Devrani Jethani ki Kahani or A Story of Two Sisters-in-Law by Gauri Dutt

TRANSLATOR- Smita Gandotra and Ulrike Stark

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INFORMATION

  • TRANSLATOR- Smita Gandotra and Ulrike Stark
  • PB ISBN : 978-93-91144-56-2
  • Year : 2022
  • Extent : 438
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Pandit Gauri Datt’s Devrani Jethani ki Kahani or A Story of Two Sisters-in-Law (1870) is often considered the first novel in Hindi. This sparsely written story, in deceptively simple but elegant prose, follows the fortunes of an Agarwal merchant family in the north Indian town of Meerut, then under colonial rule. Gauri Datt introduces us to a colourful and carefully calibrated canvas of characters in which the family’s two daughters-in-law remain the focus of interest. Following a familiar pattern, only one of them is virtuous, skilled and literate. The novel acknowledges the large extended family’s aspirations for social mobility, reform and modernity, while capturing the swiftly transforming everyday and ritual life of merchant communities. The novel will be of interest to scholars and students of South Asian literature and to historians of language, education, modernity, caste and gender.

The Author
Pandit Gauri Datt (1837–1906) spent most of his life in Meerut. He started out as a school teacher but acquired considerable local influence as the founder of the Devanagari Pracharini Sabha, Meerut. The present volume offers valuable insight on an understudied advocate of the Hindi movement, who was also a spirited pioneer of female education. This translation is the first to bring Gauri Datt’s Devrani Jethani ki Kahani into English. It is presented along with a facsimile of the original 1870 Hindi edition, held at the British Library, London. The translation and facsimile are supported by an extensive introduction and annotations.

TRANSLATORS
Smita Gandotra teaches in the Department of English, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Ulrike Stark teaches in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.