MAHAPURUSH AND MAHANARI OF BENGAL

RANI RASHMONI

Rani Rashmoni, who established the famous Dakshineswar Temple in Calcutta proved herself as an effective leader and business-woman in the male dominated society in 19th century. She worked for the welfare of society.

She was born on 28th September 1793 in Halisahar, Calcutta( Kolkata was known as Calcutta at that time). Her mother's name was RamaPriya Devi. Her father HareKrishna Das was very poor but he was a great devotee of Lord Narayan. Rani lost her mother at a very early age. By birth, she belonged to lower caste.
Raja Rajchandra - a wealthy businessman of Janbazar, Calcutta came to visit Halisahar and then he saw Rani the first time. Exceptionally beautiful, he liked Rani and came to his home and told to his father. His father went to Halisahar to visit Rani's house. When he saw Rani, she was serving rice to the people. He saw Maa Annapurna and Maa Lakshmi within Rani. He went to Rani's father for discussion about Rani's marriage. Rani , when she was eleven years old married RajChandra Das .

At that time the society was male dominated, where women had the right only to remain in their house and perform chores but Raja Rajchandra was against this. He taught Rani how to read, write. She became RajChandra's business companion too. He used to take Rani's advise before doing any work. Rani used to worship RAGHUVEER And RADHA KRISHNA daily.
Rani became mother of four daughters - PADMAMANI, KUMARI, KARUNAMOYEE and JAGADAMBA.
RajChandra taught his daughters to read and write. Kumari had deep interest in music, so he taught music to Kumari.
Padmamani was married to RamChandra Ata but she used to stay with her parents with her husband.

Aftee some years, Kumari was married to PyariMohan Biswas.
Everything was going fine....

Now, Rani thought to find a groom for Karunamoyee. RajChandra found a suitable groom named PranKrishna Biswas of Bitari which is also located in Bengal but on the day of marriage, PranKrishna's father came to know that Rani and Raja Rajchandra, both belongs to lower caste, so he came and stopped the marriage. Karunamoyee got a shock and fall unconscious. PranKrishna's younger brother Mathur Biswas was against this as he was against his father's decision. His father became angry and he declared that he will not treat Mathur as his son and he left the place with PranKrishna. For saving Karunamoyee from the ill words of society, Mathur married Karunamoyee.
At the time of Durga Puja, Rani got a vision of Goddess to take people from a village to make Durga Murti. When Rani visited the village, she found a small girl named Uma and she found that Uma is orphan child. She took Uma to her house and she made her sat for Kumari Puja. Everyone was against this but Rani didn't heard anyone's words. RajChandra always supported his wife. She saw that Uma herself is Goddess Durga.

Rani also had vision that Krishna, Ram and Kali , all are same.
Padmamani and Kumari both gave birth to a boy . They were named Mahendra and JaduNath. Raja Rajchandra gave some land to his grand-children.

Rani started finding groom for her youngest daughter Jagadamba but everyone demanded wealth as dowry. Rani and RajChandra were against dowry. She fought against dowry and insisted every parents to educate their girl child. IshwarChandra Vidyasagar always supported Rani and Raja Rajchandra.

Rani came to know that Karunamoyee will be a  mother and she became happy hearing this. RajChandra's cousin brother and his mother was against their peaceful life as they demanded wealth and property of Rajchandra.

Karunamoyee gave birth to a boy but she became seriously ill after giving child birth. She died and Rani became heart broken as she lost her third daughter. She cried but she prayed to Raghuveer so that she and her family can overcome this sorrow. Her son was named Bhupal and Jagadamba started taking care of Bhupal. Jagadamba married Mathur for Bhupal's care. Initially Mathur cannot accept that but later he gave Jagadamba , the rights of a wife.
Once, the poor people faced shortage of food as the farmers were unable to cultivate. Rani decided to take the responsibility to give them food. So she sent Mathur to take rice and pulses from their godown for which he had to sail ship and go on the other side of the locality but some greedy goons attacked Mathur but Rani was determined to save her son in law. One of the goons turned good after he saw Rani's nature and she even took gun in her hand and said ," Until and unless I am there, you cannot attack my children".
The goons were surprised to see her courage and determination. They left the place.

Rani herself cooked food (Kichdi , Sabji and Kheer) for the common people. Everyone said that she is Devi Annapurna.

In 1836, RajChandra fell seriously ill and he was attacked by brain stroke. RajChandra died but Rani couldn't bear that shock. She fall unconscious, but Rani saw RajChandra in dream. He said," Wake up Rani. From now, you will take care of both family and business. Go sit on my chair and prove yourself
I know that you can do it".

Rani regained consciousness and went and sat on RajChandra's chair. RajChandra's cousin brother and his mother were against this and they even planned to kill Rani but couldn't as Mathur Babu was there to protect their mother in law whom they treated as her own mother. She went to Puri and gave the servants some lands for cultivation.
Rani's heart again broke after one year. Her second daughter Kumari died and this time Rani couldn't control her tears as she lost her two gems.
After this, she took the responsibility to take care of Kumari's child JaduNath.
She also lost her second son in law after some years.

Rani and her clashes with the British was the most important story of that time.
She blocked trading in Ganga and asked the British to abolish the tax imposed on fishing as this threatened the livelihoods of poor fisherman.
She was a social worker and she fought for women rights and proved herself as an effective leader.

Rani constructed and funded for the constructions of many ghats like BABU GHAT(memory of her husband), NIMTALA GHAT, ARIHITOLA GHAT for people to bath in Ganga regularly.
She took the responsibility to educate the children of lower caste and she admitted them to school. Everyone opposed Rani but RAGHUVEER was with her , so no one could stop him. She funded for the construction of many colleges.

Once while she was going to Kashi for worshipping God. Maa Kali appeared in her dream and said," Rani, built a temple here, near Ganga".

Rani opened her eyes and worked according to Maa's instructions. She constructed Dakshineswar Temple and her son- in- law helped her a lot. As she was from lower caste, no one was ready to do the puja of the temple. RamKumar Chattopadhyay , elder brother of Ramkrishna Paramhansa took the responsibility to do the puja. After he passed away, Ramkrishna Paramhansa became the priest. Rani was pleased to see Ramkrishna Paramhanasa and he turned Mathur from atheist to devotee of God.

Rani passed away on 19th February 1861 but her name and her works for the welfare of the society was immortal. She became a new example of woman power and woman empowerment.
Everyone calls her SNEHAMOYEE, DAYAMOYEE as everyone believed her to be the personification of Goddess Durga.