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Deepshikha () is a collection of lyric poetry in Hindi composed by Mahadevi Varma and published in 1942. It was Mahadevi's final major poetry collection to embody the sensibilities of Chhayavad. Thereafter, she turned her focus toward prose writing.
As suggested by the title, many of the poems are addressed to a oil lamp, through which she conveys Introspection, emotion, contemplation, and motivation. The original edition comprised a fusion of painting and poetry, with the poems rendered upon subtle watercolor backgrounds.
Preceding the poems, the volume includes a substantial introduction along with reflective prose passages on various concepts such as the relative and the absolute in the perception of truth and art, the shifting forms of truth in human relationships, and the portrayal of women in Progressivism. The book comprises 51 lyric poems on various subjects characteristic of the Chhayavad literary movement. In the first edition, each illustrated leaf was counted as a single page, while the accompanying prose section, spanning 24 pages, followed conventional pagination.
As noted by critics, the sentiments and philosophical undertones conveyed through the lamp motif evolved in Varma's works over time. This symbolic identification of the woman with the lamp reached its culmination in Deepshikha. The poetic voice in the later verses articulates what may be regarded as a new phase of the Neo-romanticism in her oeuvre—where love, once directed solely toward an unknown beloved, expands into a form of universal love, and personal sorrow is transformed into a broader empathy compassion.
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