The Life and Times of Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani: A Proposal
Sanjeev Kumar Nath
(This article is mostly from the text of a paper presented at an academic seminar in 2015. The proposal for a well-researched biography of Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani, suggested in the seminar paper, remains fully relevant today.)
As the title suggests, this is a proposal for research.
The present writer’s own engagements with some issues concerning Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani (1875-1954) compels him to ask the scholarly community engaged in gender studies, particularly those that are interested in recovering women’s stories from oblivion, if they would be interested in writing something in the line of The Life and Times of Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani.
The suggestion is not merely for an imaginative recreation of the life of Devi Baruani—although an amount of imaginative engagement would be actually necessary in such a work—but a work based on rigorous research about the smallest details of her life.
The purpose of this brief essay is to explain why such a well-researched biography of Devi Baruani is necessary. My contention here is that such a biography would actually be not just the recovery of the story of a worthy woman of the past, but also a document presenting the history of Assam, particularly Upper Assam, of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
I also believe that such a book would be a singular contribution if it focuses adequately on women’s position in Assamese society of the times.
However, one may wonder why we should try to recover lost stories at all. Why should we take the pains to research the details of Devi Baruani’s life? Don’t we know enough of the history of her times?
The answer is that history, written by men through the ages, has neglected women’s stories, has not acknowledged women’s contribution to human civilization adequately. This is, of course, a general problem affecting historical discourse everywhere, and one excellent book that has tried to highlight women’s contribution to civilization is Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women’s History of the World by Rosalind Miles.
The question in the title of the book is a rhetorical question, suggesting that the Last Supper must have been cooked by a woman; that is why we do not know the cook’s name: “Who cooked the Last Supper? If it had been a man, wouldn’t he have a saint’s day by now, with a fervent following of celebrity chefs?” (Miles 1).
We cannot deal with our present unless we attempt to understand it, and the present in not entirely comprehensible without an understanding of the past. However, our understanding of the past is very likely to remain incomplete and inadequate unless we attempt to redress the gaps in the histories we have.
Some of the big gaps in history are caused by the fact that it is mostly written by men without much awareness of the prejudices of patriarchy that operate through them and remain pervasive in the socio-cultural fabric.
It would not be an exaggeration to assert that on the whole the history of men has been a description of ‘because of’ and the history of women has been a description of ‘in spite of’. Because of their access to certain resources—although this is not to discount their personal enterprise and hard work—men have achieved certain things; but if women have achieved anything, it is mostly in spite of their lack of access to resources, in spite of hindrances.
If we are to truly measure anyone’s achievement in life, we cannot ignore his or her access to the resources required for success. We need to see what use one has made of the resources at one’s disposal. Also, we need to see what one has perhaps achieved despite facing various hindrances.
Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani lived and worked at a time when several enlightened Assamese gentlemen made remarkable contribution to their society, and her husband, Jagannath Barooah, was one of them. One of his very dear friends was Rai Bahadur Radhakanta Handique1, and both of them were pioneering Assamese tea planters2.
They concentrated on making use of what the colonial situation had presented to the native people of India: western education and the opportunities of trade and commerce on both national and international platforms. Jagannath Barooah, the elder of the two friends, was a graduate of the Presidency College, Kolkata.
After he became the first graduate of Upper Assam in 1872 and came to be referred to as B A Jagannath, the British Government offered him the post of sub-deputy collector twice.
In those days, that was a very respectable offer, and it would be almost impossible for a young man to reject such an offer, but Jagannath Barooah did just that, simply because he wanted to be an independent entrepreneur rather than an officer in the pay rolls of the government. Jagannath Barooah also excelled as an orator, and was active in social service.
After the death of Jagannath Barooah’s first wife Lilavati, he married Troilokyeswari. We do not know a lot about Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani’s life, but some details are available. The daughter of Muktavali Devi and Purnananda Baruah, a government official and a member of the famous Bezbaroa family of Sivasagar, Troilokyeswari grew up in affluent and happy surroundings.
