# Deepshikha > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Deepshikha > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Deepshikha.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepshikha > Source revision: 1332441182 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{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](/source/Mahadevi_Varma) | illustrator = Mahadevi Varma | country = [British India](/source/British_India) | language = [Hindi](/source/Hindi_language) | orig_lang_code = hi | pub_date = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1942}} | genre = [Poem](/source/Poem) | publisher = Kitabistan and Bharati Bhandar (former); [Vani Prakashan](/source/Vani_Prakashan) and Lokbharti Prakashan (current) | media_type = Print ([Hardcover](/source/Hardcover) and [Paperback](/source/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](/source/lyric_poetry) in Hindi composed by [Mahadevi Varma](/source/Mahadevi_Varma) and published in 1942. It was Mahadevi's final major [poetry](/source/poetry) collection to embody the sensibilities of [Chhayavad](/source/Chhayavad). Thereafter, she turned her focus toward [prose](/source/prose) writing. As suggested by the title, many of the poems are addressed to a [lamp](/source/oil_lamp), through which she conveys [introspective depth](/source/Introspection), [emotional nuance](/source/emotion), [contemplation](/source/contemplation), and motivation. The original edition comprised a fusion of painting and poetry, with the poems rendered upon subtle [watercolor](/source/watercolor) backgrounds. ==Background== Deepshikha was completed in 1939 but its publication was delayed until 1942 due to disruptions in the [publishing](/source/publishing) industry caused by [World War II](/source/World_War_II).{{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](/source/University_of_California_Press) |isbn=978-0-520-04255-1 |page=250 |url-access=registration|access-date=3 August 2025}} The initial editions featured an integration of painting and poetry, with the poems set against delicate [watercolor](/source/watercolor) backgrounds in the style of the [Bengal School of Art](/source/Bengal_School_of_Art) and the text rendered in Varma’s own handwriting.{{cite news |title=Poet's visual expression |last1=Das |first1=Soumitra |last2=Dey |first2=Sreyoshi |last3=Chakraborty |first3=Showli |work=[The Telegraph](/source/The_Telegraph_(India)) |publisher=[ABP Group](/source/ABP_Group) |date=5 May 2013 |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/poet-s-visual-expression/cid/1287164 |access-date=3 August 2025}} 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](/source/truth) and [art](/source/art), the shifting forms of truth in [human relationships](/source/human_relationships), and the portrayal of women in [progressive literature](/source/Progressivism).{{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}}{{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}} The book comprises 51 lyric poems on various subjects characteristic of the [Chhayavad](/source/Chhayavad) [literary movement](/source/List_of_poetry_groups_and_movements). In the first edition, each illustrated leaf was counted as a single page, while the accompanying prose section, spanning 24 pages, followed conventional [pagination](/source/pagination).{{cite book |last=Varma |first=Mahadevi |title=Deepshikha |language=hi |publisher=Kitabistan |year=1942|location=Allahabad}} ==Themes== The [imagery](/source/Artistic_symbol) 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](/source/Posthumous_publication).{{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}} As noted by critics, the sentiments and [philosophical](/source/Philosophy_and_literature) 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.{{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}}{{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}} The poetic voice in the later verses articulates what may be regarded as a new phase of the [love-myth](/source/Neo-romanticism) in her oeuvre—where love, once directed solely toward an unknown beloved, expands into a form of universal [love](/source/love), and personal [sorrow](/source/Sorrow_(emotion)) is transformed into a broader [empathetic](/source/empathy) [compassion](/source/compassion).{{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}}{{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}} ==See also== *[Yāmā](/source/Y%C4%81m%C4%81_(poetry_collection)) *[Hindi literature](/source/Hindi_literature) *[List of Hindi poets](/source/List_of_Hindi_poets) *[Ram Ki Shakti Puja](/source/Ram_Ki_Shakti_Puja) ==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](/source/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}} {{Authority control}} 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 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Deepshikha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepshikha) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepshikha?action=history)). 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