LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OP 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
SKETCHES OF 
 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN, 
 
 
SKETCHES OF SOME DISTINGUISHED 
 
 INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. E. F. CHAPMAN. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 THE MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA, 
 
 LONDON : W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED. 
 
 AND AT CALCUTTA. 
 1891. 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY W. H. ALLEN AND CO., LIMITED, 
 13, WATERLOO PLACE. S.W 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN her Introduction, Mrs. Chapman expresses some 
 fear lest people in England should begin to weary 
 of the subject of Indian women, so much having 
 been written of late concerning them and their 
 peculiar trials. But this little book needs no 
 apology; and I, for one, have never read anything 
 more interesting or more likely to be useful to the 
 cause of female education in India than this small 
 collection of biographies. 
 
 No one will read these Sketches of some Distinguished 
 Indian Women without a feeling of intense sympathy 
 and admiration for the subject of each one of them ; 
 or without pride and pleasure in the fact that so 
 much talent, perseverance, and determination should 
 be found combined with so much gentleness, and 
 with so many truly feminine qualities. One might, 
 perhaps, have feared that women who had had to 
 break through the hard and fast rules of caste and 
 
 429 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 custom would have lost their more lovable charac- 
 teristics in the struggle ; but one rises from the 
 perusal of each one of these biographies with as much 
 affection for the woman as admiration for the student. 
 
 But besides the almost dramatic interest of these 
 lives, Mrs. Chapman's little volume is full of infor- 
 mation, and her descriptions of the childhood of her 
 different " distinguished women," und of the circum- 
 stances of their families and the religions of their 
 parents, are not the least admirable part of her work ; 
 while, in her Introduction, she gives a short and most 
 instructive account of questions affecting the welfare 
 of Indian women, and of the various efforts made to 
 improve their condition. 
 
 I am sure this little book will be read with interest 
 by everyone who takes it up ; while to all those who 
 have thought of Indian women, or who have worked 
 for their welfare in any way, it will come as a mes- 
 sage of hope and encouragement, and, as such, will 
 give them unmitigated pleasure. 
 
 HARRIOT DUFFERIN AND AVA. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . 1 
 
 II. THE PUNDITA EAMABAI ^ARASVATI . . 26 
 
 III. DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE .... 48 
 
 IV. THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR . . 71 
 
 V. TORU DUTT ...... 91 
 
 VI. CORNELIA SORABJI 113 
 
I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 So much has been written and spoken, during the 
 last twenty years, on the sad condition of the women 
 of India that people in England may be supposed to 
 be fairly well acquainted with the general facts, and 
 there is perhaps some danger of their becoming 
 wearied by a too frequent repetition of the story. 
 
 Missionaries, philanthropists, educational and 
 social reformers, have all made the condition of 
 Indian women their theme, and have painted in 
 dark and forcible colours the picture of their de- 
 gradation, their helplessness, their ignorance, the 
 cruel treatment and dreadful sufferings to which 
 millions of them are exposed, and the dull, empty, 
 colourless lives of even the happiest among them. 
 Happily there is now a brighter side to the picture. 
 The appeal to English sympathy and interest has 
 not been in vain, and thanks to the energy, the 
 courage, and the perseverance of many noble-minded 
 
 1 
 
2 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 men and women, this sympathy and interest have 
 found expression in many well- directed efforts to 
 extend to the women of India the blessings of 
 civilization and of education, and to secure for them 
 at least a share of that liberty and honourable 
 respect, which we are accustomed to consider as 
 among the most valuable and incontestable " rights 
 of women." 
 
 As the evils from which Indian women suffer are 
 very various in character, so are and must be the 
 efforts to meet and remedy them, and it may be 
 well to glance briefly at the principal of them. 
 
 The first great blow struck in the cause of woman's 
 welfare was the famous edict issued by Lord William 
 Bentinck in 1829, after long and bitter opposition 
 on the part of many members of his Government, 
 though loyally supported by two or three, whereby 
 the practice of " suttee " was prohibited throughout 
 the British provinces, and the aiding or abetting 
 of it was branded as a crime to be punished by 
 death. 
 
 The practice of suttee, that is, the burning alive 
 of widows on their husbands' funeral pile, was of 
 great antiquity in India, although when and how it 
 was introduced seems to be doubtful. It is certain 
 that it is not sanctioned either by the Vedas, which 
 are the most ancient of the Hindu Scriptures, nor by 
 the Code of Manu, which contains the most precise 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 and elaborate rules of conduct for all classes of 
 people, and particularly lays down how a woman is 
 to live after the death of her husband. 
 
 It seems, however, to have been introduced by the 
 Brahmans for some reason not easy to discover, and 
 by lapse of time and the force of public opinion, it 
 gathered the strength which always attaches to an 
 immemorial custom. 
 
 M. Thevenot, a French traveller who visited 
 India in 1669, found this practice of suttee very 
 prevalent, and writes thus of it : " The Indian 
 widows have a far different fate from that of their 
 husbands ; they dare not marry again, but are 
 obliged, if they will not burn themselves, to live in 
 perpetual widowhood ; but then they live wretchedly, 
 for they incur the contempt of their family and caste 
 as being afraid of death." After describing the 
 ceremonies usually observed at the burning of 
 widows, the same traveller goes on to say : " The 
 women are happy that the Mahometans are become 
 the masters in the Indies, to deliver them from the 
 tyranny of the Brahmins, who always desire their 
 death, because these ladies being never burnt without 
 all their ornaments of gold and silver about them, 
 and none but they having power to touch their 
 ashes, they fail not to pick up all that is precious 
 among them. However, the Great Mogul and other 
 Mahometan Princes having ordered their governors 
 
 1 * 
 
4 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 to employ all their care in suppressing that abuse 
 as much as lies in their power, it requires at present 
 great solicitations and considerable presents for ob- 
 taining the permission of being burnt. " 
 
 Lord W. Bentinck therefore, in prohibiting suttee, 
 was only carrying out a reform which had pre- 
 viously been attempted by the Moghul Emperors. 
 Yet, strange as it may appear, there were many 
 people at the time (and some good and wise men 
 among them) who held that, inasmuch as it was a 
 religious rite, maintained and inculcated by the 
 Brahmans, even although not sanctioned by their 
 Scriptures, that the Government had no right to put 
 a stop to it, the practice being on the same footing 
 as others, less revolting though scarcely less mis- 
 chievous, which were by common consent regarded 
 as beyond the scope of Government interference. 
 They even predicted that the new law would be 
 resisted by force, and that it would lead to mutiny 
 and rebellion. Happily, however, these timid counsels 
 were over-ruled, and though it was long before the 
 rite of suttee absolutely disappeared, still its down- 
 fall dates from that time, and no one would now 
 dare openly to vindicate the practice, or even to 
 maintain that it was inculcated by the Hindu re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Whether the lot of the Indian widow has been 
 much improved by the reform, may at first sight 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 seem doubtful, for the merciful Government which 
 has rescued her from a fiery death cannot save her 
 from a life of oppression and misery. To be a 
 widow, and more especially a childless or rather 
 sonless widow, is to be the object not of sympathy 
 and pity but of universal hatred and aversion. In 
 the words of one, a Hindu widow herself, " Widow- 
 hood is throughout India regarded as the punish- 
 ment for a horrible crime or crimes committed by 
 the woman in some former existence upon earth. It 
 is the child widow, or the childless young widow, 
 upon whom in an especial manner falls the abuse 
 and hatred of the community, as the greatest cri- 
 minal upon whom Heaven's judgment has been 
 pronounced." Again, " A widow is called an ' in- 
 auspicious thing ' ; if she appear on any occasion of 
 rejoicing, she will bring ill-luck. If a man starting 
 on a journey sees a widow on the road, he will 
 postpone his departure rather than run the risk of 
 neglecting so evil an omen." The relatives and 
 neighbours of a young widow's husband are always 
 ready to call her bad names, and to address her in 
 abusive language at every opportunity. There is 
 scarcely a day on which she is not cursed as the 
 cause of their beloved friend's death. In short, the 
 young widow's life is rendered intolerable in every 
 way. 
 
 A widow cannot re-marry except at the risk of 
 
6 BOMB DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 becoming an outcast ; she may not leave the home 
 of her husband's people, she may not eat with 
 them, she must have her hair cut off and wear 
 wretched clothes, and she may only be employed in 
 the lowest and most menial tasks ; and when it is 
 remembered that there were in India in 1881 no less 
 than 669,100 widows under the age of nineteen, all 
 of them doomed by the cruel and senseless customs 
 of their country to lifelong seclusion and misery, 
 the extent of the evil becomes appalling. 
 
 To meet it, many noble efforts are being made in 
 various parts of India by the more enlightened of the 
 natives themselves. The nobles of Eajputana have 
 formed themselves into a league to put a stop to 
 child marriages, and in other places strenuous efforts 
 are being made to induce men of good character and 
 position to come forward and marry child widows, 
 and to encourage their re-marriage by every possible 
 means. 
 
 Only quite lately a movement was made by the 
 barbers in Bombay, who refused any longer to shave 
 the heads of widows, because, as they said, they 
 believed it was contrary to the real teaching of their 
 religion. 
 
 Other efforts are being made to give them instruc- 
 tion, so that they may have some occupation to be- 
 guile their weary hours of seclusion, or even that 
 they may be able to earn their own living, and thus 
 
INTRODUCTION . 7 
 
 be made independent of their relations, from whose 
 unkindness they suffer so much. At present, how- 
 ever, the result produced in this direction has been 
 very small, and it is only by looking back and 
 seeing how much has been accomplished for Indian 
 women on other lines during the last few years that 
 we can have courage to persevere in the face of the 
 enormous difficulties still to be overcome. Of the 
 scheme for helping young high-caste widows, which 
 has been started by the Pundita Eamabai, we shall 
 speak hereafter. 
 
 The movement for the education of Indian women 
 was initiated by the missionaries, and to the Kev. H. 
 Ward, a Baptist missionary, is due the honour of 
 having first enlisted the sympathy of English- 
 women in the degraded and neglected state of their 
 Indian sisters. It was an appeal made by Mr. 
 Ward in 1821 to the ladies of Liverpool which led to 
 the embarkation of Miss Cooke, afterwards Mrs. 
 Wilson, the first lady teacher, and to the formation 
 of the Society for Promoting Native Female Educa- 
 tion in the East. 
 
 In 1832 eight little schools for girls were esta- 
 blished in Calcutta, the forerunners of hundreds now 
 scattered over all parts of the country, where reli- 
 gious and secular knowledge is imparted to the 
 children by lady teachers. In course of time other 
 schools were established by private enterprise on a 
 
SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 non-proselytizing basis, of which the Bethune School 
 in Calcutta was one of the earliest and the Victoria 
 High School at Poona one of the most advanced and 
 successful. So rapid, indeed, has been the develop- 
 ment of female education in India, that the Indian 
 universities actually threw open their' degrees to 
 women before any English university did so. The 
 University of Madras threw open its degrees to women 
 in 1876, Calcutta followed in 1878, and it was not 
 till 1879 that the University of London accorded 
 them the same privilege. 
 
 But although schools for girls are among the most 
 successful means yet tried for elevating the characters 
 of Indian women, it must be remembered that they 
 touch but a very small proportion of the vast number 
 who require teaching. Among respectable families 
 no married woman is allowed by custom in most 
 parts of India to attend school, and as girls are 
 generally married at eight or nine years of age their 
 school days are cut short just as they are beginning 
 to profit by them. 
 
 It is for this reason that the employment of lady 
 visitors to the zenanas forms such an important 
 part of all schemes for women's education, and 
 especially of missionary work ; and to these zenana 
 teachers have been due the first rays of light and 
 hope brought into many a dark home. 
 
 In 1866 Miss Mary Carpenter, after a visit to India, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 undertaken chiefly for the purpose of finding out for 
 herself what was the real condition of the women, 
 and in what way they could best be helped, came to 
 the conclusion that nothing was so much needed as a 
 supply of properly trained women teachers to visit 
 the zenanas ; and it was chiefly as the result of her 
 endeavours that the Government Normal Schools 
 were established, and they have undoubtedly done 
 much to spread elementary knowledge and civilizing 
 influences. 
 
 It was also, we believe, through the visits of ladies 
 to the zenanas that English people became aware of 
 the terrible sufferings to which women were exposed, 
 and the immense number of lives that were sacrificed 
 owing to the impossibility of their obtaining proper 
 medical attendance. The rigid seclusion to which 
 the higher classes of women are kept, precludes them 
 from calling in the assistance of medical men, and it 
 became evident that only through medical women 
 could their suffering condition be ameliorated. 
 
 Here again the missionary societies took the lead, 
 and prepared the way for other workers, both English 
 and American. Before long, however, it became 
 evident that the work of a few individual ladies, or 
 of one or two missionary societies, valuable as it was, 
 could not hope to cope successfully with the tremen- 
 dous need that existed. 
 
 In 1885 was established " The National Association 
 
10 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 for supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of 
 India," which may be said to owe its existence to 
 the direct initiative of Her Majesty the Queen- 
 Empress, who personally commended the matter to 
 the care of the Countess of Dufferin when she, 
 before her departure for India, took leave of Her 
 Majesty. 
 
 Lady Dufferin, after her arrival in India, lost no 
 opportunity of studying the direction in which action 
 could most readily be taken for ameliorating the 
 condition of native women, and she came to the con- 
 clusion that the full requirements of the case could 
 only be met by a bold attempt to arouse the conscience 
 and the imagination of the public at large, and so to 
 bind together in one common effort all parts of the 
 empire and all classes of the community. To this 
 end the National Association was started, with the 
 object of the teaching and training in India of women 
 as doctors, hospital assistants and nurses ; of estab- 
 lishing dispensaries and cottage hospitals for women 
 and children ; of instituting female wards in hos- 
 pitals ; and, where possible, of founding hospitals for 
 women, and for supplying lady doctors and nurses to 
 visit women in their own homes. 
 
 It has now been working for five years, and has 
 obtained a large measure of success, not the least 
 important work that it has achieved, being that it 
 has enlisted the interest and sympathy of all races, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 classes, and creeds throughout India in a common 
 object, and obtained once and for all a public and 
 national recognition of the right of women to help and 
 cure. 
 
 The great difficulty in the way of all those who are 
 anxious to raise the condition of women in India, is 
 the rigid seclusion in which they live. 
 
 In ancient India women seem to have occupied a 
 far more honourable position in society than that 
 accorded them in modern times, and they enjoyed a 
 very considerable degree of liberty. The practice of 
 immuring them in one particular portion of the 
 house, and of not allowing them to see any men ex- 
 cept their nearest relations, seems to have been intro- 
 duced at the period of the Mahometan invasion, and 
 was no doubt adopted partly as the means of shielding 
 them from the conquerors, partly in imitation of the 
 custom of those conquerors themselves. At the 
 present time, however, it is the universal custom, at 
 least among the upper classes, in nearly all parts of 
 India, and is regarded as the absolute condition of 
 respectability among married women of all ages. 
 
 Centuries of seclusion and of oppression have 
 taken from them, for the most part 3 the very desire 
 for liberty or of independence of any sort. They 
 have been taught from their earliest days that a 
 woman's hope of happiness in this world, or the next, 
 lies in her implicit obedience to the will of her 
 
12 ' SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 husband or other male relatives. They have been 
 brought up to consider a life of seclusion as not only 
 the safest but also the only respectable one, and to 
 look upon a breach of any of their national customs 
 as a crime. Even when the men of the family, 
 having imbibed something of European ideas on the 
 subject, are willing to allow a measure of freedom to 
 the women, these latter themselves will not unfre- 
 quently refuse the proffered boon, the older ones 
 among them over-riding the inclinations of the 
 younger, and denouncing in unmeasured terms the 
 proposed innovation. 
 
 We all know, even in England, how great is the 
 force of old-fashioned prejudice and of received 
 notions of propriety, and how difficult it is for any- 
 one, especially for women, to set themselves in oppo- 
 sition to them. Of late years, indeed, the authority 
 of Mrs. Grundy has been frequently and successfully 
 defied, and women can now do and say many things 
 with impunity which fifty years ago would have 
 brought upon them social ostracism. Bearing these 
 facts in mind, we shall be better able to understand 
 the difficulties that lie in the way of Indian ladies, 
 who wish to lay aside the restraints with which a 
 thousand years of unbroken custom has bound their 
 sex, and to accept the education and the social free- 
 dom and independence which we are so anxious to 
 offer them, and we shall be better able to appreciate 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 the courage and the force of character possessed by 
 those who have succeeded in carrying such a design 
 into execution. In the pages that follow will be 
 found some particulars regarding a few of these 
 pioneer women, women who are indeed worthy of 
 all true honour and respect, both from their own 
 countrywomen and from us who have for so long 
 enjoyed the advantages they are only just beginning 
 to taste. 
 
 It will no doubt be noticed that most of these 
 ladies are Christians, and as a consequence far less 
 trammelled than if they still belonged to the Hindu 
 religion ; but we should remember that the Pundita 
 Eamabai had made her stand for freedom before she 
 accepted Christianity, and that Miss Sorabji had to 
 contend, if not with domestic opposition, yet with 
 the full current of popular objection to female 
 education. 
 
 There is one other point to which we wish to 
 direct the reader's attention, and that is, all these 
 remarkable women have owed very much to their 
 parents. In every case, in a greater or less degree, 
 the work of education and enlightenment has been 
 begun in the previous generation, and Eamabai, Toru 
 Dutt, and Cornelia Sorabji have all borne witness to 
 the debt they owe to their mothers. 
 
 May we not find in this fact a real source of en- 
 couragement and ground of hope ? If the result of 
 
14 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 all the efforts hitherto made to further the cause of 
 woman's welfare in India appears very small, and 
 leads some people to question its value, let us not 
 despair, but remember that patience is needed. If 
 those who sow are not rewarded by seeing the fruit 
 of their labours, they must comfort themselves with 
 the reflection that fruit there will be sooner or later, 
 and without doubt a plenteous harvest will be 
 gathered in, in due time. 
 
 The Indian ladies whose lives are briefly sketched 
 in the following pages, have been selected as being 
 more or less typical instances of the results of civili- 
 zing and educational influences on different races and 
 classes in society. They do not, however, by any 
 means exhaust the list of those whose influence may 
 be reckoned upon as a valuable factor in the cause of 
 the enlightenment and regeneration of Indian society. 
 It may, perhaps, be well to mention briefly a few 
 more names, so as to make it evident how various 
 and widespread are the influences which are at work ; 
 and the ultimate result of which, though it may 
 seem slow, cannot be really doubted by any thought- 
 ful observer. 
 
 Almost all English people who have visited Simla 
 during the last ten years are more or less acquainted 
 with the Kunwar Kani Harnam Singh, though as she 
 and her husband lead a very quiet, retired life only a 
 few really enjoy the privilege of her friendship. This 
 
INTKODUCTION. 15 
 
 lady was born of Christian parents, her father, the 
 Eev. Golak Nath, being a pastor of the American 
 Presbyterian Missionary Society. She had, there- 
 fore, the advantage of a Christian bringing up, and 
 she was for some years at a large English boarding- 
 school for girls at the hill station of Musoorie. It is 
 probably in part owing to this that the Kunwar Eani 
 is both in speech, in mind, and in manner so 
 thoroughly English ; partly, too, it is no doubt due 
 to her birth, for the natives of the Punjab are both 
 physically and morally of a stronger and more robust 
 type than the inhabitants of more enervating dis- 
 tricts, and seem to have more in common with men 
 of Anglo-Saxon race. 
 
 This lady married the Kunwar Eajah Harnain 
 Singh, a member of the ruling family of Kapur- 
 thalla, a small principality lying between Lahore 
 and Umballa. The name or title of " Singh " means 
 a lion and denotes Sikh origin, the Sikhs being a 
 warlike race in the Punjab who, about 200 years 
 ago, under the leadership of a religious fanatic, Guru 
 Govind, threw off the yoke of the degenerate Maho- 
 medan rulers and formed themselves into a nation 
 distinguished for their courage, their martial prowess, 
 and their fierce fanaticism. Since their final con- 
 quest by the English, fifty years ago, the Sikhs have 
 proved themselves as loyal subjects as they were pre- 
 viously redoubtable foes. They are almost all very 
 
16 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 fine-looking men, and are distinguished for their 
 manly bearing and courteous demeanour. 
 
 When the Eajah of Kapurthalla died some years 
 ago without children, his brother Harnam Singh 
 was his nearest relative, and it seemed as though it 
 were possible that a Christian prince should be 
 acknowledged as ruler of a native State. It turned 
 out, however, that the Eajah had availed himself of 
 a family custom, and had adopted an heir, and as 
 this child was immediately acknowledged as Eajah 
 by the Indian Government, the Kunwar Eajah took 
 his place as his subject, and as the manager of his 
 landed estates in Oude. 
 
 It is on this property, not far from Lucknow, that 
 Harnam Singh and his wife usually reside during 
 the cold weather, but in the summer they live at 
 Simla, where they have a charming house built and 
 furnished in European style, where they live in 
 thoroughly English fashion. They have paid several 
 visits to England, the last one during the Jubilee year, 
 when they left their two eldest boys in London under 
 the care of Mr. and Mrs. Gray, of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society, intending that they shall go later to 
 Eton. They did this with the full conviction that 
 a good English education would be the greatest ad- 
 vantage they could give their sons, and the Kunwar 
 Eani spoke with tears in her eyes of the parting with 
 her children, and of her anxiety about their health, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 making one realise that a mother's self-sacrificing 
 love is the same all the world over. 
 
