Hazari Prasad Dwivedi

He was born on 19 August 1907 at Dubey Chapra village in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh in a traditional family famous for astrologers. His father Pandit Anamol Dwivedi was a learned Sanskrit scholar.

Dwivedi had his early education until middle examination at his village school. After completing his intermediate, he also studied Jyotisha (astrology) and Sanskrit at a traditional school to qualify for 'Acharya' degree in astrology and 'Shastri' degree in Sanskrit. He received a Doctorate in Hindi literature from University of Lucknow in 1949. Dwivedi joined Visva Bharati in 1930. He taught Sanskrit and Hindi and was engaged in research and creative writing. He stayed on in Santiniketan for two decades. He helped to found the Hindi Bhavana and was its head for many years.

During his stay at Shantiniketan, he came in close contact with Rabindranath Tagore and other prominent figures of Bengali literature. He came to imbibe the subtleties of Bengali, the aesthetic sensibilities of Nandalal Bose, the search for roots of Kshitimohan Sen and the gentle but piercing humour of Gurudayal Mallik. These influences are evident in his later writings.

He left Shantiniketan in 1950 and became Reader in the Hindi Department at the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, where Dr. Jagannath Prasad Sharma was the professor and head of the department. Dwivedi Ji served there till 1960. While in this position, he was also appointed a Member of the first Official Language Commission set up in 1955 by Indian Government.

In 1960 he joined Panjab University, Chandigarh, as Professor and Head of its Hindi Department, a post that he held till his retirement.