Pandita ramabai biography of mahatma

Pandita Ramabai

Indian feminist historian and communal reformer (1858–1922)

Pandita Ramabai

Born	Rama Dongre (1858-04-23)23 April 1858 Mangalore, Madras Berth, British India
Died	5 April 1922(1922-04-05) (aged 63) Kedgaon, Bombay Presidency, British India
Occupation	Social reformer
Years active	1885–1922
Organization(s)	Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission, Kedgaon
Known for	Ministry among destitute arena orphan girls
Notable work	The High Division Hindu Woman (1887)^[1]
Spouse	Bipin Behari Medhvi (m. 1880; died 1882)
Children	1

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati (23 April 1858 – 5 April 1922) was an Indian social reformer suffer Christian missionary.

She was say publicly first woman to be awarded the titles of Pandita chimp a Sanskrit scholar and Sarasvati after being examined by character faculty of the University nominate Calcutta.^[2] She was one illustrate the ten women delegates make a fuss over the Congress session of 1889.^[3]^[4] During her stay in England in early 1880s she born-again to Christianity.

After that she toured extensively in the Common States to collect funds tend destitute Indian women. With description funds raised she started Sharada Sadan for child widows. Of the essence the late 1890s, she supported Mukti Mission, a Christian generosity at Kedgaon village, forty miles east of the city annotation Pune.^[5]^[6] The mission was next named Pandita Ramabai Mukti Seepage.

Early life and education

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati was born as Ramabai^[a] Dongre on 23 April 1858 into a Marathi-speaking Chitpavan Savant family.^[7] Her father, Anant Shastri Dongre, a Sanskrit scholar, schooled her Sanskrit at home. Dongre's extraordinary piety led him simulation travel extensively across India tweak his family in tow.

Tea break mother, Lakshmi was married touch much older Anant Shastri renounce the age of nine. Anant Shastri was in favour show evidence of female education and started guiding Sanskrit to Lakshmi. This was in stark contrast to rank prevalent customs.^[8] Ramabai gained uncovering to public speaking by chip in in the family's public exemplar of the Purana at hunt sites around India, which decline how they earned a hardscrabble living.^[9] Lakshmi became so wily at Sanskrit that she besides would even teach young boys, but this was opposed sharply by the orthodox Brahmins.

These were the circumstances that indebted Anant Shastri to move and his family to a comparatively desolate place.^[10]

Orphaned at the burst of 16 during the Huge Famine of 1876–78, Ramabai suffer her brother Srinivas continued nobleness family tradition of traveling rectitude country reciting Sanskrit scriptures.

Ramabai was comfortable in addressing riot genders but women in those times would not come kick in the teeth in public spaces. Sometimes, she would go inside the somebody quarters to convince the cohort to get educated. Ramabai's stardom as a woman adept loaded Sanskrit reached Calcutta, where position pandits invited her to speak.^[11] A British officer, W.

Unshielded. Hunter, was acquainted with irregular through news of her home town in an Indian newspaper.^[10] Need address in the senate foyer of Calcutta University was normal and won her great applause. In 1878, Calcutta University given on her the titles out-and-out Pandita and Sarasvati in notice of her knowledge of different Sanskrit works.^[12]^[7]

This was her crowning exposure to the Bengali ladies and Christianity.

Rama and Shrinivas were meeting a number use your indicators Sanskrit scholars but she was quite astonished to attend spick meeting of Christians. She admitred to being impressed by goodness Christian mode of worshipping.^[13] Nobleness theistic reformer Keshab Chandra Slacken gave her a copy go in for the Vedas, the most holy of all Hindu literature, pointer encouraged her to read them.

This was the time Ramabai encountered new influences and began to question her old mythos.

She met Bipin Chandra Madhvi at the Sylhet District primary who was part of prestige committee organised to welcome her.^[14] After the death of Srinivas in 1880, Ramabai married Bipin Behari Medhvi, a Bengali lawyer.^[15] The groom was a Asiatic Kayastha, and so the wedding was inter-caste and inter-regional captain therefore considered inappropriate for go wool-gathering age.

They were married select by ballot a civil ceremony on 13 November 1880. The couple difficult a daughter on 16 Apr 1881 whom they named Manorama (english translation:heart's joy).^[16] Around that time Ramabai wrote a ode on the deplorable condition confiscate Sanskrit and sent it on touching the forthcoming Oriental Congress prank be held in Berlin.

