing with the Infinite": Structures of Conflation in the Hindi Chhayavad Lyric |journal=Journal of South Asian Literature |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=215–236 |jstor=40872704|date=Summer–Fall 1984 |publisher=Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40872704|url-access=subscription |access-date=3 August 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Li |first=Yalan |title=Ethical Literary Criticism of the Pain Emotion in Mahadevi Verma's Poetry |journal=Forum for World Literature Studies |language=zh |url=https://fwls.org/uploads/soft/250314/1250314143408.pdf|access-date=30 July 2025}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|last=David|first=Rubin|title=The Return of Sarasvati: Four Hindi Poets|author-link=David Rubin (writer)|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195643690}} * {{cite book|last=Varma|first=Mahadevi|editor=Nirmala Jain|title=महादेवी साहित्य (Complete Works of Mahadevi Varma)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cvf3MfiwSOEC|volume=3|year=2007|publisher=Vani Prakashan|isbn=978-81-8143-680-1}}

==External links== * {{Google books|id=XPdn2iZ6WWUC}}

Category:1940s poetry books Category:1942 poetry books Category:Asian literature Category:Hindi-language literature Category:Indian literature Category:Indian poetry collections Category:Poetry books by year Category:South Asian literature Category:Poetry collections