Yashwant Dinkar Pendharkar (9 March 1899 – 26 November 1985) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

poet from Maharashtra, India. He wrote poetry under the pen name Yashwant. Pendharkar was born on 9 March 1899, in the town of Tarale in

Satara District Satara district (Marathi pronunciation: aːt̪aɾaː is a district of Maharashtra state in western India with an area of and a population of 3,003,741 of which 14.17% were urban (). Satara is the capital of the district and other major towns ...

. Before finishing his school education at the City High School of

Sangli Sangli () is a city and the district headquarters of Sangli District in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. It is known as the Turmeric City of Maharashtra due to its production and trade of the spice. Sangli is situated on the banks ...

, he discontinued it out of unfavorable financial circumstances. He moved to

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

to take up clerical jobs to support himself. While working, Pendharkar read Marathi literature widely, and developed love for reading especially poetry and also composing his own poetry. At the 1921

Marathi Sahitya Sammelan Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All India Marathi Literary Conference) is an annual conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra State. The first Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was h ...

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

, Pendharkar met

Madhav Julian Madhav Julian ( mr, माधव जुलियन) (21 January 1894 – 29 November 1939) was the pen name which Madhav Tryambak Patwardhan ( mr, माधव त्र्यंबक पटवर्धन) used in writing Marathi poetry. He h ...

and Shridhar Ranade, and the three formed a friendship based on common literary interests. The three lived in Pune and started frequently meeting for literary discussions. Soon Gajanan Tryambak Madkholkar, Shankar Kanetkar (poet ''Girish''), and D. L. Gokhale joined the meetings, and the group eventually identified itself as ''Ravikiran Mandal''. ( Viththal Dattatreya Ghate later joined the group.) ''Ravikiran Mandal'' popularised Marathi poetry in Maharashtra during approximately 1922-35 through public poetry recitals by member poets. Pendharkar had both a melodious voice and a talent for presenting his recitals very effectively. (Some of the recitals used to be held in

Lokamanya Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokmānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence ...

' s Gayakwadwada in

under the sponsorship of Tilak's son Shridhar.) In 1940, Maharaja Pratap Singh Gayakwad of the princely state of

(which was then under

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

) honored Pendharkar by naming him as ''Raj Kawi'' (राजकवि) --''state poet''. (The previous year, soon after Pratap Singh's accession to the throne following the death of his highly public-spirited grandfather Sayajirao Gayakwad, Pendharkar had composed his epic ''Kawya Kirit'' (काव्य-किरीट), which contained a description of the obligations of a princely head of a state toward the subjects. Pratap Singh turned out to be a hedonistic spendthrift who squandered Baroda state's money.) Pendharkar, a recipient of the civilian honour of the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, presided over

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in 1950.

Literary work

Pendharkar wrote poetry with romantic, social, and nationalistic themes. He also wrote some poetry for children (and three prose books.) The following is a list of collections of Pendharkar's poems and prose writings: * Yashawantī (1921) * Tukaram Kamble * Mahārāshṭra Wīṇājhaṅkār (1922) * Bhāvamanthan (1930) * Jaya-Maṅgalā (1931) * Yashogandha (1935) * Bandīshāḷā (1939) * Kāwya Kirīṭ ((काव्य-किरीट)) (1939) * Yashonidhi (1941) * Motībāg (Poems for children) (1942) * Ghāyaḷ (1944) * Yashogirī (1944) * Kāntaṇīchẽ Ghar (1945) * Ojaswinī (1946) * Yaśhodhan (यशोधन) (1956) * Pāṇapoī (1956) * Muthe, Lokamate (मुठे, लोकमाते) (1961) * Hāpisar (1962) * Kamaṇḍalu (1962) * Samartha Rāmdās (1964) * Chhatrapatī Shiwarāy (1968) * Raṇadurgā Jhāshīwālī (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pendharkar, Yashwant Dinkar 1899 births 1985 deaths Marathi-language writers People from Satara district Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Presidents of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan