This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... "Krupabai Saitfhianadhan. Unlike Toru Dutt of Bengal, who has been called her prototype, the authoress of Kamala lived to see her literary efforts recognised. Now that she has passed away, the Indian Press has expressed the pride which her countrymen feel in her and their sorrow for her early death. Her writings seem even better known to English than to Indian readers, some of them having been reviewed in flattering terms in the leading English Journals. Her Majesty the Queen Empress had recently accepted a copy of " Saguna" and was graciously pleased to request that any other work by the authoress should be sent to her. It might almost seem that Krupabai Satthianadhan is already too well known to need that her story should be told except as she herself has told it in " Saguna." But the final chapters of her life remain to be written, and to judge of her as an authoress and as a woman, we must view her surroundings and the position of her countrywomen when her life began. Thirty years ago female education had made but little progress in India. Missionaries were still bribing little girls to come to school with offers of food or clothing as they had been obliged to bribe boys a generation before. The great mass of the women of India were completely uneducated, and their position was becoming more and more unenviable as the education of men progressed and the difference between the intellectual status of the men and of the women in a household became greater. There is a good deal to show that in Vedic times women had lived a free and healthy life, sharing often in the pursuits and interests of their husbands. They seem even to have had some literary skill and to have composed hymns and songs. But the age in which they lived is remote and...