She was born in 1875, and 1875 was also the year in which her future husband, Jagannath Barooah who was then 24, married Lilavati. In 1888, the 37-year old Jagannath Barooah, famous as B A Jagannath and a rich tea-planter, married 13-year-old Troilokyeswari. By then his first wife had died and he had two children by her: Swarnasashi, a daughter, and Devendranath, a son.
Of course, that was a time when the age-difference of 24 years between Troilokyeswari and her husband was not an exception but almost a rule. Barooah was not committing an offence or doing anything irregular by marrying the 13-year-old girl because it was acceptable for men even older than him to marry very young girls.
In fact, women’s organizations of the period expressed their resentment at the huge difference of age—much bigger than 24 years—between wives and husbands.
In Assam, women’s education was virtually unknown then, and girls generally never saw the inside of a school. Troilokyeswari also did not have an opportunity to go to school, but her father was far-sighted enough to provide some education to his daughter at home. She was instructed in a few subjects including languages like Bangla and English, and she could speak and write in Assamese, Bangla and English.
Thus accomplished, the thirteen-year old bride settled down in Jagannath Barooah’s large house at Baligaon, Jorhat. How did the little girl feel, being the wife of an educated, enlightened tea-planter of Assam who was also a great orator and involved in various socio-cultural issues of the time?
We don’t know, but she did very well as his wife, taking care of the two children from his first marriage, managing the large household with its army of servants, teaching important skills to the people who worked in the house. She was an expert weaver, too, producing stunningly beautiful clothes on her loom.3
In 1896, the house at Baligaon was completely gutted in a fire, and Jagannath Barooah’s family moved to Barpatra Cottage, a large beautiful house that Barooah had bought at the heart of Jorhat town. In 1907, Jagannath Barooah breathed his last at the age of 56. Toilokyeswari was 32. All Jagannath Barooah’s property, including the tea estates, were inherited by Devendranath, his son through his first wife.
Devendranath died early, and this time the entire property went to Murulidhar Barooah, his sister Swarnasashi’s son, i.e., his nephew. During the two times when Jagannath Barooah’s wealth and property changed hands, his wife Troilokyeswari was just a bystander. Why? Should we simply attribute such ‘forgetfulness’ to the pervading patriarchy of Assamese society of the times or are there other, more concrete, specific reasons? Only proper research can clarify this mystery.
From what is known about Jagannath Barooah’s attitude towards his wife Troilokyeswari, he was not an uncaring husband. Because she was a diabetic, he took her to see good doctors in Koklata. All that is known about Barooah suggests that he was a disciplined, naturally caring person. It is extremely difficult to understand how someone like him would forget to make adequate arrangements for the material well-being his wife.
As his spouse, it would only be natural for her to get a reasonably large amount of his vast property, but she did not. As someone who suffered from diabetes considered quite a difficult disease at that time, one would think she was especially entitled to finances required for medical treatment.
As a child in her parental home, Troilokyeswari was not unaccustomed to affluence; as Jagannath Barooah’s wife, she enjoyed even greater affluence, but only until the death of her husband. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to assert that as a widow, she had to fend for herself.
Her story of being a bystander did not end with her being a bystander when her husband’s property changed hands twice. When her house, Borpatra Kutir, was bequeathed to Jorhat College (to be renamed as Jagannath Barooah College) by Murulidhar Barooah, she had to move out.
Murulidhar Barooah’s munificence helped in the establishment and growth of one of the most illustrious educational institutions of Assam, and no one in his right mind can find fault with his act of donation.
At the same time, however, one cannot help thinking that perhaps Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani was simply expected to accept her new condition of being dispossessed of the large house and gardens, where she had lived with her husband for long, and where, incidentally, she had provided hospitality to Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Jorhat in 1921.
Instead of harbouring rancour against an institution because of which she had to buy land, build a house and settle down again somewhat late in life, Devi Baruani was full of good will towards the institution named after her husband, and that is testified by her donation of Rs 5000 to enable Jagannath Barooah College to start admitting girl students (Barua 3).
The question that Rosalind Miles asks in Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women’s History of the World is not just about the anonymous cook of the most famous supper in history, but about millions of women whose contributions have not been noticed adequately.