 The Kunwar Eani is a remarkably well read 
 woman, and quite as able to hold her own in intel- 
 lectual society as the majority of English women, 
 while the respect and esteem in which she is held by 
 all who know her, testify to her high moral qualities 
 and her charm of mind and manner. Almost all her 
 relations are Christians, her brother being a mis- 
 sionary of the American Presbyterian Society, and 
 one of her sisters is married to a Bengali missionary, 
 Mr. Chaterji. 
 
 In Calcutta there are several native ladies who, 
 having been well educated themselves, are now 
 devoting their time and their abilities to helping 
 their fellow countrywomen. 
 
 Mrs. Wheeler is the widow of an English clergyman 
 and the daughter of the Kev. Dr. Bannerji, formerly 
 a well-known and esteemed missionary ; she holds 
 an appointment under Government as an Inspectress 
 of girls' schools, and her work as such is very 
 valuable. 
 
 Mrs. Chandramukhi Bose, having taken the M.A. 
 degree in 1884 at the Calcutta University, is now the 
 Lady Principal of the Bethune Girls' College, where 
 she herself received her education. This school, 
 founded about forty years ago by Mr. Drinkwater 
 Bethune for the education of high-caste Bengali 
 
 2 
 
18 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 girls, has done very much for the cause of female 
 progress, and its pupils have of late distinguished 
 themselves in many ways. 
 
 Mrs. Kadambini Ganguli has taken both the B.A. 
 and M.B. degrees in Calcutta, and is now in full and 
 very successful medical practice in that city. 
 
 The sad story of Eakhmabai is well known, and 
 has excited general sympathy and interest in Eng- 
 land. She was married when she was eleven years 
 old to a man nine years older than herself, but 
 remained in her father's house till she was sixteen, 
 being well and carefully educated by him. On his 
 death her husband claimed her, but as he was idle, 
 ignorant, and vicious, she refused to live with him, 
 on the ground that the marriage having been ar- 
 ranged before she was of an age to have a voice in 
 the matter, it could not be considered as legally bind- 
 ing upon her. The man then brought a suit against 
 Kakhmabai, which was tried in the High Court in 
 Bombay, and decided in her favour. This decision 
 caused great anger and dismay throughout India, 
 among the party opposed to all reform of the marriage 
 law. They collected a sum of money, and, deter- 
 mined to make it a test case, they lodged an appeal, 
 on the ground that the matter was one which ought 
 to be settled purely on the grounds of Hindu law and 
 custom, with which the Government was bound not 
 to interfere. After a lapse of two years the case was 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 re-tried, and a decision obtained ordering Kakhmabai 
 to live with her husband within a month, or go to 
 prison for six months. Still she refused, and deter- 
 mined to appeal to the Privy Council in England. 
 The opposing party had, however, got weary of 
 litigation, and through the mediation of some friends 
 a compromise was effected, and the man signed an 
 agreement that he would not force her to live with 
 him against her will. Soon after she came to 
 England, where she still remains, hoping, after a 
 time, to return to her native country and endeavour 
 to help other women. 
 
 The work of emancipating and educating the 
 women of India, of breaking down the barriers of 
 prejudice and social custom by which they are sur- 
 rounded is, indeed, a vast one ; and time, patience, 
 and perseverance are needful for its accomplishment. 
 There are, and must be, many failures and many 
 disappointments, but on the other hand there are 
 many encouragements and many proofs that those 
 for whose benefit these efforts are being made are not 
 ungrateful. 
 
 Were it possible to entertain a doubt on this sub- 
 ject, it would be dispelled by such a sight as that which 
 was witnessed in Calcutta in December 1888, when 
 nearly eight hundred native ladies came together at 
 Government House, to present to Lady Dufferin an 
 address signed by over four thousand women in 
 
 2 * 
 
20 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Bengal, expressing their deep regret at her departure 
 from India, where she had proved herself such a 
 true friend to them, and their grateful appreciation 
 of all she had done for them. 
 
 Such a sight had never been seen before, and it 
 was one never to be forgotten. The great throne- 
 room in Government House was filled from one end 
 to the other with women of all ages, most of whom 
 had never in their lives been inside a European 
 house, while many of them had hardly seen a 
 European face. To all it was something strangely 
 new and exciting to find themselves in a crowd. 
 
 Old and young were there, dark and fair ; a few 
 wearing a modified European dress, but the immense 
 majority attired in native costume. Some in silks 
 and satins, and cloth of gold, and rich embroideries, 
 others in brightly coloured cottons, and a few in the 
 plain white dress and saree that betoken widowhood. 
 Some coquettish ly drawing their veils over faces of 
 
 I rare beauty, others who might with advantage have 
 made use of veils to hide the ravages of time. Some 
 startling one by the almost classic simplicity of 
 their drapery, and by the graceful poise of their 
 small heads, others proclaiming their oriental cha- 
 racter by the superabundance of barbaric jewellery 
 which glittered on their fingers, arms, necks, noses, 
 4 ears, forehead, and heavily-laden ankles. 
 
 Only a small number of them could speak English, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 yet all showed themselves ready and willing to con- 
 verse by signs and smiles where words were wanting. 
 They were all overflowing with curiosity with regard 
 to their novel surroundings, as well as animated with 
 real gratitude to the English lady who, during her 
 short residence of four years among them, had 
 initiated and carried out a scheme fraught "with so 
 much benefit to them and to their children. 
 
 Such a gathering as this must do a great deal 
 towards the breaking down of the wall of seclusion 
 and exclusiveness with which Indian women are 
 surrounded, and there can be but little doubt that 
 more frequent opportunities of social intercourse 
 with cultivated Englishwomen would prove most 
 helpful to them. But, apart from all question of 
 prejudice or custom, the difference of language 
 proves an insurmountable difficulty in the way of 
 such intercourse. 
 
 Only a very few Indian ladies can speak English, 
 and very few English ladies, except those actually 
 engaged in mission work, can speak any of the native 
 languages. For it must be remembered that al- 
 though those who have been some time in the country 
 master sufficient Hindustani to be able to manage 
 their households, yet this patois is very different from 
 the Hindustani spoken by educated gentlemen ; and 
 this, again, is quite distinct from Bengali, Punjabi, 
 Marathi, and other languages, a knowledge of one or 
 
22 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 other of which, varying with the district, is abso- 
 lutely necessary for those who wish to converse with 
 high-caste women in their own homes. This is so 
 much a recognized fact that all who take up medical 
 or mission work, are expected and obliged to learn 
 one or more native language, according to the part 
 of the country that is to be the scene of their 
 labours. 
 
 An Englishwoman going to reside in France or 
 Germany, and being anxious to cultivate friendly 
 relations with the inhabitants of the country, would, 
 as a matter of course, be prepared to speak the 
 language, otherwise the projected intercourse must 
 be of a very restricted nature. There are many 
 Englishwomen in India who would gladly make 
 friends with Indian ladies, but when they go to 
 visit them they find themselves utterly at a loss as 
 to what to say. Even if they are able to exchange 
 with them the few preliminary civil sentences which 
 may be learnt by heart, they are soon obliged to fall 
 back on smiles and signs for the remainder of the 
 interview. 
 
 This is surely a wrong state of things, and one 
 which might easily be remedied. It is considered 
 necessary that a well-educated girl should be able to 
 speak French, German, and Italian, even though the 
 probability of her ever residing in those countries 
 for more than a few weeks is a very remote one. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 24 
 
 Yet it never seems to strike parents whose daughters 
 are fated to spend the best years of their life in 
 India, that it would be to their advantage to know 
 something of the languages of the country. The 
 time and trouble necessary to master thoroughly any 
 one common Indian dialect would be richly repaid 
 by the possibilities of friendly social intercourse it 
 would open out, and even those who may be inclined 
 to doubt this assertion may, perhaps, be influenced 
 by the consideration of the larger sphere of useful- 
 ness which would assuredly be theirs, if they were 
 thus able to converse in the vernacular. 
 
 In the following pages will be found a short 
 account of two Marathi ladies, two Bengali ladies, 
 and one Parsi. It is to be regretted that no Maho- 
 metan lady can be included in the list. There are, 
 indeed, in some parts of India, notably at Hyder- 
 abad, some Mahometan ladies who are desirous of 
 sharing in the educational advantages now being 
 offered to them, but the Mahometan community as 
 a whole have been backward in availing themselves 
 of educational advantages, and are even more con- 
 servative than the Hindus in their views respecting 
 women. 
 
 A Mahometan gentleman holding a high official 
 position in Calcutta, was lately asked whether any 
 of the ladies of his family had learned English. He 
 replied that they had not, and added that it was not 
 
24 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 thought a good thing by his co-religionists to en- 
 courage them to learn English, though they were 
 well instructed in Arabic and could read the Koran. 
 
 It is to be hoped, however, that as more liberal 
 views respecting women gain ground generally in 
 India, their influence may spread to the Mahometan 
 section of the community. 
 
 It would be impossible to close this brief survey of 
 the woman question in India without alluding to 
 the very great sympathy and help shown to Indian 
 women in America, and by American ladies in India. 
 American missionaries and lady doctors are working 
 hard in India itself, and the United States have 
 become a second home to more than one brave 
 Indian woman. 
 
 It was in America that Anandibai Joshee received 
 her medical education, as well as the generous wel- 
 come and sympathy which enabled her to go through 
 it. It was in America that the Pundita Eamabai 
 found the help she so sorely needed to start her 
 home for young widows, and it is to two American 
 writers that the public in general is indebted for all 
 they know about these two ladies. Eamabai's work 
 on The High-caste Hindu Widow was written and 
 published in America, and prefaced with an earnest 
 and touching appeal by Dr. Kachel Bodley, who told 
 the Pundita's story in a way to touch all hearts. 
 
 Mrs. Joshee's life has been written by Mrs. Ball, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 and is published by Triibner. It should be read 
 by all who care to know as much as possible of the 
 story of this brave woman. 
 
 Still more recently, the United Kingdom Branch of 
 the National Association for Supplying Medical Aid 
 to the Women of India, which has hardly as yet re- 
 ceived the support it is entitled to expect in England, 
 has received a generous gift of 100 from a gentle- 
 man in New York ; only one among many proofs of 
 the genuine interest taken by Americans in the cause 
 of Indian female welfare. 
 
 Surely these things should stir up the hearts of 
 English men and women to emulate the generosity 
 shown on the other side of the Atlantic, towards 
 those who have so much greater claims on us, and 
 are bound to us by so many ties of duty and of 
 common interest. 
 
26 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SARAS- 
 VATI. 
 
 IN spite of all the attacks that have been made upon 
 it from time to time, by Buddhism, by Mahometan- 
 ism, and by Christianity, in spite of the under- 
 mining influences of education and of civilization, 
 Hinduism still reigns supreme over the minds of 
 millions of the people of India. 
 
 The old superstitions still bear sway, and the old 
 ceremonies and institutions are maintained in much 
 the same form as that in which they were practised 
 a thousand years ago. Not the least remarkable of 
 these are the annual pilgrimages to the banks of the 
 sacred rivers, such as the Ganges, the Nerbudda, and 
 the Godavery, or to some particular temple or shrine 
 of more than ordinary sanctity. To these holy 
 places flock hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from 
 all parts of the country. The rajahs and rich men 
 arrive in their carnages or on gorgeously caparisoned 
 
THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SABASVATI. 27 
 
 horses, surrounded with a brilliant following ; the 
 poorer pilgrims come in " ekkas," little two- wheeled 
 carriages, and bullock carts, while others, who cannot 
 afford a conveyance, tramp wearily along in the dust. 
 Men, women, and children of all ages take part in 
 these pilgrimages and meet with a common purpose, 
 for all alike, rich and poor, young and old, healthy 
 and diseased, come to bathe in the purifying waters, 
 or to offer their prayers on a spot whence they 
 believe they gain immediate access to the gods. 
 
 Many of the pilgrims travel hundreds of miles to 
 the appointed spot, and meet there others who have 
 done the same ; and the occasion is often taken 
 advantage of by a Hindu father, to arrange that 
 which is ever uppermost in his thoughts, namely, 
 the marriage of his daughters. Although' it is 
 nowhere so stated in the Hindu Scriptures, it is a 
 popular belief that a woman cannot obtain salvation 
 unless she has been married. It is considered a sin 
 and a shame for a father to have marriageable 
 daughters on his hands, and it is therefore hardly 
 to be wondered at that parents are not very difficult 
 to please in the matter of suitors, and jump eagerly 
 at any opportunity of disposing of their daughters. 
 
 Once upon a time, that is, about fifty years ago, a 
 Hindu father set out upon one of these pilgrimages, 
 taking with him his wife and his two little girls, aged 
 respectively seven and nine. In the course of their 
 
28 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 journey they halted for a day or two, to rest, in a 
 town on the banks of the Godavery. In .the early 
 morning the father went down to bathe in the sacred 
 river, and while he was there he perceived another 
 pilgrim who came down to perform the same duty. 
 After the conclusion of their ablutions, and of the 
 devotions which followed, the two men entered into 
 conversation. 
 
 The father inquired of the stranger, who was 
 a striking-looking man, who he was and whence he 
 came. Having learned that he was a Brahman, of 
 a very high class, and that he was a widower, he 
 without any further preliminaries offered him his 
 daughter in marriage. The offer was accepted, and 
 the very next day the marriage ceremonies were 
 performed, and the little girl of nine years old was 
 handed over to her husband, and departed with him 
 to his distant home, never seeing her parents again. 
 Happily for the child bride, she had fallen into good 
 hands. Her husband was a Brahman pundit, 
 Ananta Shastri by name, a man of good family, of 
 high character and of great learning, and what was 
 more remarkable, he was a man who believed in 
 women, and held the opinion that they ought to be 
 allowed to share with men in some at least of the 
 advantages of education, and to cultivate their intel- 
 lects and their talents. Such a doctrine was totally 
 opposed to the received tenets of the Hindus, and 
 
THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SABASVATI. 29 
 
 when Ananta Shastri tried to put it into practice by 
 attempting to educate his first wife, his other female 
 relations interfered and succeeded in t thwarting 
 him. 
 
 He was, however, determined to try the experi- 
 ment again with his second wife, and as soon as he 
 reached his home, which was in the Mangalore 
 district in Western India, he set to work to teach 
 Lakshmibai Sanskrit. Again his mother and the 
 other members of his family raised their voices in 
 protest against this breach of time-honoured custom, 
 but the pundit was resolved not to be baffled this 
 time. 
 
 He broke up his home, and taking his child wife 
 with him, he journeyed away far into the jungle. 
 There, in the middle of the forests which clothe the 
 slopes of the Western Ghauts, near the fountain 
 head of a sacred river, he took up his abode. A rude 
 dwelling of branches and mats was soon constructed, 
 and here in the forest solitudes, with the roar of the 
 tiger and the howling of the hyaena breaking the 
 silence of night, Ananta Shastri made his home, and 
 devoted himself to the education of his wife. Day 
 by day he taught her to read Sanskrit, the language 
 in which the sacred books of the Hindus are written, 
 and then as her intelligence developed he opened out 
 to her the stores of Hindu poetry and philosophy ; 
 but not of religion. The sentences from the Code of 
 
80 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Maim are considered too sacred for women to utter, 
 and even Ananta Shastri, with all his liberal views, 
 could not go so far as to allow his wife to peruse the 
 sacred texts. 
 
 As the years went on Lakshmibai became the 
 mother of a son and two daughters, and shared with 
 her husband the task of educating them. Although, 
 as we have seen, Ananta Shastri held far more 
 advanced views than the majority of his countrymen 
 with regard to women, he was still an orthodox 
 Hindu, and well content to comply with the social 
 customs of his race. Accordingly, when his elder 
 daughter, though still a mere child, was sought in 
 marriage for a boy very little her senior, he con- 
 sented, on condition that the boy bridegroom should 
 be kept with him to be educated. To this the parents 
 agreed, but no sooner were the marriage ceremonies 
 concluded than they forgot their promise and took 
 the boy back with them to their own home, where he 
 grew up not only in ignorance but in vice and 
 brutality as well. When the girl had developed into 
 a beautiful and intelligent woman, the man returned 
 to claim her as his wife. She refused to go with him 
 and maintained her opposition till the case had been 
 taken into court, and a verdict obtained, which, in 
 accordance with the law of the country, condemned 
 her to live with her husband. Sad, indeed, might have 
 been her fate, tied for life to a man totally unworthy 
 
THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SABASVATI. 31 
 
 of her, whom she could neither love nor esteem ; but 
 from this she was saved by an early death. 
 
 In the meantime the younger daughter, Eamabai, 
 born in 1858, was growing up, and her education 
 devolved chiefly upon her mother. How well that 
 mother performed her task may be guessed when we 
 find her daughter, now learned in the lore both of the 
 East and West, looking back to the lessons of her 
 childhood, and recalling in reverent affection the 
 mother " whose sweet influence and able instruction, 
 have been the light and guide of my life." 
 
 But now a time of sorrow came for this happy 
 little family ; their hospitality to the students and 
 pilgrims who had visited them in their jungle home 
 had exhausted their small means and involved them 
 in heavy debt, to pay which they were obliged to sell 
 their land and to wander forth, homeless, on a never- 
 ceasing pilgrimage. 
 
 For seven long years they wandered from one holy 
 place to another, the learned Brahman holding forth 
 to the pilgrims who gathered round him, and obtain- 
 ing from their offerings a scanty subsistence for him- 
 self and his family. Then he became totally blind, 
 and at last he died, his devoted wife following him 
 within a very few weeks. 
 
 Kamabai was sixteen at the time of her parents' 
 death, and under their able instruction she had 
 already developed into what was considered to be, 
 
32 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 for a woman, " a prodigy of erudition." She was 
 thoroughly conversant with Sanskrit, and learned in 
 all the sacred books of the Hindus. Besides this, 
 she knew Marathi, which was the language of her 
 father's people, as well as Kanarese, Hindustani, and 
 Bengali, acquired colloquially during their travels. 
 For her sake her parents had defied the tyranny of 
 custom, and had allowed her to remain unmarried. 
 Left alone in the world with her brother, these two 
 continued to travel. They made their way as pil- 
 grims, often in want of the common necessaries of 
 life, from one end of India to the other, and wher- 
 ever they went they advocated the cause of female 
 education, maintaining that all women should, before 
 their marriage, be taught Sanskrit, and be able to 
 read and write in their own language, whatever it 
 might be. At last they came to Calcutta, where the 
 young lady lecturer attracted a great deal of interest 
 and attention, and the fame of her learning spread 
 rapidly through the city. The pundits or learned 
 men of Calcutta could scarcely believe the reports 
 that reached them, and they summoned Kamabai to 
 appear before them. She did so, and underwent a 
 long and searching examination, passing with high 
 honours, and receiving in recognition of her merit 
 the distinguished title of Sarasvati. 
 
 But just when she seemed to have reached the 
 Apinnacle of earthly happiness and success, a crushing 
 
THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SABASVATI. 33 
 
 sorrow came to her, in the death of her beloved 
 brother, her only near relative. As he lay dying his 
 thoughts were all for her, and he was grieved and 
 troubled to think how unprotected she would be 
 when he was gone. Most English brothers would 
 have felt the same under similar circumstances ; but 
 for a Hindu it must indeed have seemed terrible to 
 think of leaving a young unmarried sister alone, and 
 almost friendless, in the country where women are 
 entirely dependent upon their male relations. Hap- 
 pily, however, Eamabai was not left long unprotected ; 
 six months after her brother's death she married an 
 educated Bengali gentleman named Bipin Bihari 
 Medhavi. Like herself, he had thrown aside the old 
 Hindu beliefs, without having embraced the purer 
 truths of Christianity. This is the case with a very 
 large proportion of the educated natives of India, 
 especially among the Hindus. As they learn more 
 and more, they get to see the folly, the absurdity, 
 and the falseness of their old religion, and they 
 become ashamed of the senseless, degrading teach- 
 ing of the Brahmans. But as their education is 
 purely secular there is nothing in it to lead them to 
 adopt Christianity, and they drift either into a 
 cloudy, undefined Theism, or into avowed and abso- 
 lute unbelief. The former is, perhaps, the most 
 common, and it seems to have been the state of mind 
 of Eamabai and her husband. They believed in 
 
 3 
 
34 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 God as the Creator and Euler of the Universe, and 
 they even believed that He cared for them, and could 
 help and guide them. When grief came, they bowed 
 in humble resignation to His Almighty will, and they 
 thanked Him reverently for all their happiness, for 
 both joy and sorrow came to them in their married 
 life. First a little daughter was born to them, and 
 instead of repining and weeping, as an orthodox 
 Hindu mother would do, that the child was a girl 
 and not a boy, Kamabai rejoiced and called her baby 
 " Manorama," meaning " Hearts-joy." Only a few 
 months later came the sorrow, when the husband 
 was taken ill with cholera and died within a few 
 hours. 
 
