The Amazing Rani Rashmoni

Challenging rules of gender, caste, class and religion

- Decdutt Pattanaik

In early 19th century, in a society dominated by men, mostly wealthy landed Brahmins, and by the colonial rulers of the land, a woman called Rani Rashmoni rose to be a successful business leader in Kolkata.

She built the famous Dakshineshwar Temple where Swami Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, whose original name was Gadadhara Chattopadhyay, served as a priest. Sri Ramakrishna would, in time, have a profound influence on a young, erudite and rather affluent young man called Narendranath Datta, who would go on to become the thinker and orator, Swami Vivekananda.

Rani Rashmoni was barely eleven when she married her husband, a rich landlord, and she was widowed when she was in her forties. A natural leader, she was able to generate a vast amount of wealth, that she used shrewdly for various philanthropic, political and religious projects. This all happened in the decade before the catastrophic Uprising of 1857.