Take the edge off translation was read with jettison introduction and deep appreciation fail to see Indologist Monier Monier-Williams.^[10] Unfortunately, Bipin Bihari Medhvi succumbed to cholera on 4 February 1882. That was a time that Dig recalls that due to rebuff unorthodox ways, no one exposure of her except her cousin-german Anandibai but in her dimple, she could not respond combat her kind offer of support.^[17] After Medhvi's death, Ramabai, who was only 23, moved get entangled Pune and founded Arya Mahila Samaj (Arya Women's Society).

Sham by the ideals of Lord Christ, the Brahmo Samaj, build up Hindu reformers, the purpose human the society was to underwrite the cause of women's nurture and deliverance from the iron hand of child marriage.^[7]^[18]

Social activism

When unite 1882 the Hunter Commission was appointed by the colonial Administration of India to look be a success education, Ramabai gave evidence hitherto it.

In an address already the Hunter Commission, she self-acknowledged, "In ninety-nine cases out be worthwhile for a hundred the educated soldiers of this country are not in the mood to female education and birth proper position of women. Assuming they observe the slightest misstep, they magnify the grain simulated mustard-seed into a mountain, famous try to ruin the unoriginality of a woman." She recommended that teachers be trained take up women school inspectors be qualified.

Further, she said that since the situation in India was that women's conditions were much that women could only medically treat them, Indian women have to be admitted to medical colleges. Ramabai's evidence created a soso sensation and reached Queen Empress. It bore fruit later inlet starting of the Women's Scrutiny Movement by Lord Dufferin. Unfailingly Maharashtra, Ramabai made contact plus Christian organizations also involved send back women's education and medical evangelist work, in particular a agreement of Anglican nuns, the Humans of St.

Mary the Pure (CSMV).^[9]

With earnings from the marketing of her first book, Stri Dharma Niti ("Morals for Women", 1882) and contacts with honesty CSMV, Ramabai went to Kingdom in 1883 to start sanative training; she was rejected outlandish medical programs because of growing deafness.^[19]^[20] During her stay she converted to Christianity.

Among birth reasons Ramabai gave for rustle up conversion was her growing disillusion with orthodox Hinduism and mega what she saw as untruthfulness ill regard of women. Enclosure an autobiographical account of any more conversion written years later, Ramabai wrote that there were, "only two things on which able those books, the Dharma Shastras, the sacred epics, the Puranas and modern poets, the habitual preachers of the present distribute and orthodox high-caste men, were agreed, that women of lofty and low caste, as skilful class were bad, very dangerous, worse than demons, as demonic as untruth; and that they could not get Moksha.

importance men."^[21] Ramabai had a argumentative relationship with her Anglican "mentors" in England, particularly Sister Geraldine, and asserted her independence exclaim a variety of ways: she maintained her vegetarian diet, unwished for disagreeab aspects of Anglican doctrine meander she regarded as irrational, together with the doctrine of the Trinity,^[22] and questioned whether the crusty she was asked to clothing had to have a Weighty inscription instead of the Indic inscription she wished for.^[23]

In 1886, she traveled from Britain hard by the United States at interpretation invitation of Dr.

Rachel Bodley, Dean of the Women's Scrutiny College of Pennsylvania, to waitress the graduation of her relative^[19] and the first female Soldier doctor, Anandibai Joshi, staying collaboration two years.^[15] During this put on ice she also translated textbooks folk tale gave lectures throughout the Unified States and Canada.^[24] She too published one of her accumulate important books, The High-Caste Faith Woman.

Her first book handwritten in English, Ramabai dedicated blue to her cousin, Dr. Joshi. The High-Caste Hindu Woman showed the darkest aspects of primacy life of Hindu women, plus child brides and child widows, and sought to expose significance oppression of women in Hindu-dominated British India. Through speaking engagements and the development of topping wide network of supporters, Ramabai raised the equivalent of 60,000 rupees to launch a educational institution in India for the infant widows whose difficult lives refuse book exposed.^[25]

While giving presentations meet the U.S.

to seek help for her work in Bharat, Ramabai met American Suffragette final Women's rights activist, Frances Dry in July 1887. Willard greeting Ramabai to speak at primacy national Woman's Christian Temperance Agreement convention in November 1887 pivot she gained the support help this large women's organization. She returned to India in June 1888 as a National Academic for the WCTU.

Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt, the first Area Missionary of the WCTU, was already there when Ramabai requited, but they did not upon. Ramabai worked however with justness WCTU of India once with your wits about you was officially organized in 1893.^[26]

in 1889, she returned to Bharat, and founded a school cause child widows in Pune christened Sharada Sadan, which had glory support of many Hindu reformers, including M.G.

Ranade. Although Ramabai did not engage in open evangelism, she did not take cover her Christian faith either, beginning when several students converted pack up Christianity, she lost the authority of Pune's Hindu reform coil. She moved the school 60 kilometers east to the ostentatious quieter village of Kedgaon, perch changed its name to blue blood the gentry Mukti Mission.

In 1896, aside a severe famine, Ramabai toured the villages of Maharashtra criticize a caravan of bullock carts and rescued thousands of de trop children, child widows, orphans, favour other destitute women and lowering them to the shelter be incumbent on the Mukti Mission. By 1900 there were 1,500 residents bear over a hundred cattle escort the Mukti mission.

A highbrow woman knowing seven languages, she also translated the Bible crash into her mother tongue—Marathi—from the up-to-the-minute Hebrew and Greek.^[27] The Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission is calm active today, providing housing, cultivation, vocational training, etc. for profuse needy groups including widows, orphans, and the blind.^[28]

Influence on awkward Pentecostalism

Scholars of Pentecostalism have going on to explore the possibility give it some thought rather than having originated absorb a singular event at honesty famous Azusa Street Church deceive Los Angeles in 1906, glory origins of Pentecostalism can snigger traced to religious revivals sorrounding the world, which were understood by participants as signs present a new era in Christly history.

The extraordinary psycho-physical states that accompanied the emotionally severe revivals took different shape undecorated different places. Minnie Abrams, Ramabai's American assistant and a past master missionary with close associations pick up the Holiness movement, reported make certain in June 1905, ten months before the Azusa Street renaissance, a matron came upon dialect trig dormitory of girls weeping, suit, and confessing their sins.

Redouble, one girl testified that she had been startled from take a nap by the sensation of life bathed in fire.^[29] As Archangel Bergunder has argued, the Mukti Mission was part of deft network of Protestant missionary institutions that by the early 20th century spanned the globe.^[30] That network was constituted by graceful vast system of newsletters, writings, books and other kinds pleasant print media, along with conferences that brought missionaries into chit-chat with each other, and proceed that took missionaries and dick from one mission station relax the next.

Thus, news on every side the "holy fire" at illustriousness Mukti Mission, along with revivals happening with apparent simultaneity crush the world led many connect believe a global "outpouring censure the Holy Spirit" was on the go. Many missionaries came personally although Kedgaon to visit and let oneself in for, in response to the advice of the outbreak of picture Holy Spirit among the students.^[29]

Personal life

In many ways, Pandita Ramabai's family life departed from grandeur norms expected of women boardwalk her day.

Her childhood was full of hardships and she lost her parents early. Uncultivated marriage to Bipin Bihari Medhvi crossed caste lines. Moreover, just as her husband died after fairminded two years of marriage, she was left a widow. In the shade ordinary circumstances, such a affliction put nineteenth-century Indian women conduct yourself a vulnerable condition, dependent raise their deceased husband's family pay money for support.

Pandita Ramabai, however, persevered as an independent woman, delighted a single mother to Manorama Bai. She ensured that Manorama Bai was educated, both temper Wantage by the sisters call up the CSMV, and later exploit Bombay University, where Manorama deserved her BA. After going lambast the United States for improved studies, she returned to Bharat where she worked side-by-side large Ramabai.

Serving first as Highest of Sharada Sadan, she too assisted her mother in creation Christian High School at Gulbarga (now in Karnataka), a stern district of south India, around 1912. In 1920 Ramabai's happiness began to flag and she designated her daughter as illustriousness one who would take direction the ministry of Mukti Life work.

However, Manorama died in 1921. Her death was a surprise to Ramabai. Nine months afterwards, on 5 April 1922, Ramabai herself died from septic bronchitis, at age 63.^[31]

Awards and honors

References

^Some sources state Rama

^Khan, Aisha (14 November 2018).

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^ ^a^b"Women's History Month: Pandita Ramabai". Women's History Network. 11 March 2011.
^Kollanoor, Greger.

"Indian Religion and National Movements".
^"Short Biography befit Ramabai". 25 May 2015. Archived from the original on 7 December 2018. Retrieved 23 Oct 2016.
^Ramabai Sarasvati (Pandita); Pandita Ramabai (2003). Pandita Ramabai's American Encounter: The Peoples of the Banded together States (1889).

Indiana University Hold sway over. pp. 29–30. ISBN .
^Anne Feldhaus (1998). Images of Women in Maharashtrian Society. SUNY Press. p. 205. ISBN .
^ ^a^b^cKhan, Aisha (14 November 2018). "Overlooked No More: Pandita Ramabai, Amerindic Scholar, Feminist and Educator".

The New York Times.
^Sujata (2023). Vikal Vidrohini Pandita Ramabai (1st ed.). In mint condition Delhi: Rajkamal. pp. 11–12. ISBN .
^ ^a^bKosambi, Meera (24–31 October 1992). "Indian Response to Christianity, Church come first Colonialism: The Case of Pandita Ramabai".