 Once more was Eamabai left unprotected to face 
 the world, and this time in the condition of all others 
 which is a sad one for a Hindu woman, that of a son- 
 less widow. To add to her desolation and loneliness, 
 she had committed the unpardonable crime of marry- 
 ing out of her own caste, and thereby incurred the 
 wrath and contempt of all her relations and friends. 
 Her husband had been of an inferior caste to her- 
 self, but it was the fact they were not of the same 
 caste which constituted their marriage a crime, and 
 caused them to be shunned by all their belongings. 
 The hardness and coldness of their relations had 
 been hard enough to bear when they had their 
 mutual love and help tp sustain them, but now 
 
THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SARASVATI. 35 
 
 that Eamabai was a lone widow, it added a fresh drop 
 of bitterness to her cup of sorrow. To this time of 
 heavy trial she thus refers in a letter to an American 
 friend : 
 
 " My husband being of low caste, my marriage 
 was altogether against the country's customs, and 
 we were despised and shunned by all our most inti- 
 mate friends and relations. So much was this the 
 case that my husband's brother would not write to 
 him, for fear of losing caste. Under such circum- 
 stances we had no intercourse with many, and were 
 too proud to ask any favours. I therefore resolved to 
 do what I could to take care of myself and my baby, 
 independent of all friends and relatives. I made 
 this promise to my dear husband before he left 
 me." 
 
 Only one woman was brave enough to hold out a 
 helping hand to the lonely outcast, or to send her a 
 message of sympathy. This was a kinswoman of 
 her own, Anandibai Joshee, then living with her 
 husband at Serampore, not far from Calcutta. She 
 invited Ramabai, whom she had never yet met, to go 
 and stay with her ; but the generous offer was proudly, 
 though gratefully, declined. Ramabai' s brave heart 
 did not fail her, and she once more resumed her 
 former role of lecturer, urging more than ever the 
 emancipation of the women of her race from the 
 degraded condition into which they had fallen, and 
 
 3 * 
 
36 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 which she demonstrated, by quotations from the Hindu 
 Scriptures, to be contrary to the real teaching of their 
 religion. Leaving Calcutta, she lectured in different 
 parts of the country, but it was in the Bombay 
 Presidency and among the people of her own race 
 that she found the readiest response to her efforts ; 
 and here she toiled hard, going from city to city, and 
 stirring up the hearts of the people by her eloquence 
 and her earnestness. In Poonah she founded a 
 society called the Arya Mahila Somaj, having for its 
 object the promotion of women's education and the 
 discouragement of child marriage. In 1881 she gave 
 most valuable evidence before the Education Commis- 
 sion, presided over by Dr., now Sir, W. Hunter, lay- 
 ing particular stress on the evils resulting from early 
 marriages, and of the need that existed for supplying 
 medical aid to women. 
 
 But while thus working hard for others, Kamabai 
 was beginning to feel the need of further help and 
 guidance for herself. Like others of her race, her 
 longing eyes turned to England, believing that there 
 alone she could find the instruction and the assistance 
 she wanted. Yet it was some time before she could 
 gather up sufficient courage to leave her native land 
 and all her friends, and cross the sea, the " black 
 water " of which the Hindus have a religious horror. 
 At last, in the summer of 1883, accompanied by her 
 child and by one friend, she took this great step, 
 
THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SARASVATI. 37 
 
 which was to prove, in more ways than one, the 
 turning-point in her life's history. 
 
 In the Home of the Sisters of St. Mary at Wan- 
 tage, the Hindu widow found a warm and loving 
 welcome, as well as simple, earnest instruction in the 
 Christian faith. For some time before leaving India 
 Bamabai had been contemplating the possibility of 
 embracing Christianity. As we have already stated, 
 she had long abandoned orthodox Hinduism, and 
 found refuge in a vague form of Theism, which, how- 
 ever, failed to satisfy either her heart or her intellect. 
 While living in Calcutta she received from Baboo 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, the leader of the sect of the 
 Brahmo-Somaj, a copy of one of his books, which 
 consisted of moral precepts drawn from the sacred 
 books of many religions. The larger number of these 
 extracts were from the New Testament, and their 
 lofty moral tone attracted Eamabai's attention. She 
 then studied the Bible for herself, first in Sanskrit 
 and then in English, and by degrees she became con- 
 vinced of the truth of the Gospel, and after four 
 years of anxious thought and consideration she was 
 baptized at Wantage, in September 1883, together 
 with her little girl. 
 
 She then set to work diligently to perfect herself 
 in English, and when sufficiently proficient in it she 
 went to the Ladies' College at Cheltenham, where 
 she acted as Professor of Sanskrit, at the same 
 
38 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 time studying mathematics, English literature, and 
 natural science. Here she had educational advan- 
 tages of the highest order, by which she did not fail 
 to profit to the. fullest extent, as well as by the daily 
 intercourse with noble and highly-cultivated Christian 
 women, whose sympathy and wise help she found 
 invaluable. She remained at Cheltenham College 
 from 1884 to 1886, and it was then her intention to 
 return to India at once, and if she could obtain an 
 educational appointment under Government, which 
 it seemed almost certain she would do, to devote 
 herself to imparting to her countrywomen some of 
 the knowledge she had gained in England. 
 
 Before, however, she could complete her college 
 course, a different direction was given to her plans by 
 an invitation which she received from America to go 
 there in order to be present on the occasion of her 
 cousin, Mrs. Anandibai Joshee, taking her degree in 
 medicine at Philadelphia. It was this same cousin 
 who had given her such a friendly invitation to go to 
 her at Serampore nearly five years before, and 
 Kamabai felt a longing now to return her kindness 
 by showing her interest in her success. She also 
 had for some time had a great desire to visit America, 
 but, on the other hand, she felt great reluctance in 
 relinquishing her studies, and in giving up her plans 
 for a speedy return to India. 
 
 It seemed to her, however, that the invitation to 
 
THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SAEASVATI. 39 
 
 America was a call from God, and she believed that 
 in thus taking a long voyage in order to show her 
 sympathy with her cousin, she would be, in truth, 
 acting for the welfare of her countrywomen at large. 
 She might, perhaps, have echoed the words of the 
 poet Wordsworth 
 
 Stepping westward seems to be 
 A sort of heavenly destiny. 
 
 At any rate, she felt it her duty to go ; though, when 
 leaving England, she fully intended to return after a 
 few months and to resume her studies. 
 
 Once in the New World, however, the attraction 
 which it seems to have so strongly for the oldest 
 races of the world, began to work upon her. Ameri 
 can manners and society, American institutions, and 
 still more American schools, interested her greatly. 
 New ways of helping her countrywomen presented 
 themselves to her mind, and the Kindergarten system, 
 in which the training of the hand was combined with 
 that of the head, struck her as peculiarly suited to 
 the wants of Indian women. 
 
 A correspondent of a Chicago paper, who after the 
 manner of the country " interviewed " Pundit a 
 Kamabai, inquired of her the reason why she devoted 
 so much time to the study of the Kindergarten 
 system in Philadelphia. Her reply was as follows : 
 " I wish all the educators would understand Froebel 
 as I do. I see in his system the true means of re- 
 
40 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 forming the old ideas of religious and secular educa- 
 tion. In the first place, Froebel's system enables a 
 child to think ; all his senses are trained by it, and 
 this is just what education means to do. In the 
 second place, an intelligent thinker will not accept or 
 submit to any belief without taking time to think 
 whether it is profitable, or whether it is true. Truth 
 is the spirit of Froebel's teaching, and I think if the 
 Kindergarten system were introduced into India, in 
 secular and religious schools, it would give to the 
 people not only an advanced mode of thinking, but 
 would also dispel the illusion of many superstitious 
 beliefs, the wrong ideas that now keep women and 
 children in subjection. My idea is to reach the 
 minds of the mothers. You know that nothing will 
 attract the mother's attention so strongly as the wel- 
 fare of her children, and if there are some women in 
 our country, as I know they are to be found every- 
 where, who are opposed to their own progress and 
 education, the Kindergarten system, when presented 
 to them in its true light, will convince them that the 
 welfare of their children depends mostly upon them- 
 selves, and if they are not as intelligent and judicious 
 in training as they are in loving, they will do more 
 harm than good." 
 
 With the enthusiasm and thoroughness charac- 
 teristic of her nature, Kamabai was not content with 
 studying the Kindergarten system from the outside ; 
 
THE PUNDITA RAMABAI SARASVATI. 41 
 
 in September 1886 she enrolled herself as a pupil in 
 a training school for Kindergarten teachers, and lost 
 no time in finding out how the various toys, or 
 " gifts " as they are called, could best be adapted to 
 Indian ideas. She was much struck by the supe- 
 riority of the books provided in America, both for the 
 instruction and the amusement of children. In 
 England she had paid very little attention to the 
 subject, but in Philadelphia she found that even the 
 school-books were printed on excellent paper, in beau- 
 tiful type, and adorned with illustrations, each of 
 which was in its own way a triumph of art. When 
 she saw these fascinating little books, and compared 
 them mentally with the books supplied to Indian 
 school- children, which are almost all, and more espe- 
 cially those in the vernacular, badly printed on thin 
 discoloured paper, and destitute of any embellish- 
 ment, she could not help feeling that even in a small 
 matter like this her own people were at a great 
 disadvantage. But this did not discourage her. 
 She simply set to work to prepare a series of primers 
 and lesson-books in Marathi, and to collect illustra- 
 tions for them, so that they might be put into print 
 as soon as she landed in Bombay, for they could not 
 be printed in America, owing to the absence of 
 Marathi type. 
 
 By the end of the year 1887 Kamabai's plans and 
 ideas had taken a definite shape. She had come to 
 
42 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 the conclusion that she could best help her country- 
 women, not by taking up the higher education in 
 high schools and colleges, but by founding native 
 schools, where the poorest, the most helpless, and 
 the most oppressed members of society, the young 
 widows, could find a home and learn how to gain a 
 respectable livelihood independent of their families. 
 Herself a high- caste widow, she determined to de- 
 vote her life, her boundless energy, and her rare 
 intellectual gifts to the task of educating and en- 
 lightening other high-caste Hindu widows. And 
 this she determined to do apart from all questions 
 of religion. 
 
 Although a true Christian herself, she felt con- 
 vinced that no good, but rather harm, would 
 ensue from making the acceptance of Christianity 
 by the young widows a condition of their admis- 
 sion to the Home she had determined to esta- 
 blish. From her own personal experience, she felt 
 sure that many suffering and down-trodden Hindu 
 widows, the very ones perhaps who most needed her 
 help, would not come to such a home if they were 
 obliged to give up their own religious customs or 
 were compelled to study the Bible. 
 
 Missionary homes and schools already existed for 
 those who would use them ; but Eamabai's aim was 
 to provide a refuge for those who would not, for 
 such orthodox women as, unable to bear the cruel 
 
THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SAKASVATI. 43 
 
 hardships of a widow's lot, would commit suicide by 
 drowning themselves in the sacred rivers, rather than 
 lose their caste by putting themselves under the 
 care of people who would teach them a strange re- 
 ligion and try to convert them. 
 
 The Pundita's idea was to open homes, where 
 young widows of good family could take refuge with- 
 out losing their caste or being disturbed in their 
 religious belief, and where they might have entire 
 freedom of action with regard to caste rules, such as 
 cooking their food, &c. In these homes she pro- 
 posed to train them, according to their several tastes 
 and capacity, in such branches of work as might 
 enable them in time to earn a respectable livelihood. 
 
 Her proposal met with considerable opposition, 
 many good people thinking she was making a mistake 
 in attempting to work such an institution on non- 
 missionary lines ; but she had fully considered the 
 question, and had made up her mind on the subject. 
 
 " I admire greatly missionary work," she wrote to / 
 the editor of the New York Evangelist, "but that 
 does not make me shut my eyes to the many wants 
 of my sisters that cannot always be met by mis- 
 sionaries. . . . Although we cannot enforce the 
 study of religion in our school-home for widows, we 
 shall encourage them, if they choose, to be ac- 
 quainted with the teaching of Christ. Christian 
 literature will be placed in our school library ; be- 
 
44 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 sides, each pupil will have a copy of the Bible given 
 her, with a request to read it for herself. And then 
 we must leave the work of their conversion to the 
 Holy Spirit." 
 
 The next step was to collect the necessary funds 
 to start such a home. With this object a society, 
 called the "Kamabai Association," was started in 
 Boston in December 1887, and continues to work up 
 to the present time, all its efforts being devoted to 
 further the cause of Hindu child widows. In -order 
 to make the work better known, and to enlist public 
 sympathy by letting people really understand the 
 condition of Indian women, Kamabai wrote The High- 
 Caste Hindu Woman, a book which could hardly fail 
 to produce a deep impression, or to awaken a wide- 
 spread interest in her work. Here for the first time 
 was recorded, in earnest but temperate language, the 
 complete story of a Hindu woman's life her posi- 
 tion as defined by religion and by custom, her joys, 
 her sorrows, and her needs. From her very birth a 
 woman, we are told, is exposed to unkindness, to 
 contempt, and to cruelty. So unwelcome is a 
 daughter in most families, that it is not surprising 
 that means of removing them are gladly seized, and 
 that the practice of female infanticide, although 
 sternly prohibited by law, yet flourishes in secret in 
 some parts of the country. To quote the words of 
 the Pundita herself, " The census of 1870 revealed 
 
. THE PUNDITA BAMABAI SARASVATI. 45 
 
 the curious fact that three hundred children were 
 stolen in one year by wolves from the city of Um- : 
 ritzur, all the children being girls, and this under the 
 very nose of the English Government." / 
 
 " Childhood is the heyday of a Hindu woman's 
 life," but as almost all girls are married before they 
 are twelve, these happy days of freedom are few in 
 number. With her marriage begins a life of hard- 
 ships, and oppression at the hands of her mother-in- 
 law and other female relations of her husband. If 
 she has sons there is some hope of happiness for 
 her; but if not, her life is made miserable by the 
 angry reproaches of her husband, and the knowledge 
 that he can, if he chooses, discard her and take an- 
 other wife. Then, if she becomes a widow her cup of 
 bitterness is full. 
 
 Much of all this, indeed, was known before Eama- 
 bai wrote her book, but it had never been stated so 
 clearly, nor with such authoritative knowledge of the 
 whole subject ; and there was in some people's minds 
 a tendency to regard the accounts given by mis- 
 sionaries and others as highly coloured and exag- 
 gerated. The matter of this book is highly valuable, 
 but it is not less remarkable from its style ; the 
 strong, nervous English and the calm, masterly treat- 
 ment of the subject would do credit to a highly- trained 
 and experienced English author ; and a perusal of it 
 must add to the respect felt for the writer, as well as 
 
46 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 to the sympathy felt for those whose cause she 
 advocates so powerfully. 
 
 During the two years that Eamabai spent in 
 America, she devoted her time and energy without 
 ceasing -to the work of helping her fellow-country- 
 women. She visited different parts of the States, and 
 spoke frequently at public meetings ; and wherever 
 she went her eloquence attracted a crowd of lis- 
 teners, and her courage and perseverance commanded 
 universal respect. A lady who was present at one 
 of her meetings, wrote thus of her: "Eamabai is 
 strikingly beautiful ; her face is a clear-cut oval ; 
 her eyes, large and dark, glow with feeling. She is 
 a brunette, but her cheeks are full of colour. Her 
 white widow's saree is drawn closely over her head 
 and fastened under her chin." 
 
 Having at last collected sixty thousand rupees, a 
 little more than four thousand pounds sterling, 
 Ramabai considered she had sufficient to make a, 
 beginning. She therefore left America, and reached 
 Bombay on the 1st of February 1889. She lost no 
 time in setting to work, and on the llth of March 
 opened her first home for widows, which she called 
 Shardu Sadan the "Home of Learning."* She is 
 
 * This has since been removed to Poona, and at the present time 
 there are sixteen young widows in residence, mostly Brahmans, 
 and an American lady has joined the Pundita, and is assisting her in 
 the work. 
 
THE PUNDITA EAMABAI SABASVATI. 47 
 
 working hard, but it is up-hill work, and there are 
 very many difficulties and discouragements to be 
 faced. She has a large circle of sympathizers and 
 friends; but many even of her well-wishers think that 
 she must fail, and point to the small number of 
 widows whom she has as yet induced to come to 
 her as a proof of the truth of their predictions. 
 
 It may, indeed, be so, though it is early days to 
 talk of failure ; but even if this particular effort 
 should fail, it will, without doubt, lead to others, and 
 in the end success must be attained. It may not, 
 perhaps, be granted to Kamabai to see the fruits of 
 her labour in this world, but fruit there will assuredly 
 be in due time, and the day will come when hundreds 
 and thousands of Hindu women shall learn with 
 good cause to bless her name. 
 
48 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 III. 
 
 DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 
 
 IN the story of the Pundita Kamabai, reference 
 has been made more than once to her kinswoman 
 Anandibai Joshee, between whom and herself there 
 existed a tie stronger even than that of blood, the 
 bond of a common purpose and a common aim, that 
 aim and purpose being nothing less than the amelio- 
 ration of the condition of Indian women, and their 
 emancipation from the state of bondage to which an 
 absurd tradition had condemned them. 
 
 Both these women belong to the Mahratta race, 
 which has played such a remarkable part in Indian 
 history. Lord Macaulay, in his essay on Clive and 
 Warren Hastings, thus refers to the rise of the Mah- 
 ratta power : 
 
 " The highlands which border on the western sea- 
 coast of India, poured forth a formidable race, a race 
 which was long the terror of every native power, and 
 
DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 49 
 
 which, after many desperate and doubtful struggles, 
 yielded only to the fortune and genius of England. 
 
 " The original seat of that singular people was 
 the wild range of hills which runs along the western 
 coast of India. In the reign of Arungzebe the in- 
 bitants of those regions, led by the great Sevajee, 
 began to descend on the possessions of their wealthier 
 and less warlike neighbours. The energy, ferocity, 
 and cunning of the Mahrattas soon made them the 
 most conspicuous among the new powers which were 
 generated by the corruption of the decaying (Moghul) 
 monarchy. At first they were only robbers. They 
 soon rose to the dignity of conquerors. Half the 
 provinces of the empire were turned into Mahratta 
 principalities." 
 
 The rapid successes of the Mahrattas were due to 
 their warlike character, to their pluck and hardi- 
 hood, all of which contrasted strangely with the in- 
 dolence and effeminacy of the inhabitants of the 
 plains. Although considerably modified by time and 
 circumstances, their descendants still retain most of 
 these characteristics, which are shared in some degree 
 by the women of the race. Amongst the Mahrattas, 
 women have always been treated with more respect, 
 and are allowed a greater degree of freedom than is 
 the case among most other Indian races, and as 
 a consequence they are remarkable for their courage, 
 their perseverance, and their strength of character. 
 
 4 
 
50 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Among the Mahratta freebooters who distin- 
 guished themselves in the earlier wars of their 
 people, was one of the name of Joshee, who, as a 
 reward for his services, received from his chief the 
 grant of a large tract of land and several villages in 
 the neighbourhood of Poonah, and here his descen- 
 dants continue to reside to the present day. 
 
 It was in the old palace at Poonah, which had 
 been the home of many generations of Joshees, that 
 the subject of the present sketch was born in March 
 1865. Her father, Gunpatrao Amritaswar Joshee, 
 was a rich landowner of Kalyan, a town lying a little 
 to the north of Bombay, and was a man looked up to 
 and respected by all his high-caste neighbours. He 
 had married a kinswoman of his own, G-ungabai 
 Joshee, whose father and uncle lived in Poonah. 
 The uncle was a distinguished physician, and it was 
 in order to have the benefit of his advice that Gunga- 
 bai Joshee had returned to her old home. Here her 
 little daughter was born, and here she was named 
 Jamuna, or Jumna, after the sacred river, a name 
 which means the " daughter of the sun." 
 
 Her childhood passed happily enough between her 
 grandfather's house at Poonah and her father's house 
 at Kalyan, and in both she was a great favourite, 
 showing even in her earliest days a bright and intel- 
 ligent disposition. Her father was peculiarly devoted 
 to her, and had her constantly with him. He was 
 
DB. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 51 
 
 one of the large class of men in India who, though 
 they do not care to break openly with their national 
 religious customs, yet have ceased to have any real 
 belief in the teaching of Brahmanism, and no doubt 
 it was from him that Jamuna learnt, while still quite 
 young, to realise the absurdity and falseness of the 
 worship of idols. She was of an imaginative tem- 
 perament, and both she and all her family appear 
 to have been greatly impressed by a dream she had 
 as a child, and in which, as she believed, her 
 famous Mahratta ancestor appeared to her, and told 
 her that she alone of all his descendants had truly 
 inherited his spirit and his talents, and that she 
 was destined to achieve some great thing. 
 
 When she was but five years old, the family party 
 was increased by a young man, another member of 
 the Joshee clan, named Gopal Vinyak Joshee, whose 
 coming was destined to have a great influence upon 
 her life. He was a clerk in the Government Post 
 Office Department, and a fairly educated man. He 
 took a great fancy to Jamuna, and finding her most 
 anxious to learn, he undertook to teach her Sanskrit, 
 and continued to give her lessons for three years. 
 
 At the end of that time Gopal was transferred to 
 the post office at Alibag, and his little pupil's grief at 
 the prospective interruption to her studies knew no 
 bounds. She fancied that she would never have any 
 further opportunities of learning, and her thirst for 
 
 4 * 
 
52 80ME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 knowledge was insatiable. Her mother had never 
 approved of her studies, and was not at all sorry that 
 they should be brought to a conclusion ; in fact, as 
 she was eight years old, and according to the national 
 custom of a marriageable age, she thought it was 
 time to arrange a match for her. 
 
