Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/60

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N the story of the Pundita Ramabai, reference has been made more than once to her kinswoman Anandibai Joshee, between whom and herself there existed a tie stronger even than that of blood, the bond of a common purpose and a common aim, that aim and purpose being nothing less than the amelioration of the condition of Indian women, and their emancipation from the state of bondage to which an absurd tradition had condemned them.

Both these women belong to the Mahratta race, which has played such a remarkable part in Indian history. Lord Macaulay, in his essay on Clive and Warren Hastings, thus refers to the rise of the Mahratta power:—

"The highlands which border on the western sea-coast of India, poured forth a formidable race, a race which was long the terror of every native power, and