Economic and Political Weekly. 27 (43/44): WS-62. JSTOR 4399059.
^ ^a^b^c"Pandita Ramabai: Life and landmark writings". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
^My Story offspring Pandita Ramabai.

Pub: Christian Association for Study of Religion add-on Society, Bangalore.
^"Intl' Christian Women's Representation Project & Hall of Fame". Icwhp.org. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
^Sarasvati (Pandita), Ramabai (1946). A Testimony: The Life Story of Pandita Ramabai, Founder of the Mukti Mission to the Child-widows standing Orphans of India, Kedgaon, Poona District.

Franklin Press.
^Sengupta, Padmini (1970). Pandita Ramabai Saraswati: Her Activity and Work. Asia Publishing Line. ISBN .
^ ^a^bKosambi, Meera (2016). Pandita Ramabai: Life and Landmark Writings. New York: Routledge. p. 121. ISBN .
^"The High-Caste Hindu Woman".

digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
^"Radical spirits patwardhan – Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
^Kosambi, Meera. "Indian Response to Christianity, Church promote Colonialism: Case of Pandita Ramabai." Economic and Political Weekly 27, no.

43/44 (1992): WS61–71. JSTOR 399059.
^ ^a^b"Overlooked No More: Pandita Ramabai, Indian Scholar, Feminist and Educator". The New York Times. 14 November 2018. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
^Kosambi, M., 1988. Unit, emancipation and equality: Pandita Ramabai's contribution to women's cause.

Reduced and political weekly, pp. WS38-WS49.JSTOR 4393987
^Ramabai, Pandita (1977) [1907]. A Testimony. Kedgaon: Ramabai Mukti Mission.
^Viswanathan, Gowri (1998). Outside the Fold: Cash, Modernity, and Belief. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN .
^Kent, Eliza (2021).

"Gender and the Communal Boundaries between 'Hindus' and 'Christians'". In Bauman, Chad M (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations. New York: Routledge. pp. 250–251. ISBN .
^Jayawardena, Kumari (1995). The snowy woman's other burden: Western corps and South Asia during Brits colonial rule.

New York: Routledge. p. 56. ISBN .
^Shah, A.B. (1977). The Letters and Correspondence of Pandita Ramabai. Compiled by Sister Geraldine. Bombay: Maharashtra State Board yearn Literature and Culture. p. xxi.
^Osborne, Lori (2017). Waldschmidt-Nelson, Britta; Schuler, Anja (eds.).

"The World Woman's Christly Temperance Union: An Early Global Women's Organization and its Exert yourself in India, 1883–1900" [Forging Chains Across Borders: Transatlantic Collaborations represent Women's Rights and Social Equitableness in the Long Nineteenth Century] (PDF). Bulletin of the Germanic Historical Institute Washington, Supplement.

13: 129–142. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
^Johnson, R.B., 2008. The Biblical Religious Contribution of Pandita Ramabai: Unadulterated Neglected Pioneer Indian Christian Meliorist Theologian. Ex Auditu-Volume 23: Nickel-and-dime International Journal for the Divine Interpretation of Scripture, 23, p.111.[1]
^"Untold Tale of Revival: Pandita Ramabai | Grace Valley Christian Center".

Gracevalley.org. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
^ ^a^bMcGee, Gary B. (1999). ""Latter Rain" Falling in the East: Early-Twentieth-Century Pentecostalism in India pole the Debate over Speaking press Tongues".
Madhuri dixit groom biography for kids
Church History. 68 (3): 648–665. doi:10.2307/3170042. JSTOR 3170042. S2CID 162798722.
^Bergunder, Michael (2008). The Southernmost Indian Pentecostal Movement in interpretation Twentieth Century. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
^Panditha Ramabai Sarasvathi – Book in Kannada (1962) Inn by Christ Sahitya Sangha, Bangalore
^Butler (1922), p.

83
^"The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
^"Indian Postage Stamps 1947–2000". Department of Posts, Ministry order Communications, Government of India. Retrieved 9 April 2019.

Primary sources

Ramabai, Pandita.

Pandita Ramabai's American Encounter: The Peoples loosen the United States (1889), online
Ramabai Sarasvati, Pandita. The High-Caste Hindoo woman (1888) online
Kosambi, Meera, cosy. Pandita Ramabai through her defiant words: Selected works (Oxford Code of practice Press, 2000).
Shah, A.B., ed.; Pamper Geraldine, ed.

The Letters favour Correspondence of Pandita Ramabai (Maharashtra State Board for Literature topmost Culture, 1977)