When the Jorhat district administration celebrated the 200-year-old history of Jorhat, and brought out quite a large-sized souvenir on the occasion, many of the meetings and activities in connection with the publication of the souvenir took place at the Deputy Commissioner’s residence, next door to Barpatra Kutir and Jagannath Barooah College. Jorhat 200, the resultant volume, contains no article on Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani.
However, in an Assamese article on Jagannath Barooah, a distinguished author mentions Devi Baruani’s name: “After the death of his first wife Lilavati, he married Troilokyeswari. She was childless.”4 Then, in a long list of names of people under the title “Pride of Jorhat”, the commemorative volume mentions Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani’s name and her field of activity as “donor and writer”.
That is all the volume managed to talk about Devi Baruani. One would think that at least the souvenirs published on the occasions of the golden jubilee and diamond jubilee celebrations of Jagannath Barooah College would pay some attention to Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani, but no, the two volumes do not have any article on her.
In the platinum jubilee souvenir, once again there is a passing remark, this time in English: “...he married Troilokyeswari Devi in 1888, youngest daughter of Purnananda Barooah. But she was barren.”5
The word “barren” is full of the stigma of failed womanhood, so even the passing remark merely highlights Devi Baruani’s failure; it says nothing of the reason of her “barrenness”, the standard medical advice in those days to women with diabetes; it says nothing about her positive contributions to society, nothing about her weathering the entirely uncalled for financial difficulties brought in by her widowhood, nothing about her grit and determination to take care of her family after her husband’s demise despite the obviously difficult situation in which she suddenly found herself, nothing about her enterprise and endeavour to maintain a respectable standard of life by overseeing cultivation and other work in her widowhood, nothing of her selling a house bought with her own money to be able to make handsome donations to institutions like Jagannath Barooah College and Jaymati Balika Vidyalaya, nothing of her numerous acts of social service, nothing of her wonderful skills of storytelling, nothing of her two books of tales praised by Lakshminath Bezbaroa.
In the year 1934, 59-year old Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani published Sadhukatha, a collection of 17 tales in Assamese. In her brief note to her readers, Devi Baruani said that the stories recorded in the volume were all from her memory: some of the stories she had heard as a child, some she had read. In an apologetic tone she says that she has changed some of the stories to fill the gaps in her memory.
She does not claim any originality, and says that she has simply retold some stories she had encountered long ago, hoping that the tales would be of interest to youngsters. She says that she has been unwell and bedridden for long, and in that condition, she used to tell stories to children that gathered around her.
In fact her story-telling sessions were quite well-known at Jorhat, and she mentions Tulasi Narayan Sarma and Krishnakanta Sabhapandit encouraging her a lot to write down the stories she had been telling.
That her book was indeed received with enthusiasm is proved by the fact that the University of Calcutta promptly included it in its matriculation course. In her note in the second edition of the book, Devi Baruani thanks the authorities of the University for including her book as a text for the matriculation course.
Also, Devi Baruani’s book is praised and described as an asset for the Assamese by no less a person than Jnanadabhiram Baruah in a brief note attached to the book. Baruah noted and commended the moral dimension of the stories.
Then, the second volume of Devi Baruani’s tales, Sandhiyar Sadhu, was published in 1937. Lakshminath Bezbaroa, who was Devi Baruani’s grandfather in the extended family, wrote the preface to this volume. He said that his granddaughter’s two books of folktales were the only books of real folktales in Assamese to be published after his own volumes, Burhi Air Sadhu and Kaka Deuta Aru Nati Lora.
Bezbaroa praises Devi Baruani’s language, and says that she is truly gifted in the art of story-telling.
Today, if anyone remembers Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani at all, they do that only in connection with these two books of tales, and then there are scholars who find nothing wrong in putting on an air of condescension for having to take notice of such uncomplicated stuff as an old woman’s tales. It is possible that her tales have not received the attention they deserve.
