Question

Who was Rashsundari Devi? What did she write in her biography?

Answer 1

Hint: Rashsundari Devi was born in the village of Potajia in 1810 and was married at the age of 12 to Sitanath Ray from Rajbari, Faridpur.

Complete Step by Step answer: Rashsundari Devi is the first Bengali and the first Indian woman to write an autobiography. She is one of the earliest woman writers in Bengali literature. She was born in 1810 in the village of Potajia, now Pabna, Bangladesh. She is a renowned author of ‘Amar Jibon’ (My Life), which was published in 1876.

Rashsundari’s father Padmalochan Roy died when she was a small child and thus was raised by her mother and relatives. She attended school along with boys for a brief period which was run by a missionary woman in her father’s house. She was a Vaishnavite by faith and learned to read Valmiki Purana and Chaitanya Bhagavata out of pure devotion. She was married at a very young age and bore 12 children, of whom 5 survived.

In 1876, her own autobiography ‘Amar Jibon’ was published. The book is classified into two parts. The first part comprises sixteen shorter compositions where she narrated her autobiography. The second part was published in 1906 consisting of fifteen shorter compositions, each preceded by a dedicatory poem and the compositions in the first part are relatively longer. Rabindranath Tagore’s elder brother Jyotirindranath Tagore praised the book for its ‘simple sweetness’ and ‘wonderful train of events’.

Note: Rashundari Devi explained her daily life and how she taught herself to read and write in secret by scribbling the letters of the alphabet onto a corner of the blackened kitchen wall.