Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan Literature

Vidyawati Dobhal : A poetess of Social Awareness
Bhishma Kukreti

Vidyawati Dobhal has been famous for her social activities in Dehradun . Her works of freedom movement, social awareness about the rights of women in the society, philosophical thinking is visible in her works of Garhwali poetries.
Vidyawati Dobhal was born in 1902, in village Sainj (Niyali) of Tihri Garhwal, Himalaya. She worked with mahatma Gandhi from 1916 to 1936 for freedom movement and late on she devoted herself for development of women of Dehradun and Garhwal.
She was a prose writer and poet of Hindi language but wrote tens of poems in Garhwali too.
Mohan Babulkar (1989) informed that Vidyawati published a couple of collections of Garhwali poems but Bahuguna is silent on her contribution as poet except providing an example of only on poem in Shailvani, which is an authentic book on history of Garhwali language poetry.
Babulkar wrote that Vidyavati Dobhal created Garhwali verses for many subjects and in many forms . Vidyawati Dobhal being a social activist and freedom fighter and therefore, her works of social awareness, freedom fight movement is clearly visible in her work of Garhwali poetries. She is famous for directive poetries, pathos and directive or inspiration poems in Garhwali language.
Vidyawati Dobhal expired in 1998.

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India, 2009