Maithilisharan Gupt  (3 August 1886 – 12 December 1964) was one of the most important modern Hindi poets.He is considered among the pioneers of Khari Boli (plain dialect) poetry and wrote in Khari Boli dialect, at a time when most Hindi poets favoured the use of Braj Bhasha dialect.

Early life

He was born in Chirgaon, Jhansi in a Gahoi family. His father was Seth Ramcharan Gupta and mother s name was Smt. Kashibai. He disliked school as a child, so his father arranged for his education at their home. As a child, Gupt studied Sanskrit, English and Bengali. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi was his mentor. He was married in 1895.

Literary works

Gupt entered the world of Hindi literature by writing poems in various magazines, including Saraswati. In 1910, his first major work, Rang mein Bhang was published by Indian Press. With Bharat Bharati, his nationalist poems became popular among Indians, who were struggling for independence. Most of his poems revolve around plots from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddhist stories and the lives of famous religious leaders. His famous work Saket revolves around Urmila, wife of Lakshmana, from Ramayana, while another of his works Yashodhara revolves around Yashodhara, the wife of Gautama Buddha.

Translations

Gupt also translated major works from other language into Hindi. These include the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám and Swapnavaasavdatta, a Sanskrit play. Public office After India became independent in 1947, he was also made an honorary member of the Rajya Sabha, where he used poetry to put his opinions before the other members. He remained a member of the Rajya Sabha till his death in 1965.
Major works

Poetry:

 जब प्राप्त तुम्हें सब तत्त्व यहाँ
फिर जा सकता वह सत्त्व कहाँ
तुम स्वत्त्व सुधा रस पान करो
उठके अमरत्व विधान करो
दवरूप रहो भव कानन को
नर हो न निराश करो मन को

    Rang mein Bhang
    Bharat-Bharati
    Jayadrath Vadh
    Vikat Bhat
    Plassey ka Yuddha
    Gurukul
    Kisan
    Panchavati
    Siddharaj
    Saket
    Yashodhara