Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Indian Poet

He was an Indian poet and writer of the Nayi Kavita literary movement (romantic rise) of early 20th century Hindi literature. He was also a poet of the Hindi Kavi Sammelan. He is best known for his early work Madhushala. In 1976, he received the Padma Bhushan for his service to Hindi literature. He used the pen name “Bachchan” (meaning child) instead of Shrivastava when he wrote Hindi poetry. He was fluent in several Hindi languages (Hindustani, Awadhi) and incorporated a broadly Hindustani vocabulary written in Devanagari script. Though he could not read Persian script, he was influenced by Persian and Urdu poetry, particularly Omar Khayyam. His work has been used in movies and music.