Mahadevi Varma & Jaishankar Prasad 16.9.1991

Mahadevi Varma best known as an outstanding Hindi poet, and was a freedom fighter, woman's activist and educationist from India. She is widely regarded as the "modern Meera". She was a major poet of the Chhayavaad generation, a period of romanticism in Modern Hindi poetry ranging from 1914–1938. With passage of time, her limited but outstanding prose has been recognised as unique in Hindi Literature. She was 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. She was awarded India's highest literary award, for lifetime achievement, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1979, followed by the Jnanpith Award in 1982. She was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1956 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1988, India's third and second highest civilian awards respectively.

Jaishankar Prasad (30 January 1890 – 15 November 1937), one of the most famous figures in modern Hindi literature as well as Hindi theatre In her glowing tribute to Jai Shankar Prasad, the poet- critic Mahadevi Verma says: “Whenever I remember our great poet, Prasad a particular image comes to my mind. A fir tree stands on the slope of the Himalaya, straight and tall as the proud mountain peaks themselves. Its lofty head braves the assaults of the snow, the rain, and the blazing heat of the sun. Violent storms shake its spreading branches, while a thin stream of water plays hide-and-seek amongst its root. Even under the most heavy snowfall, the most fierce heat, and the torrential rain, the fir tree holds its head high. Even in the midst of the worst thunderstorm and blizzards, it remains steady and unflinching.” This compliment from a younger contemporary of Prasad summarizes in a condensed from the literary genius of one of the leading lights of chhayavad movement in Hindi literature. It recognizes Prasad’s place among his peers as well as his relevance to modernity. As author of a classic epic of the human psyche, his magnum opus Kamayani, Prasad had acquired early eminence. But later his multifaceted personality burgeoned in his contribution to diverse fields of literature in spite of countless storms of personal tragedies, and national social and political upheavals.
Since brought up in the affluent family of a tobacco merchant, Prasad was a man of personal charm and of romantic disposition. By temperament a reformer and humanitarian, through his devotion to literature he became a lyric poet, a dramatist, a story writer, and essayist. Thus Prasad emerged as a literary genius. It would be no exaggeration if we rank him with such literary stalwarts as Kalidas, Tulsidas, Shakespeare, Dante, and Goethe in view of his vision and aesthetic consciousness.