 In order to enter at all into the feelings of the 
 little Jamuna, we must remember that in India 
 women develop, both physically and mentally, earlier 
 than they do in Europe. A girl of eight or nine 
 is as much advanced intellectually as an English 
 girl of twelve or fourteen, and at thirty she is already 
 considered an old woman. This little girl, who with 
 us would still have been in the nursery and only 
 just able to read and write fairly, was in India looked 
 upon as old enough to become a wife, and with her 
 marriage all prospect of any further education would 
 have come to an end. 
 
 We can hardly be surprised that one who had 
 already shown such enthusiasm for study, should 
 have felt dismayed at the idea of never being able 
 to learn any more, and we can believe how delighted 
 she must have been when her kind old grandmother 
 smoothed her path for her by offering to go and live 
 at Alibag, and to take Jamuna with her and make a 
 home for her, so that she might continue her Sanskrit 
 studies. 
 
 Thus the matter was arranged ; though how all the 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 53 
 
 social difficulties were got over is not quite clear. 
 According to some accounts Jamuna was betrothed 
 to Gopal before leaving her father's house, and 
 this would, of course, have made things easy for her ; 
 at any rate, whether there was any formal ceremony 
 or not, it is evident that it was understood that they 
 should eventually be married, and, owing to the 
 grandmother's having to leave Alibag the following 
 year, their marriage actually took place in March 
 1874, the day that the bride completed her ninth 
 year. 
 
 According to Mahratta custom, Jamuna changed 
 her name at her marriage, and was known hence- 
 forward as Anandibai, meaning " Joy of my heart." 
 The wedding festivities lasted several days, and 
 were similar to those usual among high-caste 
 families; there were feastings, fireworks, illumina- 
 tions, and a regular " tamasha," as the natives call 
 it. Gunpatrao Joshee was, as we have already said, 
 very fond of his daughter, and very proud of her, 
 and he also believed firmly in the intimation of 
 her future achievements given her in the dream. 
 He therefore loaded her with presents, quantities 
 of beautiful clothes, of silk, muslin, and embroideries 
 such as are worn by the richest Indian ladies, as well 
 as many ornaments, many of which were heirlooms 
 in his family, and were of great value. Hindu 
 women of all classes are very fond of ornaments, and 
 
54 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 if they are too poor to buy gold ones they content 
 themselves with silver ones, or even with imitation 
 things made of gilt wire and glass, while in some 
 parts of the country bangles of glass or brass are 
 always worn by women of the lower classes. 
 The ornaments of a high-caste and wealthy lady are 
 very numerous and often of great beauty, both in 
 design and workmanship ; bangles and anklets, head 
 ornaments and armlets, nose-rings and ear-rings, as 
 well as rings for the fingers and toes, are indispensa- 
 ble, and their value, when made of pure gold and set 
 with stones, is often prodigious. Those given by a 
 man to his daughter on her marriage form, in fact, 
 the principal part of her dowry. 
 
 After their marriage the young couple' moved to 
 Cutch, where Gopal had been appointed postmaster. 
 In her new home Anandibai occupied herself in her 
 household duties, as well as continuing her studies 
 under her husband's superintendence, but she 
 greatly missed the affection and sympathy of her 
 own family, especially as at Cutch there seems to 
 have been no one with whom she could make 
 friends, or from whom she could look for sympathy 
 and help. The town and district of Cutch had long 
 had a bad name as one of the most backward and 
 uncivilized places in British territories, and the 
 inhabitants were for the most part a low, ignorant 
 set of people. Female infanticide was practised to 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 55 
 
 such an extent in this town that at the time when 
 the Joshees went to dutch there were only thirty 
 native-born women, in a population of nearly twelve 
 thousand; all the rest of the women came from other 
 places, and were sunk in indolence and vice. 
 
 Of this period of her life Anandibai always spoke 
 sadly, as having been very unhappy, and she was 
 greatly relieved when her husband was at last 
 transferred to Bombay. 
 
 In 1878 her only child was born, but it lived only 
 a few days, though the sorrowing mother was 
 convinced that it might have been saved had it been 
 possible for her to obtain proper medical advice, and 
 from this time her thoughts were turned to the need 
 for women doctors in India, and she conceived the 
 idea of studying medicine herself, with the purpose of 
 devoting her life and energies to alleviating the 
 sufferings of her fellow-countrywomen. 
 
 Her husband offered no opposition to her plans, 
 but, on the contrary, did his best to further them, 
 and agreed with her that, if possible, they should 
 both go to America, where she would have the 
 best opportunities of obtaining a thorough medical 
 education. 
 
 With this object in view, Gopal Vinyak Joshee 
 addressed a letter to the editor of a missionary paper 
 in America, asking for some assistance to enable him 
 and his wife to proceed thither. Apparently his 
 
56 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 letter did not produce a very favourable impression 
 upon his correspondent, who, having seen a good 
 deal of young Hindu students in America, felt it his 
 duty to discourage others from going there, and he 
 refused the assistance for which Gopal had asked. 
 It happened, however, that a copy of the magazine 
 in which this correspondence appeared, fell acci- 
 dentally into the hands of Mrs. Carpenter, of Eoselle, 
 whose sympathies were stirred by the idea of the 
 young Indian woman's craving for education, and 
 she forthwith entered into correspondence with 
 Anandibai. The latter, meanwhile, had been making 
 the best of the few opportunities that came in her 
 way to acquire fresh knowledge. In Bombay she 
 attended a school established by the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel, and she always spoke 
 with affectionate regard of the lady teachers, and of 
 the enthusiasm which had led them to come out to 
 India and devote themselves to the work of teaching. 
 She complained greatly of the system pursued in 
 this school, where all the scholars were forced to 
 read the Bible on threat of expulsion, which she 
 considered an unwarrantable interference with the 
 rights of conscience. In consequence, she left the 
 school for a time, but was persuaded by her hus- 
 band to return, as he argued that the teaching she 
 obtained there was too valuable to be refused on 
 any but the most serious grounds. She frequently, 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 57 
 
 in after years, referred to her experiences at the 
 school, and maintained that the tone adopted by the 
 missionaries towards the religion of their pupils was 
 far too contemptuous, and really wanting in con- 
 sideration for their feelings. " How absurd it 
 would be," she wrote, " if I were to say to a 
 Christian, * All that you believe is nonsense, but all 
 that I believe is just and true.' ' 
 
 That this opinion is held even by Christians, is 
 evident by the following extract from the report of 
 a conversation between the Pundita Kamabai and 
 an American friend, reported in the Daily Inter-Ocean 
 of Chicago, of December 10th, 1887 : 
 
 " I understand you to say that it is your idea that, 
 in teaching Christianity, the wisest way for the mis- 
 sionary to begin is not by showing them that Christ 
 despised the ancestral faith of the Hindus, but by 
 pointing out all the truth which the Hindu religion 
 has in common with Christianity, and thus leading 
 the mind of the Hindu from his own belief, which 
 has in it much of good, as far as morality is con- 
 cerned, and many spiritual truths as well, up to the 
 highest revelation, which is that of Christ?" 
 
 " Eamabai. That is just what I think, and I can 
 prove by the New Testament that it is the wiser way 
 to do, for did not St. Paul, when he stood on Mara 
 Hill in Athens, say : ' As I passed by and beheld 
 your devotions, I found an altar with this inscrip- 
 
58 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 tion, To the unknown God : whom therefore ye 
 ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you ' ? I 
 must say that those missionaries who begin to de- 
 nounce in strong language, good and bad equally, 
 whatever is said in Hindu religion, gain nothing by 
 it, because they themselves are ignorant of what is 
 said in the religion of this people whom they go to 
 teach, and hence arouse the indignation of the people, 
 who have great love and reverence for their an- 
 cestors and their ancestral faith." 
 
 This, indeed, is what seems to have happened in 
 the case of Anandibai Joshee, and though in later 
 years she was fortunate enough to meet with many 
 missionaries whose zeal was more wisely tempered 
 by discretion, and from whom she received valuable 
 assistance, yet her experience in Bombay was never 
 forgotten, and was referred to with mingled pain and 
 anger. 
 
 In 1881 Gopal Joshee was transferred to the Post 
 Office in Calcutta ; but here neither he nor his wife 
 were at all happy or comfortable. The damp, ener- 
 vating climate is very depressing to most people 
 who are not natives of Bengal, and both the Joshees 
 suffered in health, while it was with the greatest 
 difficulty that they could procure the kinds of food 
 to which they were accustomed. The social manners 
 and customs also were quite different from their Mah- 
 ratta ones, and when Anandibai walked about in the 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 59 
 
 town with her husband, unveiled, she was rudely 
 stared at by the passers-by, and sometimes even 
 exposed to open insult. 
 
 There was some departmental trouble, too, in 
 regard to the non-delivery of an important official 
 letter, and this probably was the reason that before 
 long they were moved, first to Barrackpore and then 
 to Serampore, small stations a few miles distant from 
 Calcutta, the one on the left and the other on the 
 right bank of the river Hooghly. 
 
 It was during their residence at Serampore that 
 the invitation already referred to was sent to the 
 recently widowed Eamabai, and, for the reasons 
 given, was gratefully declined. 
 
 During all this time Anandibai Joshee had been 
 in constant correspondence with Mrs. Carpenter, 
 .who was doing everything in her power to arrange 
 for her visit to America, but there were many diffi- 
 culties in the way. It was decided that it would be 
 useless for her husband to go to the States, and that 
 he would help her best by remaining in India and 
 following his profession. It was, therefore, necessary 
 to secure an escort for her, and money also was 
 needed, both for the expenses of her journey and for 
 her support during her residence in America. 
 
 At last matters were all arranged. Gopal Joshee 
 consented to her leaving him. An escort was found 
 through some missionary friends, and a sum suffi- 
 
60 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 cient for her immediate needs was raised. A sub- 
 scription was got up for her in Calcutta by the 
 kindness of Mr. James, the Postmaster-General, 
 and some of the leading English people in Calcutta, 
 and to add to her funds she sold some of the jewels 
 her father had given her. 
 
 With a brave though aching heart she sailed from 
 Calcutta in April 1883 for England, whence, after a 
 very short stay, she went on to America, arriving in 
 New York early in June, being the first high-caste 
 Hindu woman to visit the United States. 
 
 She was most warmly welcomed by Mrs. Carpenter, 
 who took her to her own house in Koselle, New 
 Jersey, where she was treated with the greatest 
 kindness and consideration. She always said that 
 the months spent under this lady's hospitable roof 
 were among the happiest of her life. Her pleasant 
 manners, her readiness to be pleased, her modesty 
 and light-heartedness, made a favourable impression 
 on all who came in contact with her, and it was 
 impossible not to feel respect for one who had the 
 courage to take such an unusual step, and who, at 
 the same time, was endeavouring faithfully to carry 
 out the duties enjoined upon her by her national 
 traditions. 
 
 A very touching picture of her way of life is given 
 by her biographer, Mrs. Dall, who tells us how care- 
 ful she was to observe the national rites, and of the 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 61 
 
 way in which, every morning, she repeated the pre- 
 cepts teaching a wife's duties, and marked her 
 forehead with the spot of paint which showed she 
 was a married woman. Before leaving India she had 
 told her own people, " I will go to America as a 
 Hindu, and come back and live among my people as 
 a Hindu." And this brave resolve she carried out 
 unflinchingly. She wore her native dress, refused 
 to eat anything but the vegetable food allowed by 
 her religion, and endeavoured in every way that 
 was possible, during the whole period of her re- 
 sidence in the States, to conform to the customs of 
 her people. 
 
 In the autumn of 1883 she commenced her me- 
 dical studies in earnest. She had been offered a 
 scholarship in the Homoeopathic College in New York, 
 but after much consideration it was decided that the 
 best thing she could do was to enter on the regular 
 four-years' course at the Women's Medical College in 
 Philadelphia. Mrs. .Carpenter took her to Philadel- 
 phia and introduced her to Dr. Eachel Bodley, the 
 Dean of the College, who at once took a warm in- 
 terest in her, and became one of her most valued 
 friends. Dr. Bodley held a reception for her in her 
 own house, when she excited great interest and 
 curiosity by her native dress and jewellery, and 
 everyone felt drawn to the young stranger, who 
 matriculated at the College in October of that year. 
 
62 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 From that date she devoted herself, with the 
 steadiness and perseverance for which she was re- 
 markable, to her medical work, throwing herself into 
 it with enthusiasm, and working sometimes as much 
 as fifteen or sixteen hours a day. It was not easy 
 work at all, and the severe application, as well as the 
 trying climate, told much upon her health. In 
 February 1884 she nearly succumbed to a severe 
 attack of diphtheria, and during the whole remainder 
 of her stay in America, she suffered constantly from 
 headaches or from colds on her chest. 
 
 During the spring of 1884, Mrs. Joshee, as she 
 was now usually called, was asked to deliver a lecture 
 before one of the missionary societies on the subject 
 of " child marriage," and surprised and disappointed 
 her audience by speaking in terms of approval of the 
 custom. Her lecture raised quite a storm of con- 
 troversy, and no doubt alienated from her the sym- 
 pathy of a good many people, who could not under- 
 stand the position she took up on the subject. If 
 they had been better acquainted with the history of 
 her own life, and with the traditions among which 
 she had grown up, they might perhaps have been 
 able to judge her more leniently, and might have 
 felt able to offer her their sympathy in what she had 
 been able to accomplish, while at the same time re- 
 gretting that her emancipation from the thraldom of 
 custom was not more complete. 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 63 
 
 In 1885 Gopal Joshee arrived in America, but 
 his coming only proved what her friends had feared 
 it might do, a source of embarrassment to his wife. 
 He began talking and writing in a quite unaccount- 
 able manner, speaking slightingly of women and 
 their capacity for education, and, at the same time, 
 showing himself quite ready to take every advantage 
 of his wife's exertions, and of the kindness which her 
 friends showed him for her sake. His presence 
 added to his wife's difficulties in every way, and 
 his conduct and conversation were calculated to 
 strengthen the belief already held by many people, 
 that the average Hindu is not likely to be benefited 
 by visiting Europe or America, and that it will take 
 years of education and experience to counteract the 
 effects, on the minds of Indian men, of the belief in 
 their absolute superiority to women, in which they 
 have been trained for so many generations. 
 
 In March 1886, Anandibai Joshee took her degree 
 as Doctor of Medicine in Philadelphia. Eye-wit- 
 nesses describe the scene as a most striking one. The 
 brave Hindu woman was surrounded by many friends 
 and sympathisers, conspicuous among whom was 
 Eamabai, who had come over purposely from Eng- 
 land in order to be present on this occasion, which 
 was the first on which the degree of Doctor of 
 Medicine had ever been conferred on a Hindu 
 woman. It seemed, indeed, that a brilliant and useful 
 
64 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 career must now lie before this brave, patient woman, 
 and the compliments and congratulations and pre- 
 sents which were showered upon her, seemed only 
 as the forerunners of many assured successes. But 
 this was not to be. Mrs. Joshee' s health was already 
 very delicate, and during the visits that she paid 
 with her husband in the course of the summer, she 
 caught several severe chills, which fastened on her 
 lungs. It had been her intention to have passed 
 some time in practical work in the hospitals, espe- 
 cially the New England Hospital for Women and 
 Children, and the Block) ey Hospital at New York, 
 but a new direction was given to her plans, by the 
 offer of an appointment as resident physician to the 
 female ward of the new Albert Edward Hospital, 
 established at Kohlapur. The salary proposed was 
 Es. 300 a month, rising to Es. 400 or Es. 500, and 
 she was to be allowed to practise privately in her 
 spare time. Many considerations induced Mrs. 
 Joshee to accept this offer. She longed to be at 
 work, and to use her knowledge without delay for the 
 benefit of her countrywomen ; her health she felt was 
 failing, and she fancied that perhaps a return to 
 her native land might restore it, and to add to these, 
 there were family reasons which seemed to point to 
 the advisability of a speedy return to India. Mr. 
 Joshee had resigned his appointment in the Post 
 Office Department, and it was necessary that some- 
 
DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 65 
 
 one should undertake the care and support of his 
 mother and other near relatives. 
 
 Before, however, the final arrangements could be 
 made, Mrs. Joshee was taken very seriously ill, and it 
 became evident that she was suffering from consump- 
 tion, and that even with the greatest care her life could 
 not be prolonged many months. It was with aching 
 hearts that her American friends bade her good-bye, 
 feeling that they would never see her again. She and 
 her husband sailed from New York in October, and 
 after a painful voyage reached Bombay, where she 
 was received with much respect by people of all 
 classes. 
 
 The second Annual Keport of the National Associa- 
 tion for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the 
 Women of India contained the following allusion to 
 her : 
 
 " The committee take the opportunity of tendering 
 their congratulations to Mrs. Anandibai Joshee for 
 having so successfully taken her degree at the 
 Yeomans College at Philadelphia, in the United 
 States of America. Mrs. Anandibai Joshee, who is a 
 Maratha Brahmin lady, and a native of Kallian, 
 proceeded to America with her husband, matriculated 
 in October 1883, and entered upon the three years 
 course of medical instruction. After a few months 
 stay at the college she obtained a scholarship of 400 
 dollars. In March 1885 she presented herself for 
 
 5 
 
66 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIA.N WOMEN. 
 
 final examination in the fundamental branches, ana- 
 tomy, physiology, and chemistry, and passed these 
 examinations creditably, ranking eighth in her class, 
 which consisted of forty-two ladies. She has since 
 taken her degree, and has now returned to her 
 native country." 
 
 The above lines had hardly appeared in print 
 before Mrs. Joshee's career, which had given pro- 
 mise of so much usefulness, was brought sadly to a 
 close. 
 
 On her arrival in Bombay she had been received 
 with marked honour and respect, even by the Brah- 
 mans and Pundits, who it was expected would have 
 denounced her breach of caste rules in crossing the 
 " black water," and it must have been some consola- 
 tion to her, when she felt her strength and life ebbing 
 away, to know that her countrymen appreciated the 
 sacrifices she had made. She remained a short time 
 in Bombay and its neighbourhood, in order to get 
 the best medical advice, but the doctors there failed 
 to give her substantial relief, and it was determined 
 to move her to Poonah, in the hope that in her native 
 air she would revive. 
 
 There, in the house in which she had been born, 
 Anandibai Joshee passed the last few weeks of her 
 life. She was surrounded by all nearest and dearest 
 to her her mother, brother, sister, and grandmother 
 and everything that affection could suggest to 
 
DR. ANANDIBAI JOSHEB. 67 
 
 soothe her sufferings was given her. Daily inquiries 
 were made after her health by all the principal 
 people in the city, and her husband spared neither 
 time nor money in endeavouring to perform the cus- 
 tomary religious offices. Although they had both 
 lost caste by their visit to America, their offence was 
 not beyond redemption, as it would have been had 
 they, for instance, married out of their caste, and it 
 was possible to obtain forgiveness and restoration. 
 For this purpose Gopal Joshee offered sacrifices, per- 
 formed penance and paid a large sum of money, in 
 the hope that the vengeance of Heaven might be 
 averted and her life prolonged, or, at any rate, 
 that she might be restored to full caste privileges 
 and entitled to the last rites, without which 
 Hindus believe that future happiness cannot be 
 obtained. 
 
 Day by day Anandibai Joshee wasted away ; her 
 sufferings were terrible, but were borne without a 
 word either of complaint or impatience, and with a 
 cheerfulness that astonished those around her. It 
 was on the 27th February 1887 that the end came, 
 and that the brave, patient spirit of the young Hindu 
 woman was released from her suffering body. Her 
 death caused a feeling of profound sorrow, not only 
 in her own family circle, but throughout her native 
 city, as well as in the far-off country where she had 
 made so many true friends. According to Hindu 
 
 5 * 
 
68 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 custom, after death her body was bathed and 
 anointed, and then arrayed in her most beautiful 
 garments and ornaments ; it was publicly cremated, 
 the funeral pile being lighted from the sacred fire, 
 and all the ceremonials of an orthodox Hindu 
 funeral were observed by the priests. In one par- 
 ticular only was the ordinary custom departed 
 from ; for her ashes, instead of being consigned 
 to the Ganges or some other sacred river, were col- 
 lected by her husband, and sent over to America 
 to be buried there. 
 
 Thus closes the life-story of Anandibai Joshee. 
 Almost her last words, as she knew that the work 
 for which she had been preparing herself could 
 never be hers, were, " I have done all that I 
 could do." How few of those blessed with fuller 
 light and more ample advantages could honestly 
 say the same ! Yes, indeed, " she hath done 
 what she could " ; and are we not justified in be- 
 lieving that the Lord, who in these very words com- 
 mended the humble self-sacrifice of His Jewish 
 follower eighteen hundred years ago, will accept 
 and acknowledge the efforts of this brave Hindu 
 woman, even although in this life she did not attain 
 to the blessedness of knowing Him as the great 
 Physician of souls ? 
 
 She was not quite twenty-two when she died ; and 
 yet in her short life how much she had accomplished. 
 
DE. ANANDIBAI JOSHEE. 69 
 
 She sacrificed her life in the endeavour to bring help 
 and relief to her suffering fellow countrywomen, and 
 who shall dare to say that her sacrifice was in vain, 
 or that her early death may not stir others up to 
 follow in her footsteps, and so a rich harvest may 
 spring from the seed she sowed in love and hope and 
 patience ? 
 
70 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN, 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR, 
 
 AMONG the many illustrious visitors who caine to 
 England during the summer of 1887, to pay their 
 respects to our gracious Queen on the occasion of her 
 Jubilee, there were few who were received with more 
 marked attention by Her Majesty, or who attracted 
 more general interest and sympathy, than the Maha- 
 rajah and Maharani of Kuch Behar. 
 
