Sopan Dev was very keen to bring to light the poetic works of his â€œilliterateâ€ mother Bahinabai. A well-respected Marathi poet in his own right, he had several publications to his credit. The man who had approached Atre was Sopan Dev Chaudhari, the son of Bahinabai. They were so enchanting and left me breathless.â€ Atre writes in his foreword to Bahinabai Chaudhari's poems, 'I literally jumped to extract all the pages of the script. Atre was a humorist, journalist, a politician and orator par excellence and had just won the President's gold medal for his Marathi film, 'Shyamchi Aai' (meaning Shyam's mother). The manuscript was a collection of poems by his mother, and he had written them down himself, as she was illiterate. A young man, a poet from Jalgaon, Maharashtra hesitantly approached a stalwart, Pralhad Keshav Atre with a manuscript.

Marathi Poetess Bahinabai Guest Column by Prakash Burde The late Madhusudhan Chaudhari's son Rajeev Chaudhari-the great-grandson of Bahinabai Chaudhari-and his mother Suchitra Chaudhari continue to be the sole publishers of Bahinabainchi gani in whose name the publication house Suchitra Prakashan operates.Kamat's Potpourri: Amma's Column - Marathi Poetess Bahinabai Sopandev's son Madhusudhan Chaudhari served in the police forces and retired as an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Yeshwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University has recommended Bahinabainchi gani as a part of their curriculum since June 2012. Although the many of Bahinabai's poems were lost, 732 of them were preserved. Atre recounts calling the first of Bahinabai's poems he heard 'pure gold' in his introduction to the collection published under the title Bahinabainchi gani Songs] in 1952 by Suchitra Prakashan. It captures the essence of her life, reflects the culture of village and farming life, and presents her wisdom.Īfter his mother's death on 03 Decembar 1951, Sopandev found the notebook and shared one of her poems with Prahlād Keshav (Acharya) Atre's attention. Her poetry is characterized as reflective and abstract with iconic and realist imagery. Impressed by her talent, he began writing down of her songs in a notebook. According to one account, Sopandev read the story of Savitri and Satyavan to his mother from his textbook, and by the next morning, she had composed a song of the tale. Her son Sopandev, who became a well-known poet, transcribed them. She had a daughter named Kashi and two sons, Madhusudan and Sopandev (1907-1982).īahinabai composed her songs verbally in ovi (ओवी) metre in a mixture of two dialects: Khandesi and Varhadi. Following her husband's death, she led a very difficult life because of the economic, social, cultural, and emotional circumstances arising out of widowhood. At the age of 13, she was married to Nathuji Khanderao Chaudhari.

Bahinabai Chaudhari (Devanagari: बहिणाबाई चौधरी) (11 August 1880 – 3 December 1951) was an illiterate cotton farmer from the Jalgaon district in Maharashtra, India who became a noted Marathi poet posthumously.īahinabai was born in a Mahajan family at Asode in Khandesh region of the present-day Jalgaon district in the year 1880.

Bahinabai chaudhari poems