1. Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan, popularly known by his pen name Agyeya, was an Indian writer, poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, translator and revolutionary in Hindi language.
27 Facts About Agyeya
1. 2.
Agyeya pioneered modern trends in Hindi poetry, as well as in fiction, criticism and journalism.
3.
Agyeya is regarded as the pioneer of the Prayogavaad movement in modern Hindi literature.
4.
Son of a renowned archaeologist Hiranand Sastri, Agyeya was born in Kasia, a small town near Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh.
5.
Agyeya took active part in the Indian freedom struggle and spent several years in prison for his revolutionary activities against British colonial rule.
6.
Agyeya edited the Saptak series which gave rise a new trends in Hindi poetry, known as Nayi Kavita.
7.
Agyeya edited several literary journals, and launched his own Hindi language weekly Dinaman, which set new standard and trends in Hindi journalism.
8.
Agyeya translated some of his own works, as well as works of some other Indian authors to English.
9.
Agyeya was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, Jnanpith Award and the internationally reputed Golden Wreath Award for poetry.
10.
Agyeya was born as Sachchidananda Vatsyayan in Punjabi Brahmin family on 7 March 1911 in an archaeological camp near Kasia, Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, where his father, Hiranand Sastri, an archaeologist, was positioned for an excavation.
11.
Hiranand Sastri and Vyantidevi had 10 children, of whom Agyeya was the fourth.
12.
Agyeya's father, and who was a scholar in Sanskrit, encouraged him to study Hindi and taught him some basic English.
13.
Agyeya was taught Sanskrit and Persian by Pandit and Maulavi in Jammu.
14.
Agyeya was then sentenced on charge of sedition against British rule in India.
15.
Agyeya spent the next four years in jail in Lahore, Delhi and Amritsar.
16.
Agyeya was associated with the Progressive Writers Association and, in 1942, he organised the All India Anti-Fascist Convention.
17.
Agyeya stayed at Meerut for sometime and remained active in local literary groups.
18.
Agyeya died on 4 April 1987, aged 76, in New Delhi.
19.
Agyeya edited Sainik from Agra, Vishal Bharat from Calcutta, Prateek and Naya Prateek respectively from Allahabad and New Delhi.
20.
Agyeya served as an editor of Jayprakash Narayan's Everyman's Weekly and editor-in-chief of Hindi daily Navbharat Times of the Times of India Group.
21.
Agyeya remained in India till 1968, before embarking on a trip to Europe.
22.
Agyeya started writing the first draft of his autobiographical novel Shekhar: Ek Jivani, followed by its second and third draft.
23.
Agyeya was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 for his collection of poems Angan Ke Par Dwar, and the Jnanpith Award in 1978 for Kitni Naavon Mein Kitni Baar.
24.
Agyeya was awarded the Bharatbharati Award and the Golden Wreath Award for poetry in 1983.
25.
Agyeya is considered to be one of the most influential Hindi writers of the 20th-century and is seen as the founder of adhunikta in Hindi literature.
26.
Agyeya is considered 'the most westernised' among the Hindi writers between the 1940s and the 1960s.
27.
Agyeya was often criticised for his excessive use of intellectualism and individualism in his writings.