 That these attentions were paid to them on per 
 sonal rather than on political grounds cannot be 
 doubted, for among the native Princes of India the 
 Maharajah of Kuch Behar holds but a very subordi- 
 nate position. 
 
 The fact that for the first time a ruling Indian 
 Prince had brought his wife to England and intro- 
 duced her into general society, was sufficient to 
 arouse genuine sympathy among those who under- 
 stood how great were the difficulties that lay in the 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 71 
 
 way of such a step, and what an important influence 
 it might possibly exert on the future of Indian women. 
 
 An additional interest was felt in the Maharani as 
 being the daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, who had 
 visited England some years previously, and who had 
 been known and respected by a large circle of culti- 
 vated Englishmen. 
 
 The story of the Maharani's life is so closely con- 
 nected with the most remarkable social and religious 
 movement that has taken place in India in modern 
 times, that it will be necessary to glance briefly at 
 the history of that movement. 
 
 Ever since the days when the first great tide of 
 Aryan invasion swept down from the highlands of 
 Central Asia, and drove the aboriginal inhabitants to 
 the hill fastnesses or the forest depths, the plains of 
 India have from time to time been the battle-ground 
 of opposing civilizations, though in almost every case 
 the ultimate victory has rested with the Brahmans. 
 If, on the one hand, the influence of Greek thought 
 may be faintly traced in Buddhism, there can, on 
 the other, be no doubt that the Greek philosophers 
 owed not a little to India ; and though the Maho- 
 metans established their empire in the very heart 
 of Hindoostan, their attempts at proselytism were 
 hardly successful, and the Mussalmans of India 
 have borrowed far more from the Hindus than 
 these latter have from their monotheistic conquerors 
 
72 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Once again a great contest is being waged between 
 two civilizations, between two schools of thought, 
 two philosophies of life and conduct. Here once 
 more have met two branches of the great Aryan race, 
 one still in the vigour of manhood, full of life and 
 abounding energy, furnished with all the newest dis- 
 coveries of science and philosophy; the other showing 
 signs of the decadence of age, and strong with the 
 strength of immutability rather than of life ; and it 
 seems hardly possible that in such a contest the 
 victory should again rest with the Brahmans. 
 
 The religion of the Hindus can boast an antiquity 
 little less, perhaps, than that of ancient Egypt, and 
 it can lay claim to a conservatism unequalled in any 
 other part of the world. The unchanging custom of 
 centuries has crystallized into social forms, which 
 may be destroyed, but can scarcely be modified, and 
 so closely bound up are the religious and social 
 systems, that an attempt to alter the one must 
 inevitably involve an attack upon the other. 
 
 The young Hindu who has studied under European 
 teachers, and imbibed something of Western ideas, 
 finds his belief in the religion of his fathers assailed 
 from every point. Physical science pronounces many 
 portions of the old-world system to be both grotesque 
 and impossible. History lets in a flood of light, 
 which reveals the hollowness and poverty of much 
 that had previously appeared noble and worthy of 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 73 
 
 reverence. The purer morality of the West makes 
 the student blush with shame at much that claims 
 divine sanction : a more robust philosophy sets him 
 free from the trammels of old-world ideas. He finds 
 himself drifting into a general attitude of doubt, if 
 not of scepticism : his faith in the religion of the 
 Brahmans is destroyed before he is prepared to accept 
 in its place the religion of Christ. 
 
 But the Indian mind is naturally a religious one, 
 to which free-thought or atheism in its hopeless self- 
 ishness is repugnant, and it clings to the hope that, 
 when stripped of the superstitious and degrading 
 accretions which have gathered round it in the course 
 of centuries, the religion of Brahma may yet be 
 found to contain something capable of satisfying the 
 heart without offending the intellect. 
 
 Such a via media many deem they have found in 
 the system of the Brahmo-Somaj. The word Somaj 
 means a society or association, so that it corresponds 
 very nearly to our word " Church," and its members 
 frequently speak of it as the Theistic Church of 
 India. This society or sect owes its origin to Eajah 
 Eammohun Roy, who founded it about the year 
 1828, with the object of reviving the primitive Hindu 
 religion. According to Professor Monier Williams, 
 " it ushered in the dawn of the greatest change that 
 has ever passed over the Hindu mind. A new phase 
 of the Hindu religion then took definite shape, which 
 
74 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 differed essentially from every other that had pre- 
 ceded it. No other reformation has resulted in the 
 same way from the influence of European education 
 and Christian ideas." 
 
 The following account of the movement was given 
 by Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, in one of his lectures 
 in England. " At first this Brahmo-Somaj, to which 
 I belong, was simply a Church for the worship of the 
 One True God, according to the doctrines and ritual 
 inculcated in the earliest Hindu Scriptures. The 
 members of the Brahmo-Somaj in its infancy were 
 simply revivalists, if I may so say. Their object was 
 to restore Hinduism to its primitive state of purity, 
 to do away with idolatry and superstition, and caste 
 if possible, and to declare once more throughout 
 the length and breadth of India the pure mono- 
 theistic worship prescribed in the Vedas, as opposed 
 to the idolatrous teaching of the later Hindu Scrip- 
 tures. The founder of the Brahmo-Somaj had for 
 his sole object the restoration of the primitive form 
 of Hindu Monotheism. By numerous quotations 
 from the Hindu Scriptures he succeeded in con- 
 vincing a large number of his misguided countrymen 
 that true Hinduism was not to be found in the later 
 Puranas, which taught idolatry and superstition, but 
 in the earlier books, which taught the worship of the 
 One True God." 
 
 By degrees, " after careful, honest, and dis- 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 75 
 
 passionate inquiries," it was discovered that even 
 the Vedas themselves could not be regarded as 
 containing nothing but pure truth, as they incul- 
 cated some of the worst forms of nature- worship and 
 some absurd doctrines and ritual ; so that the mem- 
 bers of the Brahmo-Somaj were forced to abandon 
 the position of a return to primitive doctrine, and to 
 take up that of pure Theists, acknowledging no in- 
 fallible teacher, no revealed standard of life or 
 doctrine. Naturally, divisions soon made themselves 
 apparent in a society thus constituted, and the 
 Brahmo-Somaj is now broken up into three sects, of 
 which, however, the most important is that which, 
 under the title of the " New Dispensation," main- 
 tains the principles and teaching of its founder, Babu 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, who is, without doubt, the most 
 remarkable figure in the history of modern Hinduism. 
 He belonged to a very good high-caste Brah- 
 man family in Bengal, the members of which had 
 been for several generations men of high character 
 and intellectual culture. His grandfather, Earn 
 Comal Sen, was the intimate friend of the well- 
 known Orientalist and Sanskrit scholar, Horace Hay- 
 man Wilson, and was respected and esteemed by a 
 large number of English gentlemen. Keshub Chun- 
 der Sen himself was born in 1838, and, being early 
 left an orphan, was sent by his uncle to an English 
 school, and afterwards completed his education at 
 
76 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 the Albert College in Calcutta. Early in his career 
 he had learnt to reject the worship of idols, and had 
 by degrees come to believe in one God ; he then 
 joined the Brahmo-Somaj, and before long became 
 the head of a reforming party in that society. It 
 seemed to him that even the Vedas contained teach- 
 ing which it was impossible to accept as of divine 
 authority, and he finally decided to reject them and 
 to maintain the theory that no special revelation was 
 needed to teach men about God, and that as a con- 
 sequence no such revelation had ever been made. 
 He adopted the doctrine of a divine guidance of the 
 faithful believing soul, and held that prayer, medi- 
 tation and spiritual worship were necessary to the 
 maintenance of the spiritual life; while gentleness, 
 self-denial and purity were requisite in order to bring 
 men into union with the Divine Spirit. 
 
 Like other theistic teachers, he was ready to ac- 
 knowledge the beauty of the life and example of 
 Christ, and the moral value of His teaching, but he 
 regarded Him as a mere man. Speaking of the 
 Bible, Keshub Chunder Sen said, " However proud 
 we may be of our own religious books, however great 
 the value which we may attach to those ancient 
 books inculcating the principles of pure theism be- 
 queathed by our fathers as a precious legacy, it is a 
 fact which must be admitted by all candid men, that 
 India cannot do without the Bible. India must read 
 
THE MAHAEANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 77 
 
 the Bible, for there are certain things in the Gospel 
 of Christ which are of great importance to my 
 country in the present transition stage through 
 which it is passing." 
 
 But the reformer did not stop here. He realised 
 that what was needed for the regeneration of India 
 was not merely a return to a purer and a more 
 elevating faith, but likewise a deliverance from the 
 degrading social customs which kept the whole, or at 
 any rate a large portion of the community bound 
 hand and foot. The discouragement of polygamy, 
 the education and enfranchisement of women, the 
 overthrow of caste, and the abolition of child-mar- 
 riage, were some of the reforms which seemed to him 
 the most imperative, and to these he devoted all his 
 energies with remarkable success. In 1870 Keshub 
 Chunder visited England, where he was received with 
 much kindness. He made a tour through the country, 
 speaking and lecturing on various religious and 
 social subjects, and awakening a great deal of in- 
 terest and sympathy among a large class of people, 
 and the Queen granted him a private interview. 
 
 In 1872 an Act was passed by the Government of 
 India legalizing marriages between persons who did 
 not belong to any of the recognized religions of the 
 country, and who did not wish to be married either 
 by Christian, Mahometan, or Hindu rites. This 
 measure was passed mainly in the interests of the 
 
78 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Brahmoists, and of others who, like them, had re- 
 jected idolatry without accepting Christianity. Per- 
 sons availing themselves of its provisions were 
 required to have attained years of discretion, the 
 age being fixed at eighteen for men and sixteen 
 for women ; and they were forbidden to indulge in 
 polygamy. The law thus dealt a serious blow at two 
 of the worst social evils, and was hailed by all the 
 enlightened members of the Hindu community as a 
 great step in advance, for which they were mainly 
 indebted to the unwearied efforts of Keshub Chunder 
 Sen. 
 
 Some years later, however, a great shock was 
 given to the feelings of the members of the Brahmo- 
 Somaj, by the announcement that their leader's 
 eldest daughter was about to be married to the 
 young Eajah of Kuch Behar. This prince was the 
 head of one of the most ancient royal families in 
 Bengal, which, however, had the disadvantage of 
 belonging to a low caste, the Sankoche Kettry caste. 
 He had succeeded his father as Eajah when only ten 
 months old, and during his minority his State had 
 been governed by the British Government, who had 
 also superintended his education. His early train- 
 ing was conducted under an English tutor at Patna, 
 and he subsequently attended lectures on Law at the 
 Presidency College in Calcutta ; but no attempt was 
 made to interfere with his religious belief, and at 
 
THE MAHABANI OF KUCH BEHAB. 79 
 
 sixteen years of age he was supposed to be still 
 attached to the faith of his fathers, that is, to 
 Hinduism in its modern corrupted form. 
 
 The Indian Government were desirous that, before 
 taking the management of his territories into his own 
 hands, he should visit England. But it was con- 
 sidered necessary by all his relations that before 
 starting on such a long and perilous journey he 
 should provide himself with a wife ; and it appeared 
 to his guardians that it would be advisable, both in 
 his own interests and in those of his subjects, to 
 bring about a marriage between him and the 
 daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen. The young lady 
 in question was not quite fourteen years of age, but 
 she had been carefully educated, and it might 
 reasonably be hoped that her influence and that of 
 her father would be most valuable in determining 
 the future development of the young prince and his 
 people. That the Brahmo leader was only a private 
 gentleman, while his proposed son-in-law was a sove- 
 reign prince, was no obstacle in the way, for the 
 former was a man of very high caste, and it would 
 be an act of condescension on his part, to allow his 
 daughter to marry the Eajah, to which his well- 
 known opinions on the subject of caste would be 
 likely to dispose him favourably. 
 
 But although to disinterested spectators the pro- 
 posed match seemed to offer advantages on both 
 
80 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 sides, it raised a storm of opposition among the 
 adherents of the Brahmo-Somaj. The principles 
 they professed with regard to caste prevented any 
 objections being raised on that ground, but they 
 vehemently opposed the project, both on the score of 
 the youth of the contracting parties and also on 
 that of the religion of the bridegroom. 
 
 With regard to the latter objection, Keshub 
 Chunder Sen and his friends maintained that the 
 Maharajah was in heart already a Brahmoist, and 
 that his youth, and the influence of his mother and 
 his grandmother, had alone prevented him from join- 
 ing the Theists, and that by this marriage he would 
 be firmly attached to the purer faith professed by his 
 wife. 
 
 The question of age was a more serious one, as it 
 could not be denied that the marriage would involve 
 a virtual surrender of the principle for which Keshub 
 Chunder had so strenuously contended, and would 
 be a serious bar to further progress in this direction. 
 It was, moreover, pointed out that, in consequence of 
 the bride and bridegroom not having attained the 
 legal age, the marriage could not be celebrated 
 according to Brahmo rites, as authorized by the Act 
 of 1872 ; that it would, in fact, be a purely Hindu 
 marriage, celebrated with all the idolatrous and 
 superstitious ceremonies commonly in use ; and, 
 further, that the bride would be deprived of the pro- 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 81 
 
 tection which would have been afforded to her had 
 she been married under the new law. Polygamy was 
 an immemorial custom in the Kuch Behar family, 
 and it was argued, with some show of reason, that 
 there would be no guarantee that the Maharajah 
 might not at some future time choose to follow the 
 fashion of his race. 
 
 It would be neither useful nor interesting to follow 
 into further detail the controversy on this subject, 
 or the mutual recriminations of the two factions. 
 Suffice it to say that the match was finally decided 
 upon, and in March 1878 Babu Keshub Chunder 
 Sen, accompanied by his brother and other members 
 of his family, escorted his daughter to Kuch Behar, 
 where the marriage was celebrated according to 
 Hindu rites. A protest had indeed been entered by 
 the bride's friends against the introduction of idola- 
 trous practices, but in spite of it some of the figures 
 and other objects usually worshipped on such occa- 
 sions were placed in the courtyard where the cere- 
 mony took place, and the " Homa," or fire sacrifice, 
 was performed in the presence of the bridegroom 
 after the bride had withdrawn to her own apart- 
 ments. 
 
 This latter ceremony, which forms an important 
 feature at orthodox Hindu weddings, is as follows. 
 The bride and bridegroom sit side by side before an 
 altar on which a fire is kindled, and "ghee," or 
 
 6 
 
82 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 clarified butter, is burnt as an offering to the gods. 
 Keshub Chunder Sen was greatly annoyed at the dis- 
 regard which had been paid to his wishes in this 
 matter, and he was further mortified at not being 
 allowed to perform the portion of the ceremony com- 
 monly allotted to the bride's father, on the ground 
 that he had lost caste by his visit to Europe. So 
 far, indeed, there seemed some reason to fear that 
 the prognostications of those who had opposed the 
 marriage were likely to be realised, and that instead 
 of redounding to the honour and glory of the Brahmo- 
 Somaj, the alliance would bring both its principles 
 and its leader into disrepute. Happily, however, the 
 young pair were not allowed to remain subject to the 
 retrograde influence of the palace. Very shortly after 
 the marriage the Maharajah set out on his journey to 
 England, and his wife returned to her father's house 
 in Calcutta, where her education was continued with 
 the object of preparing her in every way for the 
 important position she was to fill. 
 
 The dissensions in the Brahmo-Somaj still con- 
 tinued ; the party which had opposed the marriage 
 deposed Keshub Chunder Sen from his office as 
 minister, and when they found that public opinion 
 was too strong for them, they seceded and set up 
 a new sect for themselves, calling themselves the 
 Pro-Progressive Brahmoists. 
 
 Keshub Chunder himself never quite recovered 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 83 
 
 his former popularity among his countrymen, but he 
 continued to enjoy the confidence and esteem of his 
 English friends; and when, after his death, some 
 few years later, a public meeting was called for the 
 purpose of getting up a memorial to him, it was 
 attended by such a large number of influential per- 
 sons of all classes as testified to the sincere and 
 widespread respect in which he was held. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Maharajah had returned from 
 Europe and claimed his wife, and having attained 
 his majority in 1883, he took the administration of 
 his affairs into his own hands. 
 
 The State of Kuch Behar is situated in the north- 
 eastern corner of Bengal. It is surrounded on all 
 sides by British territory, and occupies an area of 
 about thirteen hundred square miles ; that is, about 
 the size of Kent, or Hampshire. It is a well-watered 
 plain, and the soil is fertile and well cultivated, the 
 general green of the fields being diversified here and 
 there by graceful clumps of bamboo or by the orchards 
 which surround the homestead of some substantial 
 farmer. The country is thickly populated, but there 
 is only one town, and hardly any villages, the dwell- 
 ings of the inhabitants being scattered over the 
 fields or grouped round the residence of some well- 
 to-do family. In former times a different state of 
 things must have prevailed, for the ruins are still to 
 be seen of two extensive walled cities ; but they are 
 
 6 * 
 
84 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 of very ancient date, and must have belonged to 
 a period long anterior to that of the present 
 dynasty. 
 
 Agriculture forms the occupation of almost the 
 entire population, rice, grain, and pulse of various 
 kinds being grown for food, and tobacco and jute for 
 exportation. The whole of the land belongs to the 
 Maharajah, the larger farmers being his tenants and 
 sub-letting the land to smaller cultivators, and there 
 are strict laws to prevent their exacting exhorbitant 
 rents. The Maharajah is virtually independent within 
 his own dominions, but he has an English official 
 adviser ; and were any very grievous abuses to arise 
 in his administration, the Indian Government would 
 doubtless interfere to put a stop to them, as it has 
 done in so many other cases. Under the rule of the 
 present Prince, however, there is no reason to fear 
 such a complication, for the good effect of his 
 English education is shown in the numerous im- 
 provements and reforms which he has introduced in 
 the administration of justice, the development of 
 public works, and the encouragement of educa- 
 tion. 
 
 The Maharajah himself is an excellent specimen of 
 an educated Hindu gentleman, and exemplifies the ease 
 with which a Bengali assimilates English customs and 
 ideas. On State occasions, when he wears his native 
 dress, adorned with pearls and diamonds of priceless 
 
THE MAHABANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 85 
 
 value, he looks the very picture of an Eastern 
 potentate, but otherwise he dresses like any ordinary 
 English gentleman, and there is nothing in his 
 speech or manner to betray that he is not one by 
 birth as by education. He has, moreover, imbibed 
 the true English love for sport and games of all 
 kinds, and he is not only a first-rate shot and polo- 
 player, but also an excellent dancer and an accom- 
 plished billiard-player. 
 
 Such, then, was the country, and such the Prince 
 to whom Keshub Chunder Sen gave his daughter. 
 
 The Maharani Sunity Devi was born in 1864, 
 being not quite fourteen at the time of her marriage, 
 and still almost a child in years when she entered 
 upon the duties of an exceptionally difficult posi- 
 tion. 
 
 " The fierce light which beats upon a throne " 
 often proves a great obstacle in the way of change 
 and reform. What is done and said by people in 
 high positions is known and commented on by 
 everyone, and there are none more trammelled by 
 custom, tradition and etiquette than sovereigns and 
 princes. It would have been comparatively easy for 
 the daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, as a private 
 lady, to set at naught the traditional prejudices which 
 condemn Hindu women to lives of seclusion and 
 idleness, but it was a very different thing for the 
 Maharani of Kuch Behar to attempt the same task.. 
 
86 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Although her husband had adopted many English 
 ways and ideas, the traditions of his family were very 
 strict, and public opinion in his dominions was by 
 no means prepared to welcome such an entire 
 revolution in the whole theory of social life, as was 
 implied in the enfranchisement of women ; while 
 there were plenty of critics ready to find fault with 
 each fresh step in the path of reform. 
 
 The Maharani herself was naturally of a somewhat 
 shy and yielding nature, and but little inclined to 
 set herself in opposition to the views of those by 
 whom she was surrounded. For some years, there- 
 fore, it seemed quite uncertain whether she would 
 make an effort to break through the barriers of 
 custom and go into English society, or whether she 
 would succumb to the influences constantly brought 
 to bear upon her and withdraw more and more into 
 seclusion. 
 
 When it was proposed that the Maharajah should 
 pay a second visit to England during the Jubilee 
 year, a question naturally arose as to whether the 
 Maharani should or should not accompany him. 
 The conservative party, which included many of 
 her own relatives, exerted their utmost influence to 
 deter the Maharani from going ; the reforming party, 
 together with her English friends, did their best to 
 persuade her to go, and ill the end they were success- 
 ful : and this decision may be considered as a turning- 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 87 
 
 point in her history as well as in that of Bengali 
 ladies in general. 
 
 The Maharajah and Maharani left India in April 
 1887, accompanied by their children and by the 
 Maharani's brother Mr. Sen, and they remained away 
 some months. During the summer they stayed in 
 London and paid some visits in the country, and 
 the Maharani was presented to the Queen at 
 Buckingham Palace. She was also received by the 
 Queen at Windsor, and treated most kindly by her 
 Majesty, who showed in every way possible her kindly 
 feelings towards the daughter of Keshub Chunder 
 Sen, as well as her appreciation of the courage and 
 good sense shown by the Maharani in making up her 
 mind to come to England. The fact of her under- 
 taking this journey implied a determination to break 
 decisively with the old traditional prejudices, and the 
 manner in which she was treated by our own gracious 
 Sovereign could not fail to have a great effect in 
 securing her position in society, both as regards Eng- 
 lish people in India and her own countrymen. There 
 could be no further ground for fearing that a lady 
 who had taken such a decided step, should ever 
 withdraw into the seclusion of the zenana, or succumb 
 in any serious degree to the influence of the re- 
 actionary party. 
 
