Question

Name the author of ‘Amar Jiban’.

Answer 1

Hint: Written in bangla the book ‘Amar Jiban’(My life) tells us the tales of a woman in the nineteenth century and her struggle to become literate. It’s a first ever book to be written by an Indian woman and a Bengali female.

Complete answer:
Published in two parts in the nineteenth century, ‘Amar Jiban’ comprises sixteen compositions also called rachanas. After every composition, a poem has been written in honour of Vaishnav goddess Dayamadhav. This autobiography has been written by Rassundari Devi as she records her daily struggle to become educated, that too in the times when the idea of women going to school and studying was highly discouraged. In those times, educated women were often associated with being wicked or cursed. But Rassundra Devi did not let this get in her way, on her own she managed to learn how to read and write, made a name and status for herself which was independent of her sons and husband.
Born in a rural household of Zamindars, Rassundari Devi was married off at the age of twelve. She never received formal education as education girls in those days were considered sinful. One day she observed that her husband left Chaitanya Bhagavata in the kitchen, prior to leaving the home for work. She saw this as a golden opportunity and took a sheet out of the Caitanya Bhagavata and hid that sheet. She then stole some palm leaves on which his son had been practising earlier. With these only two resources in her hands she taught herself to read by By looking at the words composed on the two sheets and with individuals' discourse, by memory and acknowledgment of the letters she had learned in youth, by consistent exertion and assurance.

Note:After her husband’s death in 1868, Rassundari Devi published the first version of autobiography ‘Amar Jiban, at the age of fifty nine. She is even considered an early feminist icon by many scholars.