Woman and Marriage in the Essay’s of Pandita Ramabai and Rassundari Devi
Woman and Marriage in the essay’s of Pandita Ramabai and Rassundari Devi
Pandita Ramabai an eminent Indian Christian social reformer and activist in her book High Caste Hindu Women highlights subject matter relating to the life of Hindu women including child brides, marriage and widowhood. She talks about the money aspect when arranging a marriage, the young ages of the boy and the girl, the marriage rituals and the inhuman expectations that the women are faced with.
According to her, marriage was a fickle matter in the olden times. Women were not allowed a say in the choice of the groom and were married of ‘while still in their cradles’. Ramabai illustrates how Swayamvara, earlier a popular way of choosing your own husband was practically becoming extinct. It was now considered absurd to even think about asking the women’s opinion. Rassundari Devi, one of the pioneers in indigenous women’s writings, takes up this very topic in her autobiographical work Amar Jiban( My Life). In the work she traces her life as she goes from being the young girl in her family to a bride. She goes through motherhood, starvation, and the perpetual desire to read and write. She starts of by mentioning how happy and excited she was when she first learned she was to be married. She was cheered up by the array of ornaments, sari’s and music at her disposal. Pandita Ramabai offers the very same conclusion when she asked girls for fun if they would like to married and they would almost always answer in the affirmative.
“There are gorgeous dresses', bright colored clothes, beautiful decorations, music, songs, fireworks, fun, plenty of fruit and sweet things to eat and to give away, lovely flowers, and the whole house is illuminated with many lamps. What can be more tempting to a child's mind than these?”
But like she says later, little do these children know what awaits them after marriage. Bidding farewell to their mother and the laughter and joys of childhood these innocent
Pandita Ramabai an eminent Indian Christian social reformer and activist in her book High Caste Hindu Women highlights subject matter relating to the life of Hindu women including child brides, marriage and widowhood. She talks about the money aspect when arranging a marriage, the young ages of the boy and the girl, the marriage rituals and the inhuman expectations that the women are faced with.
According to her, marriage was a fickle matter in the olden times. Women were not allowed a say in the choice of the groom and were married of ‘while still in their cradles’. Ramabai illustrates how Swayamvara, earlier a popular way of choosing your own husband was practically becoming extinct. It was now considered absurd to even think about asking the women’s opinion. Rassundari Devi, one of the pioneers in indigenous women’s writings, takes up this very topic in her autobiographical work Amar Jiban( My Life). In the work she traces her life as she goes from being the young girl in her family to a bride. She goes through motherhood, starvation, and the perpetual desire to read and write. She starts of by mentioning how happy and excited she was when she first learned she was to be married. She was cheered up by the array of ornaments, sari’s and music at her disposal. Pandita Ramabai offers the very same conclusion when she asked girls for fun if they would like to married and they would almost always answer in the affirmative.
“There are gorgeous dresses', bright colored clothes, beautiful decorations, music, songs, fireworks, fun, plenty of fruit and sweet things to eat and to give away, lovely flowers, and the whole house is illuminated with many lamps. What can be more tempting to a child's mind than these?”
But like she says later, little do these children know what awaits them after marriage. Bidding farewell to their mother and the laughter and joys of childhood these innocent