The High-Caste Hindu Woman

Introduction

DURING the past year so many have been the calls for Pandita Ramabai’s “High-Caste Hindu Woman” published in 1887 that the Board of Managers of the American Ramabai Association think a reprint of the book advisable. To this Ramabai gives her consent, with the request that the Introduction by Dean Bodley be omitted, for which the Managers substitute a condensed ac- count of her life and experiences from childhood to the present time. To many who have read the reports of the Executive Committee from year to year this will be a familiar story-reports based upon the official correspondence and personal in- terviews with Ramabai during the past thirteen years. Facts so authenticated by Ramabai’s own lips and pen cannot be too often repeated. Here, in justice to the author of “The High-Caste Hindu Woman,” a statement should be made that she does not make. It is that in her citations from Manu, the great Hindu law-giver, she not only had at her command the best translations of the sacred texts, but a thorough knowledge of the Sanskrit language which enabled her to make her own translations from the original. On her return from England and America, in appre- ciation of her great learning, one of her country- men paid her the following tribute:-” Pandita Ramabai combines in herself what even in the men of India is a rare combination; a deep knowledge of the Hindu Shastras and an intimate acquaint- ance with the inner life, thought and speech of the most advanced and civilized nations of the West. For several centuries a lady Sanyasi so learned and so devoted to the elevation of her sex has not appeared on the stage of Indian life.”

Forty-three years ago, on the 23rd of April, 1858, in the forest of Gungamal, in the Western Ghauts of India, a child was born, who as a woman was to stand forth alone, a fear- less champion of the rights of her unfortunate sisters, to strike from them the chains of igno- rance and superstition that for centuries have kept them in cruel bondage. Her parents gave to her the name of the goddess Rama, which signifies “bright.” Her father, Ananta Shas- tri, a learned Brahman, taking to himself an igno- rant child-wife nine years of age, resolved to put in practice his liberal theories concerning female education. But so horrified were his people by this open disregard of the cherished traditions and customs of the country that he was obliged to make for himself and his little wife Lakshmi- bai a home in the forest, where he could teach her unmolested save by the wild beasts. Her early memories of that home were of lying on the ground night after night, convulsed with terror by the cries of the beasts in the jungle, her hus- band sitting by her side to soothe her. Day by day the lessons went on; her gifted mind re- sponded readily to her husband’s teachings; in time she realized his fondest hopes, and became the teacher of the children who came to them.

Ramabai’s still vivid memories of the forest. home are of being awakened at early dawn by a mother’s tender caress, and of the early morning lessons learned only from her mother’s lips and from Nature. Not long after her birth the life of the family became a wandering one, consisting of homes in forests, long pilgrimages, traveling from city to city, from town to town, often shelterless at night and hungry by day, the father still plead- ing fearlessly for the elevation of his country- Because of his advanced views con- cerning female education, and because he would not give his little daughter in marriage at the age of nine, he was virtually ostracized by his breth- ren. During this time Ramabai’s education went on; she learned to speak Marathi, Hindustani, Kanarese and Bengali, and gained a wonderful knowledge of Sanskrit.

After the death of the parents, which occurred during the great famine of 1877, Ramabai and her brother took up the work of the father. Ra- mabai’s fame as a lecturer reaching the ears of the pandits of Calcutta, they desired to hear and see for themselves. She obeyed their summons to appear before them; so astonished and pleased were they by the clearness of her views, and her eloquence in presenting them, that they publicly conferred on her the highest title-Sarasvati, Goddess of Wisdom.

It was during these wanderings with her brother that Ramabai’s faith in the Hindu re- ligion was shaken though she continued the wor- ship of idols until nearly twenty years old. Con- versations with Keeshub Chunder Sen, with the books he gave her to read, enlightened her in re- gard to other religions, and in a great measure prepared her for the acceptance of Christianity some years later. Although even at the time of her brother’s death when left alone in the world, and again when overcome with grief by the sud- den loss of her husband, she had a dim conscious- ness of being cared for by an Infinite Being who had no kinship with idols. In the pathetic account of her father’s death Ramabai says that he did not know the only true God, but served the-to him-unknown God with all his heart. His last words to her were,-” Remember that you are my youngest, my best beloved child. I have given you into God’s hands. You must serve Him all your life.” Ramabai adds-” My father’s prayers were heard by the Heavenly Father whom the old Hindu did not know, and I can now say to the departed spirit, ‘Yes, dear father, I will serve the only true God to the last.”

While journeying from city to city, from vil- lage to village, Ramabai, being a Brahman, had free access to the homes of the high-caste Hindus, saw the home life in all its cruel details, the mis- ery of the child wife, the torture of the child widow, and resolved to devote her life to the re- demption of her unfortunate sisters, especially the little widows.

After four years of close comradeship the brother died leaving Ramabai utterly alone and unprotected; but he died happier in the thought that there might be a Good God who would care for her. In her loneliness and grief she met Bipin Bihari Medhavi, a Bengali lawyer, a gradu- ate from the Calcutta University, who fully sym- pathized with her in her liberal views and unselfish plans. They loved, married, and were happy, made more happy by the birth of a little daughter.