Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/97

Rh value, he looks the very picture of an Eastern potentate, but otherwise he dresses like any ordinary English gentleman, and there is nothing in his speech or manner to betray that he is not one by birth as by education. He has, moreover, imbibed the true English love for sport and games of all kinds, and he is not only a first-rate shot and polo-player, but also an excellent dancer and an accomplished billiard-player.

Such, then, was the country, and such the Prince to whom Keshub Chunder Sen gave his daughter.

The Maharani Sunity Devi was born in 1864, being not quite fourteen at the time of her marriage, and still almost a child in years when she entered upon the duties of an exceptionally difficult position.

"The fierce light which beats upon a throne" often proves a great obstacle in the way of change and reform. What is done and said by people in high positions is known and commented on by everyone, and there are none more trammelled by custom, tradition and etiquette than sovereigns and princes. It would have been comparatively easy for the daughter of Keshub Chunder Sen, as a private lady, to set at naught the traditional prejudices which condemn Hindu women to lives of seclusion and idleness, but it was a very different thing for the Maharani of Kuch Behar to attempt the same task.