Rani Rashmoni

Published on 1st March, 2020, in Mid-day 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 Paramhansa, whose original name was Gadadhara Chattopadhyay, served as priest. 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 ..