how did Raj Sundari Devi learn to write and read?
Answers
Rassundari Devi (c 1809-?), a Bengali Woman, wrote a story of her life, Amar Jiban ("My Life"), that was published in 1876. This detailed memoir revolves around her day to day experiences as a housewife and mother. Obsessed with a desire to read, she stole a page from a book and a sheet of paper from her son and kept them hidden in the kitchen where she furtively pursued her education.
This is the first autobiography written in Bengali and it is rich in details of the period when reformers were attempting to change the lives of woman. When Rassundari Devi was finally able to write about her own struggle to master simple reading, she commented!". These days parents of a single girl take so much care to educate her. But we had to struggle so much just for that".
Answer:
•Rassundari Devi learnt Bengali alphabets by sitting outside classes.
•She discretely took pages from scriptures belonging to her husband and also observed her son's scribblings as he was learning alphabets.
• Slowly she practised and started reading.
• Encouraged by her family, she learnt writing too in her fifties.
Explanation:
The appropriate question should be: - How did Rassundari Devi learn to write and read?
The answer is as below: -
•Rassundari Devi, a 12-year-old girl from a wealthy family in rural Bengal, sent to her husband's home in 1822.
• Rassundari quickly began her new home's routine of wedded life. Even though the wealthy family had dozens of workers, she did all the cooking herself and was occupied with domestic duties from dawn until far after midnight.
• Surprisingly, when she was little, her mother had allowed her to hear the classes being taught at the neighbourhood school. There was no question about her participating, therefore she was permitted to silently observe the lesson from the doorway. She spent two years learning the Bengali alphabet by heart, a feat she resolutely concealed.
•She then stole several items—from her kid, who had been practising writing his letters on some rough paper, and from her husband, a page from his Chaitanya Bhagvata. She would choose a letter from the book, compare it to a letter in her son's notes, recall her private alphabet study, and recall the sound of that letter. Day after day, she put in a tremendous amount of effort, till she eventually "stumbled" through the entire Chaitanya Bhagvata!
• She read every book in the home over time, in private. After some time, she mustered the strength to tell her three widowed sisters-in-law who were still living at home about her secret. They were so ecstatic that they forced her to recite them Hindu scriptures inaudibly in private!
• The times started to change gradually. When she was in her fifties, one of her younger sons brought her paper, pen, and ink along with a demand that she reply to his letters herself. She also picked up writing.
• With encouragement from her family, she eventually even penned her autobiography in Bengali, which was simply named Amar Jiban, or "My Life." This was the first Bengali text written by a woman and perhaps the first Bengali autobiography ever when it was ultimately published in 1876 when she was in her sixties.