 The Maharani returned to India in December 1887 
 with her children, the Prince following a couple of 
 
88 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 months later. During the cold season, or at least a 
 part of it, they live in Calcutta, occupying a fine 
 house in the suburb of Alipore^. Here they entertain 
 a great deal ; and their handsome reception-rooms are 
 furnished in every respect like those of an English 
 house. Those, however, occupied by themselves and 
 the members of their family are much more simply 
 furnished, and in the privacy of these apartments the 
 Maharani retains most of the ordinary social habits 
 of her country. While retaining a not unnatural 
 preference for the customs in which she has been 
 brought up, she shows a wonderful aptitude for 
 conforming to foreign ways when more advisable, and 
 as a hostess she is both popular and successful. Her 
 parties and receptions are crowded by English 
 people, but though a few members of the Brahmo- 
 Somaj may also be seen at them, native gentlemen 
 are as a rule conspicuous by their absence. 
 
 The explanation is not difficult to find. There are 
 still very few Indian gentlemen of good position who 
 have adopted in any degree the Western idea of allow- 
 ing free social intercourse between men and women. 
 Some of them have learnt that, it being the accepted 
 principle in European society, English ladies who 
 appear in public are only following the custom of 
 their race, and are therefore entitled to be treated 
 with respect, but they have not advanced sufficiently 
 to be able to apply the same principle to native 
 
THE MAHARANI OF KUCH BEHAR. 89 
 
 ladies. Still bound by prejudice and tradition, they 
 look upon the mixing of the two sexes in social 
 intercourse as a scandal, and regard the example 
 set by the Maharani as one to be avoided, not 
 followed. 
 
 On more than one occasion the Maharani has had 
 reason to complain of incivility from her own country- 
 men whom she has met at some official gathering, 
 and therefore it is not to be wondered at if she does 
 not invite them to her own house. 
 
 The above facts will no doubt surprise many, and 
 will perhaps make English people understand rather 
 better the sort of difficulties which beset the path of 
 social reformers in India, and which ought to enlist 
 our sympathy and respect for those who are brave 
 enough to face them. 
 
 The Maharajah and Maharani always spend some 
 months of the year at Kuch Behar, the capital of 
 their little territory, where they have a fine estate ; 
 but during the hot weather they usually follow the 
 example set them by English people, and go to the hills, 
 either to Darjiling or Simla, where they mix a good 
 deal in society. They keep up the native custom of 
 having many members of their family to live with 
 them, and their " house-party " is always a large one. 
 They have several children, of whom the youngest, 
 born soon after their return from England, is named 
 Victor in honour of Her Majesty. These children 
 
90 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 have English nurses and an English governess, and 
 will, no doubt, become still more completely angli- 
 cized than their parents. The Maharani speaks and 
 writes English perfectly, and shows a good deal of 
 the facility for acquiring foreign ways so character- 
 istic of the people of Bengal. She has not, indeed, 
 shown any very striking talent nor remarkable intel- 
 lectual ability, like some other Indian ladies, but if 
 she is not destined to help her countrywomen in that 
 particular way, her life may be as useful to them in 
 others. Her quickness, her gracious manner, her 
 ready tact, and her readiness to please and to be 
 pleased, have gained her many warm friends among 
 the English residents in India ; and the fact that there 
 is at least one Indian lady of high rank in whose 
 house English men and women are cordially welcomed, 
 cannot fail to be of great value in forwarding the 
 development of that freer social intercourse between 
 the two races, to which many people look as the 
 surest and happiest way of solving the difficult pro- 
 blems that must be dealt with ere long in India. 
 
91 
 
 V. 
 T O R U D U T T. 
 
 IT was a saying of the ancients that " those whom 
 the gods love die young," and, however we may inter- 
 pret it, it certainly seems as though some strange 
 fate was destined to cut off in their early prime those 
 whose youth has given promise of more than ordi- 
 nary achievement. Modern India has as yet pro- 
 duced but one real poetess, and she, alas ! is one 
 whose early promise has been buried in a premature 
 grave. 
 
 The story of the young Hindu girl's life is short 
 and sad. 
 
 Tarulatta Datta, or, as she is more commonly 
 called, Toru Dutt, was the youngest child of Babu 
 Govind Chunder Dutt, a Bengali gentleman of good 
 family, high character, and considerable attainments, 
 who was distinguished among his countrymen by 
 his broad-minded views on social questions, and by 
 his clear and vigorous intellect. He was a Chris- 
 
92 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 tian, and was well known and respected in Calcutta, 
 where he filled the position of a magistrate. In 
 Calcutta Toru Dutt was born in 1856, and, with the 
 exception of one year spent by the family in Bombay, 
 it was in Calcutta that her early life was passed. 
 
 From her childhood she enjoyed educational advan- 
 tages such as were very unusual in the case of Ben- 
 gali girls ; her father took great pains to instruct her 
 himself, and she and her sister Aru, who was two 
 years older than she was, both shared the English 
 lessons given to her brother Abjie by Babu Shib 
 Chunder Banerji, for whom she always entertained 
 a grateful affection, and who seems to have been the 
 first person to instil into her mind a love for the 
 study of English literature, together with the tho- 
 roughness of application so remarkable in her sub- 
 sequent studies. The stern, grand poetry of Milton 
 is hardly what one would expect to find as the chosen 
 study of young Indian girls, yet these two sisters 
 knew large portions of "Paradise Lost" by heart, 
 and apparently understood and appreciated it far 
 more thoroughly than most English girls of the 
 same age. In 1869 Babu Govind Dutt determined 
 to take his two daughters to Europe and to give 
 them the best education he could. His only boy had 
 died a short time previously, and he felt that the 
 hopes of his life now depended on his girls. They went 
 first to Nice, where for a few months the sisters 
 
TORU DUTT. 93 
 
 attended a pension and studied French under the 
 best masters. The whole family then came to Eng- 
 land, spending, however, a short time in Italy and 
 in Paris on their way. They remained in England 
 till the close of 1873, the girls continuing their edu- 
 cation the whole time. They attended some of the 
 then recently established lectures for women at 
 Cambridge, especially those of M. Bognel on French 
 Literature, and afterwards they went to lectures and 
 classes at St. Leonards, where they resided for some 
 time. 
 
 During their stay in Europe Toru Dutt kept a 
 careful journal, which is of extreme interest, as 
 showing the effect produced on the Indian girl's 
 mind by all she saw and heard around her in this 
 strange country. 
 
 The following extract from her diary is dated the 
 30th of January, 1871, 9 Sydney Place, Onslow 
 Square, London, S.W., and is of peculiar inte- 
 rest : 
 
 " How long it is since I last wrote in my journal ! 
 Alas ! what changes have taken place in France since 
 the last time I wrote ! When we were in Paris for 
 a few days, how beautiful it was ! What houses ! 
 What streets ! What a magnificent army ! But 
 now, how has she fallen ! She who was once first 
 among the cities, what misery does she not contain ! 
 Ever since the commencement of the war rny heart 
 
94 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 has been with the French, although I all along felt 
 certain of their defeat." 
 
 Although the Dutt family stayed so much longer 
 in England than in France, it was the latter country 
 evidently which seized most forcibly on the imagina- 
 tion of the girls, especially of Toru. The strange 
 contrast between the France of 1869, proud, joyous, 
 beautiful and queen-like, and the France of 1871, 
 conquered, blood-stained and distracted by internal 
 feuds, made a deep impression on her, awakening her 
 keenest sympathies and inspiring one of her most 
 original poems. 
 
 Not dead ; oh, no, she cannot die ! 
 
 Only a swoon from loss of blood. 
 Levite England passes her by ; 
 Help, Samaritan ! None is nigh 
 
 Who shall staunch me this sanguine flood. 
 
 Range the brown hair, it blinds her eyen ; 
 
 Dash cold water over her face ! 
 Drowned in her blood, she makes no sign. 
 Give her a draught of generous wine ! 
 
 None heed ; none hear to do this grace. 
 
 No ! she stirs ; there 's a fire in her glance. 
 
 'Ware, oh 'ware of that broken sword ! 
 What ! dare ye, for an hour's mischance 
 Gather around her, jeering France, 
 
 Attila's own exulting horde ? 
 
 Lo ! she stands up stands up e'en now, 
 
 Strong once more for the battle fray. 
 Gleams bright the star that from her brow 
 Lightens the world. Bow, nations, bow ! 
 
 Let her again lead on the way. 
 
TOEU DUTT. 95 
 
 After her return to Calcutta in November 1873, 
 Toru Dutt continued her French studies, and also 
 applied herself to the study of Sanskrit, under the 
 direction of her father, who also cultivated and en- 
 couraged her talent for writing in general and for 
 poetry in particular, and it was to his instructions 
 that she always ascribed her facility in the latter 
 branch of literature. 
 
 On their return to India, the Dutts once more 
 took up their abode in Calcutta, where they re- 
 sumed the quiet and retired life they had led before 
 their visit to Europe. 
 
 To those unacquainted with India it will no doubt 
 appear rather strange that a family who had been 
 so well received in England, and had been welcomed 
 in the most cultivated circles, should on their return 
 home have been so little noticed by the English 
 residents in Calcutta. It should, however, be re- 
 membered that fifteen years ago it was an exceed- 
 ingly rare thing for an Indian lady to wish to mix 
 in English society, or to possess the education that 
 would fit her for doing so ; and so it came to pass, not 
 unnaturally, that tha existence of two well-bred, well- 
 read girls like Toru Dutt and her sister, was not 
 even suspected by those who, if they had known it, 
 would have been only too well pleased to have made 
 friends with them. 
 
 So incredible, indeed, did it appear in those days 
 
96 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 that a Bengali lady should achieve literary distinc- 
 tion, that when Toru's first writings appeared it was 
 supposed that they were the work of some English 
 writer, and that Toru Dutt was simply a nom de 
 plume assumed for the occasion. 
 
 Her first appearance in print was in the Bengal 
 Magazine, to which she contributed an essa}^ on the 
 poetry of Le Conte de Lisle, a writer with whom she 
 was much in sympathy. He was a Creole, born in 
 the Mauritius, and, as we may judge from the follow- 
 ing extract from her article, she felt that in some 
 respects his case resembled her own. 
 
 " The faults generally attributed to all Asiatic or 
 half-caste poets, writing in the languages of Europe, 
 are weakness, languor, conventionalism, and imita- 
 tion. From most of these defects Le Conte de Lisle 
 was singularly free. He is wonderfully vigorous and 
 very often thoroughly original. Not only is he very 
 well read, not only has he meditated much, but he 
 has that gifted, poetic eye, which can seize at once, 
 and extract poetry from the meanest object." 
 
 This paper was followed before long by some trans- 
 lations of French verse into English, and by various 
 other essays in literary criticism, of which both the 
 style and the matter aroused the curiosity and inte- 
 rest of the readers of the magazine. 
 
 It was about this time, in the year 1874, that Aru 
 Dutt, the elder of the two sisters, died of consump- 
 
TORU DUTT. 97 
 
 tion. Although less original and less ambitious than 
 Toru, she was not less amiable, and she had equally 
 profited by the educational advantages she had en- 
 joyed. Both the sisters were good musicians. They 
 played well on the piano, and sang with much sweet- 
 ness, having good contralto voices. They kept up 
 their accomplishments, but at the same time they 
 did not disdain the more useful domestic duties 
 which, in Indian homes, are usually performed by 
 the ladies of the family ; and their father, writing 
 after their death, speaks with deep emotion of the 
 exemplary manner in which they discharged these 
 household duties. 
 
 In general society Toru shone more than her 
 sister, who was of a gentle, retiring disposition, and 
 inclined to keep in the background, while she listened 
 with sisterly pride and admiration to Toru's lively 
 and intelligent conversation. The younger sister had 
 a very remarkable memory, and could remember 
 every piece of poetry she had ever translated. She 
 read much and deeply, and whenever she met with a 
 difficult passage, she worked at it thoroughly, till 
 she had mastered not only its meaning, but its 
 bearing on the subject in hand. 
 
 Aru occasionally tried her hand at translation, but 
 her most decided talent was for drawing, and the 
 sisters' dream was to produce a novel, which one 
 should write and the other illustrate. 
 
 7 
 
98 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 Toru's first book appeared in 1876, and consisted 
 of a collection of lyrics translated from the French 
 poets. It was printed at Bhowanipore in Bengal, and 
 like the greater number of works hitherto published 
 in India, was badly printed, on poor paper, and had 
 nothing attractive about its appearance. From the 
 ordinary reading public, accustomed to find its poetry 
 enshrined in a prettily designed casket, this unin- 
 teresting-looking, paper-covered book, received but 
 scant attention. Fortunately, however, it fell into 
 the hands of a few more discriminating critics, who 
 bestowed upon it some well-deserved praise. 
 
 M. Andre Theuriot, the well-known French poet 
 and novelist, reviewed the poems favourably in the 
 Revue des Deux Mondes ; while in England they re- 
 ceived an appreciative notice from Mr. Edmund 
 Gosse in the Examiner. This gentleman, in a pre- 
 fatory note to one of Toru Dutt's later works, thus 
 describes the impression made on him by them. " It 
 was while Professor W. Minto was editor of the 
 Examiner, that one day in August 1876, in the very 
 heart of the dead season for books, I happened to be 
 in the office of that newspaper, and was upbraiding 
 the whole body of publishers for issuing no books 
 worth reviewing. At that moment the postman 
 brought in a thin, sallow packet, with a wonderful 
 Indian postmark on it, and containing a most un- 
 attractive orange pamphlet of verse, printed at 
 
TOBU DUTT. 99 
 
 Bhowanipore, and entitled A Sheaf gleaned in French 
 Fields. This shabby little book of some 200 pages, 
 without preface or introduction, seemed speedily 
 destined to find its way into the waste-paper basket. 
 I remember that Mr. Minto thrust it into my un- 
 willing hands, and said, ' Inhere, see whether you can 
 make something of that.' A hopeless volume it 
 seemed, with its queer type, printed at the Saptahik- 
 sambad Press. But when at last I took it out of my 
 pocket, what was my surprise, and almost rapture, to 
 open at such a verse as this 
 
 " Still barred thy doors. The far East glows, 
 
 The morning wind blows fresh and free ; 
 Should not the hour that wakes the rose 
 Awaken also thee. 
 
 " All look for thee, Love, Light and Song ; 
 
 Light in the sky, deep red above, 
 Song in the lark of pinions strong, 
 And in my heart true love." 
 
 Although Toru's first book is the least perfect and 
 polished of her literary productions, it is in some 
 respects the most interesting, revealing as it does 
 both her weakness and her strength. At every turn 
 we are met by instances of genius overcoming all 
 obstacles, and yet, in its turn, baffled by ignorance 
 and inexperience. It is little short of marvellous to 
 see the way in which the oriental mind adapts itself 
 to Western ideas, and expresses them with a purity 
 and a grace that leaves nothing to be desired ; while, 
 
 7 * 
 
100 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 on the other hand, we are constantly reminded that 
 she is writing in a foreign tongue, by some strange 
 ignoring of the rules of prosody, some quaint and 
 almost prosaic rendering of a poetic simile. 
 
 It would be impossible within the limits of so 
 short a sketch to do any justice to these poems, but 
 the following may serve as an example, and no doubt 
 expresses her own thoughts on her sister's early 
 death. The original is by Evariste Desforges de 
 Parny : 
 
 Though childhood's ways were past and gone, 
 
 More innocent no child could be ; 
 Though grace in every feature shone, 
 
 Her maiden heart was fancy free. 
 
 A few more months or happy days, 
 
 And love would blossom, so we thought, 
 
 As lifts in April's genial rays 
 
 The rose its clusters richly wrought. 
 
 But God had destined otherwise, 
 
 And so she gently fell asleep, 
 A creature of the starry skies, 
 
 Too lovely for the earth to keep. 
 
 She died in earliest womanhood; 
 
 Thus dies, and leaves behind no trace, 
 A bird's song in a leafy wood, 
 
 Thus melts a sweet smile from the'face. 
 
 To these poems there was affixed the following 
 short postscript : 
 
 " The author of these pages wishes to [add that 
 those signed ' A ' are the work of her dear and only 
 
TORU DUTT. 101 
 
 sister Am, who fell asleep in Jesus, 23rd July 1874, 
 at the early age of twenty. Had she lived, this book 
 might have been better than it is, and its author 
 might perhaps have had less occasion to crave the 
 indulgence of the reader. Alas, 
 
 " Of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
 The saddest is, It might have been ! " 
 
 Not the least remarkable portion of this book are 
 the notes. In them Toru Dutt gives short critical 
 notices of the various poets from whom she has trans- 
 lated ; her criticism showing sometimes a naive sim- 
 plicity that is very engaging, at others a keenness of 
 insight and a purity of taste which are truly admir- 
 able. In addition to these criticisms we find notes 
 on the occasions which called forth some of the 
 poems, explanations regarding the allusions to persons 
 and occurrences which they contain, and references 
 to other poets and writers. 
 
 Her acquaintance with French and English litera- 
 was something extraordinary ; very few English or 
 French women of twice her age can boast as much, 
 and when we consider that both were to her foreign 
 tongues, it is difficult to understand how she can 
 have found time for such a wide range of reading. 
 
 Most of her translations are from nineteenth cen- 
 tury poets, Victor Hugo himself being the chief 
 object of her admiration. In the note on his poems 
 she writes : " It would be absurd to make any com- 
 
102 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 ments on Victor Hugo. His name is among the 
 great ones of the earth. With Shakespeare, Milton, 
 Byron, Goethe, and Schiller, his place has been long 
 prepared in the Valhalla of the poets." 
 
 Her poetic imagination led her to place Victor 
 Hugo above Lamartine, although she was quite 
 ready to acknowledge the moral superiority of the 
 latter. 
 
 " In fancy, in imagination, in brilliancy, in 
 grandeur, in style, in all that makes a poet, he 
 must yield to Victor Hugo : in purity he yields to 
 none. His mind is essentially religious. He never 
 forgot what he learned at his mother's knee." 
 
 Toru Dutt's first collection of poems was prefaced 
 by a dedicatory poem to her mother, translated from 
 Xavier Labenski. A copy of the first edition of the 
 Sheaf gleaned in French Fields, in the dull orange 
 paper cover, is in the British Museum, and bears on 
 its fly-leaf the following inscription in the authoress's 
 handwriting : 
 
 Au Chevalier de Chaletain, k 1'elegant traducfceur de Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Hommage de la traductrice, Toru Dutt. 29 Mars 1876. Calcutta. 
 12, Manicktollah Street. 
 
 Very soon after the publication of her first book 
 Toru Dutt's health began to fail. Her father, whose 
 parental anxiety was quickened by the loss of his 
 two other children, imagined that she had been 
 
TORU DUTT. 108 
 
 overworking herself, and that her studies were too 
 much for her. He, therefore, insisted on her giving 
 up her Sanskrit, which she did most reluctantly, for 
 it was her favourite study, and doubly dear to her 
 because in it her father was her companion and her 
 instructor. For a few weeks it seemed as though 
 rest were doing her good, but before long it became 
 only too evident that the insidious disease which had 
 carried off her sister had already seized her in its 
 fatal grasp. As her bodily strength declined her 
 mind seemed to gain in activity; her longing to 
 write became more and more feverish. The more 
 she realised that her life could be but a short one, 
 the more eager did she become to achieve some 
 literary success. 
 
 About a year before her death she became ac- 
 quainted with a book which struck her much. It 
 was La Femme dans VInde Ancienne, by Mdlle. 
 Clarisse Bader, and she instantly conceived a strong 
 desire to translate it. She wrote to the authoress, 
 asking her permission to do so, sending her at the 
 same time a copy of her " Sheaf." In her letter 
 she described herself as " une femme de 1'Inde 
 moderne." 
 
 To this Mdlle. Bader replied promptly : " Eh quoi? 
 C'est une descendante de mes cheres heroines indi- 
 ennes, qui desire traduire le livre que j'ai consacre aux 
 antiques Aryennes de la presqu'ile gangetique ! Un 
 
104 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 eemblable vceu, emanant d'une telle source, me touche 
 trop profondement pour que je ne 1'exauce pas. 
 Traduisez done * La Femme dans Flnde Antique,' 
 Mademoiselle. Je vous y autorise de tout mon coeur, 
 et j'y appelle de tous mes voeux sympathiques le 
 succes de votre entreprise. . . . Vous etes chretienne, 
 Mademoiselle ; votre livre me le dit. Et en verite 
 votre role nous permets de benir une fois de plus la 
 divine religion, qui a permis a une Indienne de de- 
 velopper et de manifester cette valeur individuelle 
 que le brahminisme enchaina trop souvent chez la 
 femme." 
 
 In writing to acknowledge the permission thus 
 generously granted to her, Toru Dutt told her new 
 friend of her own bad state of health, and how 
 greatly it interfered with the pursuit of her studies. 
 She mentioned that her father proposed taking her 
 to Europe again, so as to consult some eminent 
 physician, and in the hope that a drier and more 
 bracing air than that of Bengal might perhaps check 
 the disease, or, at any rate, give her strength to 
 battle against it. With this letter she sent her 
 -photograph and some of her translations from the 
 Sanskrit. A month later she wrote again, from her 
 bed, to which she was then confined by very severe 
 illness and great pain. Yet, with the hopefulness so 
 characteristic of persons suffering from consump- 
 tion, she still looked forward to recovery, and 
 
TOBU DUTT. 105 
 
 hailed every slight rally as a permanent improve- 
 ment. 
 
