: बहिणाबाई चौधरी) (1880 – 3 December 1951) was a noted Marathi

Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 poetess from Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Life and works

She was born in 24 August,1880 (Nagpanchami) in Asoda in Khandesh District (present-day Jalgaon district

Jalgaon District

Jalgaon district is a district of Maharashtra. It was formerly known as East Khandesh district. It has an area of 11,765 km², and a population of 3,682,690 of which 71.4% were rural....

). At the age of 13, she was married to Nathuji Chaudhari and became an early widow.

Though Bahinabai was totally illiterate, she was an accomplished poetess. She verbally composed her poems in ovi (ओवी) metre, and her son Sopandev Chaudhari (1907-1982) wrote them down on paper. Her poems in Leva Ganboli language reflected her minute observations of nature and human life around her. They displayed her sense of subtle humor and much wisdom.