Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-11-22
RAMBAI.
THE ROMANTIC STORY UF a HINDU
WIFE.
A Remarkable Woman-Her Mis-
sion in America Explained =
Child Widows of India.

will deliver in America in aid of her noble
mission, one that appeals to every sympa-
thetic heart regardless of creed or sect. Her
story cannot be well told briefly, but it
may be outlined. 1t has some relation, by
the way, to that strange being who nearly
four years ago spent some weeks in Sacra-
mento. the Brahman Gopalrao Vinayak
Joshee, and excited, while here, SO much
of interest, and who proved all and just
what he claimed he was.
One morning Hindu family, Brahmin
high-castes, ON a religious pilgrimage,
paused on the banks of the sacred river
Godavari. A fine-looking and learned
man, Ananti Shastri, came there to battle.
The father of the family, though he had
never seen him before, gave him his
daughter OF nine years to be his wife. The
husband carried ner away resolved to edu-
cate her, despite Hindu prejudices TO the
contrary. He began to teach her Sanskrit
but his relatives interfered. He fed with
her to the forests in the mountains, to be
free from social influences. While the.
Child slept upon the ground he watched
and kept the wild beasts at bay that snarled
about their campfire A hut was built,
and there the child wife's education went
on. In few years, when she was woman,
there came children, son and two daugh-
ters Had there been no son she would
have been despised and possibly an outcast,
such is the cruelty of the Brahman's social
law. The father had become famous as a
Brahman priest and pundit, and the noun
tain home become the objective point for pill
grimages by the pious. One of the daugh-
tiers, the youngest born in 1853 was Ram
abai. Her mother became her teacher she
was quick, endowed by nature with intellec-
tual tendencies and desires she grew men
tally with wonderful rapidity, and became
" a prodigy of erudition." Just before she
was sixteen her father first and mother
next died, in extreme poverty, and the girl
and her brother aided by two compassion
ate Brahmans carried the mothers body
three miles to the burning CHAT for crema-
ton. The brother and sister set out upon
extended travels, preaching the need for
female education, and that by the eleva-
ton of woman the social scale of their
land would be raised. They had
intense love OF country, though deploring
its cruel superstitions and merciless social
edicts. The young girl and Sanskrit scholar
attracted attention; she became famous;
she was summoned before the pundits of
the distinguished title Sarasvati Her
brother died, but she kept on in her mis-
sion of humanity. She married Medhavi,
a Bengali gentleman, a graduate of the
Calcutta University; neither believed in
either Hinduism or Christianity. They were
very happy, but in nineteen months she
was widow with one child, daughter
whom she named Mauorama Hearts JOY.
The widow chung to her self-imposed mis-
| sion advocating the freeing of the enslaved
women of India. Her work was heard of
in England, and presently all through
| Hlndustan. Then she formed q society for
the amelioration of the condition of her
countrywomen, and when the English
Educational Commission visited India she
| led the 800 members of her society high
caste Brahman women, before the BODY
and delivered an Grafton in behalf of her
cause. The Commission was surprised and
its examination led it to shower compli-
ments upon Pundita Rsmabai's work with
out limit. Her plea for women physicians
reached the Queen and as result a powerful
society was organized in England to supply
women doctors for the women of India,
for a Hindu women will not confide her
I bodily ills to man and as a result myriads
die whose lives might be prolonged and
mlseries alleviated. Ramabai now deter
mined to go to England and be trained
for educational work. Ii was q bold stroke
for Hindu woman and might have cut
her off utterly from recognition among her
people. She took her little daughter and
sailed for Liverpool. She was received by
the Sisters of st. Mary's Home Vantage.
| There she became convinced of the errors
of her religion and was baptized and con-
tirmed member of the Church of England,
September, 1888. She gave year TO the
study of English, and then entered the
Ladies College at Cheltenham and was
created Professor of Sanskrit.
In 1886 she received an invitation to at
tend the graduation in medicine of her
friend Mrs. Anandibai Joshee at Phlladel-
phia. Both were from the same city,
Poona. Mrs. Joshee was the first to leave In
dia, Ramabai the second. The first adhered
to Brahmanism, the second embraced Chris
tianity. Both had devoted their lives to
the amelioration of their sex in India
Gopal Joshee, the Brahnan, when in Sac
ramento, was on the road to witness the
graduation of his wife. The money was
raised in this city to pay his way. The
wife was a remarkable woman, but 81 when
graduated a physician. She awakened
great interest in the East and was admired
and respected on all sides for her talents
and sweetness of disposition. Joshee, who
had left a position in the postal service to
|
with her to India October, 1856. She was
at once appointed Physician-in- Charge of
the female ward of the Albert Edward Hos
pital, Kolhapur, India. But as she had ad-
hered to her Brahmanistic customs of vege-
table diet while in the United States, her
health failed. She sickened in Febru-
airy, 1887, and died in her native city OF
Poona February Goth. Even in so short 9
time she had SO won her way that ortho-
doxy broke down before respect for her
and the priests allowed her to be cremated
in the sacred fire." and they officiated at
the ceremony, though by leaving India
touching Christians and taking food from
them she had offended against the rigorou:
laws of Brahmanism. The Indian papers
of Poona eulogized the heroic little woman
as one of the historic women of the land
and paid her tributes rarely bestowed upon
her sex in that land.
In the meantime Ramabai having come
to America for the purpose stated, was sc
pleased with it that she remained and fol
nearly two years at the East prosecuted bel
pursuit for knowledge and her scheme tC
begin the redemption from bondage of the
widows of India. She had great sue
, cess, and ''Ramabai Associations" wert
formed, the chief of which has the CO
operation of broad-minded Hindu gentle
men, who have been brought to see tha
the elevation of woman means the emo
bling of men and the freeing of society
< from the shackles of debasing superstition
At the head of that association is Edward
Everett Hale, with such men as DR.
Lyman Abbott, DIR. Phillips Brooks
and such women as Frances E
Willard, Rachel l.. Bodley and Mrs. Elliot
: Russell, associated with him. In Sar
e Francisco similar association has for its
: President Irving NJ. Scott, and for his aid:
. Professor George Davidson, Mrs. Sarah B
Cooper, Rev. DR.. Stebbins John F. Swift
| Miss Sarah D. Hamlin, Charles A. Muir
dock, Rev. DR.. Mckenzie, L. H. Bonestell
r L. L. Baker, DIR. McNutt, Ira P. Rankin
: and others. Seyenty-five thousand dollar:
D are needed for her work, and of this $50 00(
r has been pledged. A work on The High
e Caste Hindu Woman" by Ramabai is il
e its tenth thousand, and, being printed pri
: vately, all its sales go to swell the fund
e 1t is one of the most profoundly thrilling
| of books. Every American who reads il
E respects the women of America and tn.
( station they occupy, feels his blood cours,
/. with indignant heat through his veins a
5 its revelations of wrong, cruelty, slavery
e and outrage perpetrated upon the Hindr
: women.
n There are in India 20 $50 626 widow
. | of Ill oaStas Of these 70 Q-6 Gro nm