It is not impossible that sometimes they were not even noticed, when they should have been noticed. For example, Folktales of India edited by Brenda E. F. Beck, Peter J. Claus, Prafulladatta Goswami and Jawaharlal Handoo (published by the University of Chicago Press in 1987) contain an oral tale called “The Fish Head” transcribed and translated by Prafulladatta Goswami.
The tale is recorded as told by Mrs Dipali Sarma, a Brahman housewife in a village near Patacharkuchi, Kamrup, Assam on 9 Decemebr, 1967. There is no mention anywhere, however, that the same tale, told with a little more elaboration and flare, already appeared in print in Devi Baruani’s second book of tales, Sandhiyaar Saadhu in 1937.
A tale may remain in the oral tradition even as it gets recorded in print; that is not what I am surprised about; I’m surprised about the discrepancy of recalling the exact date of the tale being told and the total lack of mention of the tale’s existence in print thirty years before that date.
It is not my objective to speak of the merits of the stories here, but I do wish to point out that Troilokyeswari’s two books were only the by-products of her storytelling sessions in her house in the evenings. She kept alive the old Assamese tradition of storytelling.6
This is also one aspect of her life which has not received enough attention. On the whole, there are a lot of gaps to be filled, a lot of questions to be asked, a lot of difficult answers to be teased out, to be able to do justice to a project such as The Life and Times of Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani. It will not be an easy tasks, but a challenging and very rewarding task.
Notes.
- Radhakanta Handique (1857-1938), who earned the sobriquet daanveer for his munificence and generous financial help to institutions and individuals, was a very successful, wealthy tea planter. It is important to note, however, that he did not begin life with a silver spoon in his mouth. Despite some financial hardships, he did very well in the Entrance Examination from Sivasagar High School in 1881, winning the monthly scholarship of Rs 20 for Assamese students desiring to go for further studies in Kolkata. Incidentally, Handique won that scholarship the very first year the Chief Commissioner of Assam, Sir Charles Eliot had announced the British Government’s decision about that move to help Assamese students. In 1887, he joined the office of the Director of Land Records, Shillong as a clerk, and later as a sub-deputy collector at Jorhat. While working at Jorhat, Handique bought his first tea estate, Tirual, and entrusted its care to his friend Jagannath Barooah. While people like Radhakanta Handique and Jagannath Barooah represented a section of enlightened Indians who were able to make use of the opportunities of trade and commerce in a new global context, and thus usher in the changes of modernity introduced by the colonial dispensation, Radhakanta Handique’s son Krishna Kanta Handiqui (1898-1982) was unique with his extraordinary indological scholarship, his expertise in both ancient Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and several modern European languages, and in his remaining rooted in his own culture while bringing the message of western education and culture to his people.
- The first Assamese to realize the significance of the new global capitalist market economy and to make use of the changing scenario with the help of entrepreneurial skills was Maniram Dewan (1806-1858).
- I have had the pleasure of looking at some of the samples of her excellent weaving, shown to me by her daughter-in-law (wife of her nephew and adopted son Kamalananda Baruah) Mrs Makhani Devi.
- Translation mine. The lines occur in an Assamese article: Goswami, Jatindranath, “Jagannath Barooah Aru Jorhat Sarbajanik Sabha” in Jorhat 200, commemorative volume published to mark the celebration of Jorhat’s 200-year-old history.
- The lines occur in Goswami, Jatindranath, “B. A. Jagannath” in the souvenir published on the occasion of the platinum jubilee celebrations of Jagannath Barooah College.
- Folklorists have noted how various factors associated with the rapid progress of technological civilization have adversely affected storytelling traditions throughout the world. However, technology can also be used to revive old stories in new ways. Intelligent and sensitive retelling of old stories through skilful animations is one such way. Old Assamese tales can also have a new lease of life through such means.
Works Cited.
Miles, Rosalind. Who Cooked the Last Supper? The Women’s History of the World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1988.
Barua, Nilima. “Troilokyeswari Devi Baruani” in (Assamese book) ed. Gogoi, Puspa, et al. Jiwanar Jonaki Pohar. Jorhat: Jorhat Lekhika Somaroh, 2001.