real history in our literature, in their crude and elegant forms, are both taken from life. Rāsasundarī, from whose autobiography the following extract is taken, was only twelve years old when she was married. She had enjoyed her own marriage festivities thoughtlessly, as her companions had done, and had never anticipated that the bridegroom's party would carry her away to her husband’s home.
"In the morning they asked my mother, if the (bridegoom's) party would leave the place that very day. I thought that the new-comers would now be going away. I was very happy and walked gaily with my mother in the compound. A short while after the new-comers again entered the inner apartment. I saw then that some of the inmates of the house were weeping. When I saw this I was greatly alarmed. My mother, aunts and elder brothers embraced me in turn at this time and began to weep. At this I sobbed and cried alond. I was now convinced that my mother would be giving me to the new-comers. I caught her arms tightly and told her 'Mamma, do not give me away to these people.' When my relations heard this and saw how greatly frightened I was, they were all moved and spoke soothing words to me. My mother took me in her arms and began to say many kind things. She said, 'Do not cry, my darling, what is it that ails you? God will be with you everywhere. I will bring you again a short while after.' I was so frightened at that time that my limbs began to quake and I could not utter a word. Anyhow I controlled myself a little and said crying—'Mamma, will God accompany me there?' She said—'Yes why not? God will go with you and protect you child. Do not cry.'"
The young bride came in a boat to her new home, weeping all the way,—desperate at her forlornness. She describes next her first experience in her husband’s home.
"I began to call on God from my innermost heart while my eyes swam in tears. My mother-in-law came in and affectionately took me in her arms and tried with gentle and kind words to assuage my grief. Oh! how thankful am I to God! How perfect is His arrangement all premeditated in love! How artfully does He make the bark of one tree fit another! As she embraced me I felt her arms as tender as those of my own mother. Her words were affectionate and kind; and as I heard them I thought that my mother was speaking to me. Yet her outward form was not like that of my mother, who was very handsome and fair-coloured. My mother-in-law was not so. There were many other points of dissimilarity. Yet when she sweetly embraced me I shut my eye in joy and thought that I was in the arms of my own mother."