 But it was not to be, and on August 30, 1877, 
 she passed away. Her father's account of her last 
 days is very touching: "It is only physical pain 
 "which makes me cry," said she to the doctor who 
 was attending her. " My spirit is in peace. I know 
 in whom I have believed." "Never," writes the 
 bereaved father, " was there a sweeter child, and she 
 was my last. I and my wife in our old age are left 
 alone in a house wide and desolate, where of old the 
 voices of my three loved children echoed. But we 
 are not forsaken. I think I can see dimly that there 
 is a fitness, a preparation, required for the life 
 beyond, which they had and I have not. One day 
 I shall see it all clearly. Blessed be the Lord : His 
 will be done." 
 
 When the first bitterness of his loss had passed, 
 Toru Dutt's father found a sad consolation in exa- 
 mining the mass of papers which his gifted daughter 
 had left behind her, and in preparing some of them 
 for the, press. 
 
 A new edition of the Sheaf gleaned in French Fields 
 was prefaced by a short biographical notice of the 
 young poetess, and with its good paper, printing, 
 and binding, formed a handsome volume, which was 
 enhanced in value by the photograph of the two 
 sisters, which forms its frontispiece. But to many 
 
106 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 of Toru Dutt's admirers, the little insignificant 
 orange pamphlet has a greater charm. 
 
 Among the many poems which Babu Chunder 
 Dutt now found were a number of ballads, embody- 
 ing stories and legends of ancient India. It appears 
 that she had intended to write a series of nine such 
 ballads, but of the projected series two were missing, 
 so it was determined to fill up the blanks with two 
 translations of stories from the Vishnupurana, which 
 had already been printed in the Calcutta Review 
 and in the Bengal Magazine respectively. These, 
 though valuable as her first attempts at rendering 
 Sanskrit tales into English verse, are very inferior 
 both in form and finish to the ballads. These latter 
 are written in octosyllabic verse, and may be re- 
 garded as the most original and, at the same time, 
 the most successful of all her literary productions. 
 Though the medium in which she expresses them is- 
 still foreign, the ideas, the traditions, and the 
 memories are those of her own country and her own 
 people, and they have a vigour, a freshness, and a 
 charm which can never be infused into a mere 
 translation. The historic Ballads and Legends of 
 Hindustan are too long for quotation here, and no 
 fragment would give an adequate idea of them. But 
 we give here a few stanzas from a poem included 
 with some others in the same volumes, which will 
 enable our readers to judge of the advance Toru 
 
TORU DUTT. 107 
 
 Dutt had made since the publication of her French 
 " Sheaf." 
 
 It is addressed to the " Casuarena Tree," a tall, 
 graceful tree which grows very freely in Calcutta and 
 its neighbourhood. 
 
 But not because of its magnificence 
 
 Deai- is the Casuarena to my soul. 
 
 Beneath it we have played ; though years may roll, 
 
 sweet companions, loved with love intense, 
 For your dear sakes shall the tree be ever dear ; 
 Blest with your images it shall arise 
 
 In memory, till the hot tears blind my eyes. 
 
 What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear, 
 Like the sea breaking on a shingle beach ? 
 It is the tree's lament, an eerie speech, 
 That haply to the unknown land may reach 
 
 Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith. 
 Ah ! I have heard that wail, far, far away 
 In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay, 
 When slumbered in his cave the water-wraith, 
 
 And the waves gently kissed the classic shore 
 Of France or Italy beneath the moon, 
 When earth lay tranced in a dreamless swoon ; 
 And every time the music rose, a form sublime, 
 Thy form, tree, as in my happy prime, 
 
 1 saw thee in my own loved native clime. 
 
 In addition to all these poems and translations, 
 Toru Dutt left behind the MS. of a French novel 
 entitled Le Journal de Mdlle. D'Arvers. 
 
 Both the sisters had been great novel -readers. 
 We may wonder how they found time for reading 
 novels, considering how much else they read in their 
 
108 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 short lives, but so it was. A story is told of an 
 English gentleman having paid them a visit in Cal- 
 cutta, and asking them what were their favourite 
 books. 
 
 " Oh ! novels, of course," replied the younger 
 sister, who was almost always the spokeswoman. 
 
 " Novels ! " exclaimed their visitor ; "I am sorry 
 to hear that. You should read history." 
 
 " Oh, no ! " was the answer ; " for history is false, 
 but novels are true." 
 
 It was truth of thought, of life and character, 
 which these Bengali girls sought after ; not the bare 
 dry facts of history. What fairy tales are to 
 children, novels were to these young women; and, 
 as we have already said, the dream of their joint 
 lives was to produce a novel themselves. 
 
 Whether the Journal de Mdlle. D'Arvers had taken 
 shape in Toru's mind before her sister's death is 
 uncertain, but it seems more probable that it was of 
 later date. 
 
 The choice of the subject was certainly a singular 
 one. The life, the thoughts, and love experiences of 
 a young French girl of good family, could only have 
 been known to Toru Dutt by the mysterious intuition 
 of imagination and sympathy, and though no one 
 would pretend that the attempt to portray them has 
 entirely succeeded, yet it is a proof of the real genius 
 of the authoress that it should not have signally failed. 
 
TORU DUTT. 109 
 
 The domestic conditions portrayed in the story are 
 those of an English rather than of a French home, 
 and there are not wanting, here and there, touches 
 which betray the oriental cast of the writer's mind. 
 The hero, for instance, is described as tall and thin, 
 with coal-black hair, and black liquid eyes, the 
 typical characteristics of a young Bengali, while he 
 is said to have had a fair complexion, which showed 
 his high birth. To a European mind the latter 
 expression is absurd and meaningless, but it would 
 come quite naturally to a native of India, where the 
 higher classes have almost always fairer complexions 
 than the lower classes. 
 
 The manuscript as left by Toru Dutt was complete 
 so far as the story was concerned, but it required 
 careful editing before it could be sent to the press, 
 and this work was cheerfully undertaken by Ma- 
 demoiselle Bader, whose introduction to the book 
 is full of sympathetic and generous appreciation. 
 
 The story is told in the form of a journal, supposed 
 to have been written by Mademoiselle D'Arvers. She 
 begins to write her journal when she returns to her 
 home from the convent in which she has been edu- 
 cated, and depicts the very natural conflict of feelings 
 which fills her mind. Her joy at returning to her 
 parents and the pleasure she anticipates from mixing 
 in society being mingled with regret at quitting the 
 convent in which she has passed some happy years, 
 
110 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 and at parting from her friends and school-fellows. 
 Soon, however, the pleasures and interests of her 
 new life make her forget her regrets, as she finds 
 herself surrounded by all that adoring parents can 
 give their only child, and the admiration which her 
 beauty excites in everyone is received with a charm- 
 ing naivete and simplicity. 
 
 An excellent young man, whom her parents have 
 long fixed on as her future husband, comes to stay at 
 the house; but though she appreciates his good 
 qualities and is quite ready to make friends with 
 him, he fails to touch her heart, which is captivated 
 almost at once by the young owner of the neighbour- 
 ing chateau. 
 
 Seeing that her affection is returned, the parents, 
 with some regret, relinquish their cherished project 
 and consent to her betrothal with the man of her 
 choice, and it seems as though for once the course of 
 true love were destined to run smooth. But a 
 terrible storm is at hand. Mademoiselle D'Arvers is 
 loved not only by the man she loves, but by his 
 brother Gaston also. The discovery of this puts the 
 elder brother into a fury, which passes into a fit of 
 temporary insanity, in which he kills his brother. 
 No sooner has he fired the fatal shot than his 
 madness leaves him, and in bitterest shame and 
 remorse he gives himself up to justice. He is 
 tried and condemned, but while awaiting his 
 
TOEU DTJTT. Ill 
 
 punishment, the insanity returns and he com- 
 mits suicide. 
 
 His unhappy fiance is crushed to the earth, feeling 
 most bitterly the humiliation of having been the 
 innocent cause of two men's death, whereby their 
 widowed mother is left desolate. By degrees her 
 affection for her parents and her religious faith 
 enable her to rouse herself from the state of pros- 
 tration and dejection consequent on the tragedy, and 
 she accepts somewhat reluctantly her mother's sug- 
 gestion, that, having wrecked the lives of two men 
 who loved her, it is her duty to do her best to make 
 the third one happy. 
 
 So the faithful, patient lover is at last rewarded, 
 and there appears a prospect of happiness for him 
 and his bride. But the terrible tragedy in which she 
 has played a part has shattered her constitution, and 
 just as she is beginning to rest happily in her hus- 
 band's love, she droops and dies. 
 
 As will be seen from this short sketch, the concep- 
 tion is very crude, and the story is full of glaring 
 improbabilities. But in spite of these defects, in 
 spite of the unnecessarily tragic features, the story 
 is not an unpleasant one, and gives ample evidence 
 both of imagination and of knowledge of human 
 nature, as well as of the pure and spiritual nature of 
 the authoress which she reproduces in her heroine. 
 
 Sad, indeed, it is to think that such a gifted nature 
 
112 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 should have been thus early cut off, and that its rich 
 promise of fruit should have been blighted before 
 time and experience had matured it. It has been 
 the case in all countries and in all times, but per- 
 haps the modern educated native of India is pecu- 
 liarly exposed to the danger. The premature 
 development of both mind and body does not seem 
 to be accompanied by that physical health which can 
 alone make great mental cultivation really safe, and 
 in too many cases the bodily frame is worn out in a 
 few years, and hopes of future achievements are 
 buried in an early grave. The danger, no doubt, is 
 increased for those who go to England or America, 
 and the damp cold of these countries has cost us 
 more than one life that seemed destined to play a 
 noble part in the work of regenerating Indian 
 society. Yet, perhaps, as we mourn these early 
 deaths, these gifted women taken from us, as we 
 think, all too soon, we may be at fault, and that for 
 them as well as for their country the poets words, 
 may be true 
 
 The fairest gift that life can give 
 Is to die young. 
 
113 
 
 VI. 
 CORNELIA SORABJI 
 
 ONE of the reasons which make it so difficult for 
 people who have not closely studied the history of 
 India to understand the intricate and delicate pro- 
 blems which are constantly presenting themselves in 
 regard to its modern development, is that there are 
 so many different races in the country, each per- 
 fectly distinct, with its own religion, language, and 
 traditions, and with no special bond of sympathy or 
 patriotism to draw them all together. 
 
 Of these various nationalities, the smallest nume- 
 rically, though by no means the least interesting, is 
 that of the Parsis. They are found scattered over 
 various parts of Upper India, but chiefly in the 
 Western Presidency, and by far the larger proportion 
 of them live in the city of Bombay itself, where they 
 form the richest and most influential portion of the 
 inhabitants. Their position in India may in many 
 respects be said to be analogous to that of the Jews 
 
 8 
 
114 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 in western Europe. Like them they have lived for 
 centuries as exiles and aliens in a foreign land, keep- 
 ing themselves distinct from the people among whom 
 they dwelt, in their religion, their dress, and their 
 social customs, and seldom intermarrying with them. 
 Like them they have distinguished themselves by 
 their aptitude for business, their enterprise, and their 
 commercial prosperity, as well as by their loyalty to 
 the Government of the country, although, like the 
 Jews, the Parsis are seldom if ever to be found in 
 the ranks of the army. 
 
 As their name signifies, the Parsis came origi- 
 nally from Persia, and belong to the Iranian branch 
 of the Aryan family. The inhabitants of Persia, 
 in course of time, had corrupted the primeval 
 faith of their forefathers, and had sunk into gross 
 idolatry, when, according to tradition, about the 
 year B.C. 1200, Zoroaster began to preach and to 
 lead them back to a purer and true form of reli- 
 gion. His doctrines spread widely, and from that 
 time the Persians remained monotheists, worshipping 
 the Creator of the Universe under the outward sym- 
 bols of fire and light. During the seventh century 
 of our era the country was conquered by the Sara- 
 cens, who, being Mahomedans, forced the adoption of 
 their religion on all those they overcame, and spread 
 it with fire and sword. Although the Persians had 
 as a nation sunk into a condition of great effeminacy, 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 115 
 
 and were unable to offer any serious resistance to 
 their fierce invaders, a nobler spirit still breathed in 
 some parts of the country, where the inhabitants, who 
 were chiefly engaged in agricultural and pastoral 
 pursuits, inherited some of the indomitable courage 
 and patience of their forefathers. Kather than ac- 
 cept the faith of the Saracens, which they looked on 
 as idolatrous, these people submitted to the most cruel 
 and unceasing persecution. They were driven from one 
 part of the country to another, until at last, despair- 
 ing of ever being able to remain in peace in their 
 native land, a remnant of them took ship and sailed 
 to India, where they landed on the western coast. 
 Here they were kindly received by the people, and 
 the rajah or prince of the place gave them permis- 
 sion to settle, and to exercise their religion without 
 molestation. During the thousand years that have 
 passed since their arrival in India, their history has 
 been very uneventful. When Timur invaded Northern 
 India, people called Magians are enumerated among 
 his prisoners, from which we may infer that the dis- 
 ciples of Zoroaster had already made their way into 
 the Punjab. Gradually the Parsis abandoned the 
 agricultural pursuits which had occupied them on 
 their first arrival, and, flocking to the towns and 
 cities, devoted themselves to commerce. 
 
 When the English became masters of Bombay and 
 of Surat, they found the Parsis established in both 
 
 8 * 
 
116 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 places, and carrying on business as merchants, 
 bankers, and ship-builders ; and since that time they 
 have continued to flourish exceedingly, although it 
 would appear from the census returns that their 
 number is not increasing. In 1841 there were 
 114,000 Parsis in India, while in 1881 the number 
 was given as only 85,000. 
 
 As we have already said, the religion of Zoroaster, 
 which is still professed by the Parsis, is essentially 
 monotheistic. Dr. Haug, who is the great authority 
 on the subject, writes as follows : " The leading 
 idea of Zoroaster's theology was monotheism : that 
 there are not many gods, but only one. The prin- 
 ciple of his speculative philosophy was dualism, 
 the supposition of two primeval causes of the real 
 world and of the intellectual ; while his moral 
 philosophy was moving in the triad of thought, word, 
 and deed." The Creator of the Universe is wor- 
 shipped under the name of Hormazd, or Ahrima 
 Mazda; while, according to the Parsi Scriptures, 
 there are working in subjection to the Supreme 
 Being two causes or principles, by whose agency he 
 is the Causer of all causes, the Creator and Destroyer 
 of all things. These two principles are Spento 
 Mainyush, the increasing or Creating Spirit, and 
 Angro Mainyush, the decreasing or Destroying Spirit. 
 And these two are ever at work, and have been from 
 all eternity, acting and counteracting on each other, 
 
COENELIA SOBABJI. 117 
 
 but both in subjection to Him who is at once 
 the Lord of Life and Death, of Light and of 
 Darkness. 
 
 In addition to these, Parsi theology acknowledges 
 six immortal spirits or benefactors, who preside 
 severally over the vital faculty; light and bright- 
 ness ; rule, power, and wealth ; piety and obedience ; 
 prosperity ; and immortality. The idea of a future 
 life and of the resurrection of the body distinctly 
 pervades the sacred books, both the earlier and the 
 later ones alike. 
 
 The most ancient of these books are the Zend- 
 Avesta, which contain the main principles and 
 outlines of the Parsi religion, and which are written 
 in a language allied to, but distinct from, Sanskrit. 
 The later books are written in Pehlevi, which belongs 
 to the Iranian group of languages, and these are 
 frequently written in the Gujerati character, it being 
 in Gujerat that the Par sis first found a home in 
 India. It is in these latter books that the details 
 relating to religious ceremonies and customs must be 
 sought. Pehlevi is the language used on all re- 
 ligious occasions, the daily prayers of the Parsis 
 being said in this tongue, although it is to the 
 greater number of them quite unknown, so that they 
 repeat their prayers as a sacred duty, but with little 
 or no comprehension of the words they are using. 
 
 The Zoroastrians are frequently spoken of as being 
 
118 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 worshippers of Fire and of the Sun, but it seems 
 clear that this is not really part of their religion. 
 " God, according to the Parsis, is the embodiment of 
 glory, refulgence, and light, and a Parsi engaged in 
 prayer is directed to stand before fire, or with face to 
 the sun, as proper symbols of the Almighty. Fire is 
 the best and noblest representative of the Divinity, 
 in its brightness, activity, purity, and incorrupti- 
 bility ; while the sun is the best and most useful of 
 God's creation." 
 
 Fire, then, is worshipped only, if at all, as the 
 representative of Him who is Himself Eternal Light, 
 and as such the practice is very ancient among 
 Aryan nations. 
 
 The principles of the Parsi religion, as sketched 
 above, are those which may fairly be deduced from 
 their sacred books, and such as are held by the most 
 enlightened and cultivated members of their com- 
 munity. But, like other religions, the beliefs actually 
 held by the more ignorant have become much cor- 
 rupted and debased. 
 
 In order to avoid persecution from their neigh- 
 bours, the Parsis at one time or another adopted 
 many Hindu customs ; they neglected the study of 
 their sacred books, and, as a natural consequence, 
 their religion became corrupted and almost idola- 
 trous. The vulgar and unlearned ceased to see in 
 fire only the symbol of Divine Light, and adored the 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 119 
 
 visible flame, as well as the sun, moon, and stars. 
 They even lost sight of the truth that there was but 
 one God, and worshipped two spirits, one good and 
 one evil, whom they believed to be contending for the 
 dominion of the universe. In fact, like Brahminism, 
 Buddhism, and even Christianity itself, the religion 
 of Zoroaster has been greatly perverted by his fol- 
 lowers, and it would be unfair to judge its real 
 teachings by the beliefs held by its more ignorant 
 professors. Its real superiority to the other re- 
 ligions of India may, however, be gathered from its 
 effect on the people who profess it. The Parsis are 
 distinguished from both Hindus and Mahomedans by 
 their general good conduct and their high standard 
 of morality, as well as by their general healthiness. 
 Their average mortality is singularly low, especially 
 among the children. Their women occupy a far 
 more honourable and independent position than 
 either Hindu or Mahomedan women, and are uni- 
 versally allowed to be both good wives and good 
 mothers. They are not kept in seclusion, but drive 
 about in open carriages, with their faces uncovered, 
 wearing white shawls or sarees over their heads, and 
 a great deal of jewellery. The men wear a white or 
 black coat and white trousers, and a dark turban or 
 cap of a peculiar shape. 
 
 The Parsis seem to have inherited that charac- 
 teristic of their Persian forefathers which so struck 
 
120 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 the Greeks, namely, the facility for adapting them- 
 selves to foreign manners and customs ; and they are 
 decidedly the most Europeanized of any of the 
 Asiatic inhabitants of India. In one particular, 
 however, they cling steadfastly to their national 
 custom, namely, with regard to the disposal of their 
 dead. These they neither hury nor burn, but expose 
 them, uncoffined, at the top of high towers, where 
 they are devoured by the birds. This custom appears 
 to us both unnatural and disgusting, but is de- 
 fended by them as being the best possible, because 
 the speediest, way of disposing of the dead bodies, 
 and as wise on sanitary grounds. Cremation, which 
 is frequently recommended on this latter ground, 
 they object to from religious scruples, Zoroaster 
 having taught that fire was too sacred a thing to be 
 profaned by a dead body. 
 
 The towers on which the bodies are exposed are 
 called Towers of Silence, and are, some of them, of 
 a great height. The highest at Bombay is over 
 ninety feet. It is considered a very meritorious 
 act to build such a tower, and the completion of 
 one is usually made the subject of a general 
 rejoicing. 
 
 It is frequently claimed for the Parsis, by their 
 own writers, that they are a very tolerant people, and 
 that while they have proved their fidelity to their own 
 faith even to the death, they have never persecuted 
 
CORNELIA SOBABJI. 121 
 
 or ill-used members of other religions. It should, 
 however, be remembered that almost all religious 
 systems have been tolerant while they were them- 
 selves in a minority, and that the era of persecuting 
 intolerance has been that of power, so that the Parsis 
 have never really been in a position to exercise into- 
 lerance. It is, however, notorious that they do not 
 view with indifference the conversion of any members 
 of their own body to Christianity, and that a Parsi 
 who desires to throw in his lot with the Christians 
 must expect as many difficulties and troubles as 
 though he were a Mahomedan or a Hindu. 
 
