Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/46

34 God as the Creator and Euler of the Universe, and they even believed that He cared for them, and could help and guide them. When grief came, they bowed in humble resignation to His Almighty will, and they thanked Him reverently for all their happiness, for both joy and sorrow came to them in their married life. First a little daughter was born to them, and instead of repining and weeping, as an orthodox Hindu mother would do, that the child was a girl and not a boy, Ramabai rejoiced and called her baby "Manorama," meaning "Hearts-joy." Only a few months later came the sorrow, when the husband was taken ill with cholera and died within a few hours.

Once more was Ramabai left unprotected to face the world, and this time in the condition of all others which is a sad one for a Hindu woman, that of a son-less widow. To add to her desolation and loneliness, she had committed the unpardonable crime of marrying out of her own caste, and thereby incurred the wrath and contempt of all her relations and friends. Her husband had been of an inferior caste to herself, but it was the fact they were not of the same caste which constituted their marriage a crime, and caused them to be shunned by all their belongings. The hardness and coldness of their relations had been hard enough to bear when they had their mutual love and help tp sustain them, but now