Pratham Pratishruti; By Ashapurna Devi.

This is the first part of a trilogy, about three generations of women at various stages of liberty of personhood.

This one is about the first generation well taught with education and values given by her father. Satyavatie has been taught by her father before she was married off. She dreamt of carrying on the dream of blossoming of mind, of education, in her family, her children. She is married and has children of her own and they include a daughter, a piece of her own heart - she wishes to educate her as she was, give her all she can.

But this was well over a century ago and the families had different ideas often, and laws were archaic.

This is the era when British rule was in the process of taking over from various other Islamic and Hindu rulers in India. Ancient Indian social systems were demolished during Islamic occupation through centuries of strife against the Indian systems, and the education system had changed from Ashram school system of yore to one of parents educating children to the best of their own abilities.

This amongst other things had an implication that is universal across time, space, geography and culture - namely, women's education had suffered in terms of reading and writing (recall how recent it was that Harvard admitted women, and this is only because Vietnam war reduced the male student population) - although to be fair reading and writing was but a small part of Indian education where sheer memorisation of various subjects and treatises was the tradition, and also women in their normal course of life were expected to be well versed with all aspects of caring for famiily including medicine.

And too the social system had families make decisions for their children and women, so any head of a household whether man or woman could decide for their own children and dependents. Thus the education Satyavatie received from her father, which was neither unique in India nor universal.

And to make matters worse, child marriages were not only prevalent, they had been the rule since Islamic rule over most of the nation made it extremely risky to have a grown up daughter, or transport a young bride to the bridegroom's home. It had been safer for a few centuries to marry off young girls, before they were anywhere near puberty. The new rule by British had not changed that.

Satyavatie, however, had a great awareness and a mind of her own, and dreamt of bringing light to her own family, her household and children. This dream took a leap into blossoming when her daughter was born, and she intended to educate her daughter properly at a school and not marry her off early.

Satyavatie's daughter, Suvarnalataa, was five, and Satyavatie had already made it clear she would not tolerate any talk of the child being married off until she was grown up and well educated, as she herself had been.

But Satyavatie's mother in law foiled it neatly by taking her daughter Suvarnalata for a holiday to stay with grandparent. The mother-in-law tricked Satyavatie - when the child was on a holiday visiting the grandparents she was married off before the mother could arrive and prevent it.

Satyavatie was not able to break this up, she arrived too late and marriage was a fate accompli; moreover Hindu marriages have no break, no divorce in religion and in any case no possibility of another marriage for the girl, not then anyway. (Law has changed much since then, which is different from religion, as any catholic knows too - church excommunicates divorced people, especially women, everywhere in the world.)

The child, Suvarnalata, was small and it was not abnormal socially, so the trauma for her began only when she was then dispatched off with the new relatives to her own in-laws home, and separated from her own mother - who arrived too late to stop the wedding but early enough to see her daughter married - by force, and then on Suvarnalata had to live with them and take the lifelong taunts from them about her mother and her strange behaviour. As any woman of superior achievements and a mind of her own is likely to suffer in any society across time and space an geography and culture.

Satyavatie fought back in her own way, which might not seem much like a fighting back today but was a great shocker for her day. She according to her name went in search of truth (Satyavatie means One Who Has Truth).

The daughter, Suvarnalata, is the next volume in the series, in many ways the one who battled more and with courage and strength she had inherited from her own mother - even though she had so little a time with her and no education to speak of. She carried the mother's dream forth, with resolve, fighting not only her own mother-in-law and the rest of society, but even her own sons, who were on the side of social norms about marrying off the youngest - the third woman in the series.

It is really hard to put a value on the series, practically a chronicle of generations of women, though the pattern was not same for every family where India is concerned - it never is, in India.

Fortunately. Because that is what makes progress and evolution not only possible but easier, with no central authority conducting inquisition.
..................