Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman's Divinity in Self-Formation

Rashsundari Devi's autobiography, Amar Jiban, the first by a Bengali woman, recounts her 19th-century struggles and yearning for literacy and equal spiritual status. She frames her life story as aligned with God's will, attributing all events to divine agency. The chapter analyzes how her self-representation follows religious codes unconventionally, using personalized experiences like precognitive dreams to shape her conception of God. The author examines her work through guru-shishya dynamics and Hindu texts, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, to argue that Rashsundari encodes her discontent within a framework of devotion rather than outright transgression.

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Abstract

Rashsundari Devi's autobiography, the first of its kind by any Bengali woman, Amar Jiban is the testimony of a 19th century Bengali woman's ordeals. It not only highlights the theme of women's education through her yearning for knowledge of letters; it also calls for equal spiritual status for women as she personally yearns for God. She chooses to rewrite her life in this autobiography, broadly in alignment with God's life. She attributes to God every good or bad thing happening around, even her life with transgressions. The chapter showcases how the re-presented self of Rashsundari follows the broad religious codes, yet not in the customary way and her personalized fantastic experiences, like precognitive dreams, help her mould the shape of her God. The author invokes the guru-shishya dynamics and looks through the glass of a few religious texts of Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita, to analyse whether she transgresses from the whole religious system or actually encodes her discontent uniquely on the bedrock of religious following, adherence, and devotion.