Ayodhya Prasad Upadhyay


Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay ‘Hari Oudh', was a writer of Hindi literature. He has been the Chairman of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan and had been conferred the title of Vidyavachaspati.

Childhood

Ayodhya Prasad was born at Nizamabad, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. His father's name was Pandit Bholanath Upadhyay & his mother's name was Rukmini Devi. He embraced Sikh religion and changed his name to Bhola Singh. His ancestors were Sanadhya Brahmins and commanded great respect in the Mughal court. His early education was in Nizamabad and Azamgarh. At the age of five he started learning Persian from his uncle.

Education

After passing middle exam at Nizamabad he moved to Kashi to study English at Queen's College; however he had to leave college in between due to deteriorating health. He then studied Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian and English at home and in 1884 became a teacher in middle school at Nizamabad. He passed normal-exam in first class while being employed in the school. He was married to Ms. Anandi devi at the age of 17 in 1872.

Life

He got a government job in 1889. After retiring from the post in 1932 he worked in Hindi Department of Banaras Hindu University for several years as a volunteer teacher. He worked there till the year 1941 and then moved back to Nizamabad. After getting relieved from teaching assignment ‘Hari Oudh ji’ remained engaged in literary -service at village. His literature-service earned him considerable fame. He died in 1947 at Azamgarh.

Literary Work