 A very well-known instance of this occurred in the 
 case of the Kev. Sorabji Kharsedji, how a missionary 
 of the Church Missionary Society at Poona. He was 
 brought up strictly as a Parsi, but while pursuing his 
 school studies he became acquainted with the Bible, 
 which he read diligently and devoutly. The pure un- 
 selfish morality which he found there greatly at- 
 tracted him, and his heart answered to the idea of a 
 mediator and a Saviour as set forth in the New 
 Testament. In some of his own sacred books he had 
 found a dim echo of Isaiah's prophecy that a deli- 
 verer should arise, who would subdue all evil and 
 save his people from their sins, but the religious 
 system of the Parsis offered him no such friend. 
 Gladly, therefore, he accepted the truth as revealed 
 in Christ, and with a willing and teachable heart he 
 
122 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 listened to the missionaries. At last he professed 
 himself a Christian. At once there burst upon him 
 such a storm of opposition as can be but faintly 
 realised by us who live in a Christian land. In the 
 graphic and touching words of one of his daughters, 
 " Imprisonment, desertion, stoning, were the least he 
 had to suffer. They sent him out oar-less and rudder- 
 less to sea, in a tiny boat once, hoping he would be 
 drowned, and added to all, of course, was the wrath 
 of his people ; his father and his uncle disinherited 
 him, and his mother died of a broken heart." But 
 the faith of the young convert was proof even 
 against such attacks as these ; the grief and anger 
 of his parents moved him no more than the perse- 
 cution and cruelty of the priests, and the existence 
 of British justice in the country prevented them from 
 carrying their opposition further. As soon as he had 
 attained the necessary age Mr. Sorabji was ordained, 
 and henceforth devoted his life to the work of the 
 Church Missionary Society. His labours have been 
 greatly blessed, both as a teacher and a preacher, 
 though, perhaps, his most important work has been 
 done with the pen. He is a member of the Committee 
 for translating the Bible into Gujerati, and has also 
 published a work on Zoroastrianism and Christianity. 
 In this book he not only shows how inferior is the 
 religion of the Parsis to that of the Christians, but 
 also shows good ground for denying that the Zend 
 
CORNELIA SOBABJI. 
 
 Avesta is at all as ancient as it claims to be, or that 
 it is in any real sense the work of Zoroaster. 
 
 Mr. Sorabji married a Hindu convert to Chris- 
 tianity, and together they both laboured at Nassick, 
 where they are still remembered and welcomed with 
 affection, and where most of their children were born. 
 
 Mrs. Sorabji herself is a woman of rare intel- 
 lectual power, allied to a force of character and a 
 spiritual charm such as are seldom to be met with. 
 As six daughters were born to her one after another, 
 her neighbours gathered round her to condole with 
 her, because that no son had come to redeem the 
 family. According to Indian ideas a woman's hope 
 of happiness, on earth or after death, depends upon 
 her being the mother of a son, so that the birth of 
 daughters can only be considered a trouble and a 
 disgrace. But Mrs. Sorabji thought otherwise ; 
 already she had grasped the idea that the salvation 
 and regeneration of Indian society should be wrought 
 by its women, and she gazed proudly on her little 
 flock, and counted them all as sons. 
 
 The fifth daughter, born at Nassick in 1866, 
 received the name of Cornelia. Soon after her birth 
 her parents removed farther south, and the child's 
 first reminiscences are associated with a very lovely 
 place in the Dekkan. There many happy years were 
 spent, the early lessons being made delightful to the 
 children by the mother's sweet and imaginative teach- 
 
124 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 ing. There were no kindergartens in India in those 
 days, but the little Sorabjis had a sort of kinder- 
 garten of their own. " We learnt to sing our letters," 
 writes Cornelia, " to tunes mother made for them, 
 and to the names of our friends and acquaintances. 
 I remember a delightful alphabet, where A was for 
 * Appagi Bappaji,' who was god-father to one of my 
 sisters. We learnt to count over playing at ' shop ' 
 with mother. Nature around us was invested with 
 life, and we were told stories of the birds and insects 
 which brought them near us, and unconsciously we 
 learnt Natural History. So with our writing; * the 
 soldiers ' and ' towers ' (strokes and pot-hooks) were 
 all part of a long delightful game which had no 
 end." 
 
 While the mother trained and educated the 
 younger children, the father devoted himself to the 
 elder girls. In that far away village in the Dekkan 
 there were but few opportunities for girls to learn 
 much; and the young Sorabjis soon got beyond 
 what could be taught them in the Church Missionary 
 School. Fortunately for them, their father was both 
 willing and able to teach them, and under him they 
 studied mathematics, science, and Sanskrit, until 
 they had reached the standard required for the 
 matriculation at the University of Bombay. 
 
 Education had been making great strides in the 
 Western Presidency, both for men and women, but 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 125 
 
 the question of admitting the latter to University 
 examinations had not yet been mooted. Mr. Sorabji 
 then sent in an application for his two eldest 
 daughters to be admitted to the matriculation 
 examination at the Bombay University, and it was 
 refused. 
 
 This refusal was a great blow both to the father 
 and the daughters, but the effort they had made was 
 not without its effect. 
 
 The question had been raised, and though it was 
 some years before the matter was finally settled, 
 the fight between the advocates and the opposers of 
 women's education at last ended in the unconditional 
 admission of women to all the University examina- 
 tions. 
 
 The Sorabji family had now removed to Poona, 
 and Mrs. Sorabji, finding her time less fully occupied 
 as her children grew older, determined to put into 
 execution a plan which she had long been revolving 
 in her mind. 
 
 We cannot do better than quote her daughter's 
 words on the subject : " It seemed to my mother 
 that the great question of how to bring the nations in 
 India together, could best be solved by making them 
 learn together as children. They worked together in 
 offices when grown, but their relations were strained 
 and unhappy, and if early friendships had been there 
 to recall, things might have been different ; for the 
 
126 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 minds of all a more intimate knowledge of each other 
 would be beneficial." 
 
 A school, on much the same lines as those Mrs. 
 Sorabji was contemplating, had been started at 
 Ahmedabad under Government auspices in 1872, 
 by the name of the Female Normal School, and its 
 success was already assured. It was attended by 
 women of all the better classes in Gujerat, and it 
 was found that the intercourse of the pupils with 
 each other did much towards overcoming their caste 
 prejudices. 
 
 Ten years after its foundation it had sent out 
 thirty-six well-trained teachers, and the work of 
 the pupils, especially map-drawing, plain needle- 
 work, and embroidery was such as to elicit the 
 warm commendation of the Government inspec- 
 tors. 
 
 In 1875 the work of the school was not as widely 
 known as it has since become, but its success during 
 the three years it had then been in existence, was 
 sufficiently marked to encourage Mrs. Sorabji in the 
 idea of establishing a somewhat similar institution 
 at Poona. 
 
 The school she founded there, and which is known 
 as the Victoria High School, was in many respects 
 different in its working from that of the normal 
 schools, being as far as possible on the same lines as 
 English high schools, and its success has been so 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 127 
 
 remarkable that more than one school has been 
 modelled after it in other places. 
 
 In the Victoria High School Europeans, Parsees, 
 Brahmans, Jews, and Mahomedans are successfully 
 taught together, and the numbers attending it are 
 constantly on the increase. At the present time the 
 High School itself has about 150 pupils ; but there is 
 also a branch school in connection with it, a large 
 and flourishing kindergarten school, and a depart- 
 ment in which older girls are prepared for the 
 matriculation examination of the University of 
 Bombay. 
 
 Since the opening of the Victoria High School 
 Mrs. Sorabji has succeeded in establishing three other 
 large schools in Poona. One of these is for children 
 who understand nothing but the vernacular, or 
 Marathi language ; another is intended for young 
 Mahomedan girls of good family, who are not allowed 
 to attend mixed schools ; and the third undertakes 
 the task of training teachers, and is almost the only 
 institution of the kind in the Bombay Presidency. 
 
 In the working of these schools Mrs. Sorabji has 
 been assisted almost from the commencement by one 
 or more of her daughters, and at the present time no 
 less than four of them help her regularly : the eldest 
 is assistant superintendent ; the second teaches 
 music ; another is head mistress of the High School, 
 'where she specially manages the upper forms ; while 
 
128 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 another devotes herself to teaching in the kinder- 
 garten ; in addition to which one daughter, who holds 
 an appointment under Government, but who lives at 
 home, devotes all her spare hours to the work of the 
 schools. Two of these girls served an apprenticeship 
 for some time as assistant teachers under Miss- 
 Collett in the Female Normal School at Ahmedahad, 
 so that there is ample justification for the generous- 
 pride with which Cornelia Sorabji speaks of her 
 mother and sisters as having done much for the 
 cause of education in Western India, and as having 
 been the means of bringing knowledge and enlighten- 
 ment to many dark and ignorant minds. 
 
 We must return, however, to Cornelia herself- 
 She was only nine years old when the Victoria High 
 School was started, and she immediately took her 
 place as one of its pupils. Three years later she 
 began to help in the teaching, though continuing her 
 own studies at the same time, and later on she passed 
 through a course in the training school established 
 by her mother. The sister next above her was her 
 special instructress, and it was to her teaching that 
 she ascribed her success, when, at sixteen, she went 
 up for matriculation at Bombay. Having passed this 
 examination, she was not content, like many other 
 students, with what she had already achieved ; suc- 
 cess only increased her desire to learn more and to 
 continue her course up to the degree. In order to do 
 
CORNELIA SOEABJI. 129 
 
 this, it was necessary for her to keep terms at a 
 Government college ; accordingly, she was entered as 
 a student at the Dekkan College at Poona, and while 
 continuing to live at home, she drove every day to 
 the college for her work. 
 
 For a time, at any rate, her experiences there were 
 anything but pleasant. She was the only girl 
 student at the college, and her position as such was 
 not an easy one, among three hundred men students, 
 who looked on her as an intruder, and who had never 
 been trained as English men and boys are, to look 
 upon a woman with respect and to treat her with 
 consideration and courtesy. On the contrary, these 
 young Indian students had been accustomed from 
 their boyhood to hear the women of their family 
 spoken of with contempt, and to see them treated 
 as inferior beings ; and it is not to be wondered at 
 that they made Miss Sorabji's life as unpleasant as 
 they could. They stared at her rudely, they played 
 practical jokes upon her, shut the doors of the class- 
 rooms in her face, and tried to keep her out of 
 lectures. All this, however, she bore with patient 
 good-humour, determined not to be driven out, 
 because she felt that she was a pioneer in the cause 
 of her countrywomen's advancement, and that as 
 such she must be ready to endure a great deal. All 
 the students, moreover, did not behave so badly to 
 her ; her own countrymen, the Parsis, were uni- 
 
 9 
 
130 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 formly courteous and civil, showing in their good 
 manners the result of the more enlightened views 
 with regard to women in which they had been 
 brought up. 
 
 Miss Sorabji worked at the college five hours every 
 day, but she had also to study several hours at home 
 in order to get through her work, which she found 
 rather hard. She does not appear to have studied 
 Latin at all before she began her college course, so 
 she had, as she says, " to put five years of Latin into 
 one." Since that time French has been introduced 
 into the University course, as an alternative for 
 Latin in the case of women students ; but it was not 
 so then, and the regular curriculum was a fairly diffi- 
 cult one for a student whose previous education, good 
 as it had been, had not been conducted on exactly 
 the same lines. However, on the whole, Miss Sorabji 
 enjoyed her college days. The lectures she always 
 found delightful, and even the examinations were to 
 her a source of real pleasure. Nor were her exertions 
 unsuccessful; besides the real pleasure which she 
 found in study, she obtained substantial rewards of 
 another kind. She was a college scholar each year 
 of her course ; she won the Havelock prize, and the 
 Hughling's Scholarship of the Bombay University, 
 which is awarded to the highest candidate in the 
 First Arts Examination. At each examination she 
 took honours, and in the final examination for the 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 181 
 
 degree, in 1887, she was one of four in the first class 
 of the University list, and stood at the head of all 
 the students from the Dekkan College. 
 
 While waiting for the results of the examination to 
 be made known, Miss Sorabji resumed work in the 
 Poona Schools, throwing herself into the work of 
 teaching others with the same whole-hearted enthu- 
 siasm which she had displayed in learning for 
 herself. 
 
 At the end of a month the lists were published, 
 and great were the rejoicings at the distinctions she 
 had won, not only in her own family circle, but 
 among all who were at all interested in watching the 
 development of education among Indian women. 
 
 Almost immediately afterwards she received the 
 offer of a teaching Fellowship in the Gujerat College 
 at Ahmedabad. This she refused, being anxious to 
 devote her time and talents to the education of 
 women rather than of men ; but when, a short time 
 after, she was again offered a Fellowship at the same 
 college, and found that the authorities had created a 
 new one expressly to meet the demands she had 
 made, she felt that she could not again refuse. It 
 seemed, indeed, to her that there must be work for 
 her to do at Ahmedabad, and believing that " it 
 would do Indian men good to be ruled for a time by 
 a woman," and " also that if Indian women were 
 ever to be raised, it must be by the respect gained for 
 
 9 * 
 
132 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 the sex by certain members of it," she made up her 
 mind to go. 
 
 It was a formidable undertaking, and one which 
 required no small amount of moral courage. It had 
 been hard enough to find herself the only girl at the 
 Dekkan College ; but then she had her home to go 
 back to every day, and the sympathy of her parents 
 and sisters to help and encourage her. 
 
 Now she had to leave home altogether, and alone 
 to appear before a large body of young men, not as 
 their fellow- student, but as their teacher. It was an 
 ordeal which few girls of twenty-one would have 
 sustained with equanimity, but she came through it 
 unscathed. She writes of it thus : " I do not like to 
 recall my first lecture ; but the men behaved well. 
 One rather dreaded contest was all I have to record, 
 and a little sarcasm cured the men. I found them 
 docile and very appreciative." 
 
 Her work was to lecture to a class of men on 
 English Literature and Language, her pupils being 
 candidates preparing both for the Previous Examina- 
 tion and the two examinations for the B.A. degree ; 
 and she soon won her way by her quiet decision of 
 character and ready tact. It was a great victory; 
 for it demonstrated to all who were willing to be con- 
 vinced, that an Indian woman may not only possess 
 marked intellectual abilities, but also those qualities 
 of character which are of greater importance and 
 
COBNELIA SORABJI. 133 
 
 more lasting value, and which must be held to 
 entitle her, without question, to honour and respect. 
 
 Three months after Miss Sorabji's appointment as 
 Fellow, she received an acting appointment as Pro- 
 fessor of English in the college. The work of this 
 appointment is usually performed by the English 
 Principal of the College, but owing to the absence of 
 this gentleman, a vacancy occurred for about six 
 months, during which time Miss Sorabji performed 
 the duties and received the salary of the English 
 professor. 
 
 It was a great honour to be awarded to one so 
 young, and it was doubly welcome, as it enabled her 
 to put by some money towards the expenses of a visit 
 to England, on which she had set her heart. Not 
 content with the successes she had already gained in 
 India, Miss Sorabji desired to prosecute her studies 
 still further, and her great ambition was, if possible, 
 to go through a course at some college preparatory 
 to passing the Degree Examination of one of our 
 universities. 
 
 The Government of India, in order to encourage 
 students to go to England, have established several 
 scholarships, and Miss Sorabji hoped to be able to 
 obtain one of them. But although her qualifications in 
 other respects would have fully entitled her to it, the 
 Government decided that it could only be held by a 
 man. It was a cruel disappointment, and when, in 
 
134 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 1888, the selected scholar succumbed to sea-sicknees 
 on his way to England and returned home from Aden, 
 her hopes revived, for she felt confident of passing 
 the ordeal by water. But again her application was 
 refused, and it became evident that if she was to go 
 to England at all, she must depend on her own exer- 
 tions and on such help as she could obtain from the 
 friends of women's education. 
 
 She had saved about ^60 out of her salary, and 
 had borrowed about as much from friends in India. 
 This was enough, at any rate, to pay her passage to 
 England and back; and, having received a warm 
 invitation from Miss Manning, the Hon. Secretary 
 of the National Indian Association, and a promise of 
 help from friends in England, she resigned her post 
 in the Gujerat College and set out on her journey of 
 faith and hope. 
 
 Miss Sorabji was not allowed to leave Ahmedabad 
 without many tokens of the appreciation in which her 
 work was held by all. Her pupils presented her with 
 a farewell address, accompanied by a present of Cutch 
 silverwork, and the Principal of the College gave her 
 a very handsome testimonial. It ran as follows : 
 
 " Miss Cornelia Sorabji having passed the exami- 
 for the degree of B.A. in the First Class, was 
 appointed a Dakshina Fellow in the Guzerat College, 
 for the year 1888. As a teacher in the college, she 
 did her work with remarkable ability and tact, in a- 
 
COKNELIA SORABJI. 135 
 
 very quiet and unassuming way, at the same time 
 that she exercised complete control over the students. 
 Whatever work was entrusted to her, she did it in the 
 most satisfactory manner, leaving nothing to be 
 desired. 
 
 " I had recently, on a vacancy occurring, recom- 
 mended Miss Sorabji for a Professorship in this 
 college, and I still wish that she may be allowed to 
 continue her connection with this college, where she 
 has already done such good work. By her brilliant 
 University and College career, and by her excellent 
 work as a teacher this year, Miss Sorabji has shown 
 that she is pre-eminently fitted to supply in her 
 person the great want felt in many towns and in the 
 Native States, namely, a thoroughly able and quali- 
 fied lady superintendent for girls' schools. 
 
 " Miss Cornelia Sorabji will carry with her the 
 good wishes of all her colleagues in this college. 
 (Signed) " J. A. DALAL, M.A., 
 
 Principal, 
 " Guzerat College, Ahmedabad." 
 
 It was some disappointment to Miss Sorabji on her 
 arrival in England to find that the only actual degree 
 attainable by women was that of the University of 
 London, and that the course for that degree, as well 
 as that for the Tripos Examinations at Cambridge, 
 was both too long and too expensive for the time and 
 means at her command. 
 
136 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 The course laid down by the University of Oxford, 
 however, seemed to offer special advantages, and a 
 scholarship of ^25 a year at Somerville Hall having 
 been awarded to her, she took up her residence there 
 at the beginning of the October term 1888. Miss 
 Sorabji was advised to devote her time chiefly to the 
 study of English Literature, with a view of taking, 
 honours in that subject, in which she had already 
 shown herself so well informed ; and she worked at 
 this for some time. However, the opening of the 
 Honour School of Law at Oxford to women turned 
 Miss Sorabji' s ideas in a new direction, and she thought 
 that by qualifying herself in this subject she might 
 be able to open out a new career for women in India. 
 She is now, therefore, studying law, and her answers 
 at the last examination were such as to call forth 
 warm expressions of praise from the examiners, and 
 to make her friends hope that her success in the 
 final examination will be very marked. 
 
 Miss Sorabji has made many warm friends since 
 she came to England, and the assistance which they 
 have given towards continuing her studies has been 
 prompted as much by personal affection as by admira- 
 tion for her abilities and her brave endeavours. 
 
 When Miss Sorabji first came to England she was 
 frequently asked to .speak at missionary meetings, 
 especially at those in support of Zenana Missions ; 
 but, under medical advice, she has now been obliged 
 
CORNELIA SOEABJI. 137 
 
 to give this up, as her health is by no means very 
 robust, and the exertion of speaking in public is more 
 than she can stand. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that Mrs. Sorabji paid a 
 visit to England in 1886, at the invitation of the 
 Indian Female School and Zenana Missionary 
 Society, and made many friends, who were prepared 
 to welcome her daughter when she arrived two years 
 later. 
 
 Mrs. Sorabji herself is, as has already been said, a 
 woman of great character and keen intellect. She was 
 one. of the witnesses examined by the Commission on 
 Indian Education in 1882, and her evidence given at 
 Poona was considered very valuable, both from her own 
 position as one of the leading educationalists in the 
 Bombay Presidency, and from her intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the needs of native society. She stated 
 on this occasion that she did not consider that " home 
 education " for either boys or girls in India was of 
 much value, except as a supplement to what they 
 were taught at school. In fact, it was her opinion 
 that education, in the proper sense of the word, must 
 begin with women, if it was to be of any use to the 
 men, because it was the mother's influence which 
 was strongest in moulding the child's character ; and 
 for this reason she thought no trouble or expense 
 should be spared to raise the standard of female 
 education in India. 
 
 * 10 
 
138 SOME DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. 
 
 While Mrs. Sorabji was in England in 1886, the 
 work of her schools was ably carried on by her 
 daughters ; but her absence was keenly felt in every 
 department of missionary work at Poona. 
 
 Her husband wrote thus : "I feel as though I had 
 lost my right hand. Often, when I have been in need 
 of her wise counsel and prompt action, I have been 
 forced to wait and hesitate. The mercy and wisdom 
 of God in providing a help-meet for man never came 
 home to me so forcibly before. I must take this 
 opportunity of observing that my wife, who is still in 
 England, speaks with heart-felt gratitude of the 
 kindness and love shown to her by people in that 
 Christian land." 
 
 Mrs. Sorabji's schools are now partly supported 
 by a Government grant-in-aid, a clear proof of the 
 value attached to them ; she has made them over to 
 a society, so that they may be carried on on the same 
 lines when she and her daughters are no longer there 
 to direct them. 
 
 That some members, however, of this remarkable 
 family may long continue to work in Poona we may 
 reasonably hope. The youngest Miss Sorabji 'already 
 gives promise of emulating her elder sister's achieve- 
 ments, for she has recently matriculated at Bombay, 
 though only fourteen, and she stood nineteenth in 
 order of merit among nearly three thousand candi- 
 dates ; she, however, intends to be a doctor. 
 
CORNELIA SORABJI. 139 
 
 The success achieved by Mrs. Sorabji and her 
 daughters is no doubt exceptional, and it must not be 
 supposed that every Indian woman to whom the 
 same advantages may be offered would make as 
 good a use of them. They have, however, proved 
 beyond all possible doubt that Indian women are, 
 under favourable circumstances, quite as capable as 
 English women of high educational development, and 
 moreover, that such development renders them all 
 the better qualified to serve their generation, either 
 in the domestic circle as wives, mothers, and 
 daughters, or in the more extended sphere of teachers 
 and workers. 
 
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