Pandita Ramabai, Bible Translator

Rama Dongre, later known as Pandita Ramabai, was born in India in 1858 into a Marathi-speaking family, belonging to the priestly Brahmin caste. There were no schools for girls, but her parents gave her a thorough education in the Sanskrit language. They were, however, very poor. During the great famine of 1876–78, both her parents died from starvation. Pandita went to live with her older brother and became well known for her intellectual abilities and teaching skill, to the point that the University of Calcutta gave her the title Pandita, meaning ‘wise teacher’, the first woman to be so honoured. In 1880 her brother also died and she married a friend of her brother; however, because he was from a lower caste, she was thought to have polluted herself. They had a daughter, and then her husband died too. At 24, she found herself destitute: an impoverished, orphaned widow.

In 1883, Pandita travelled to England for her studies and was invited to stay at an Anglican community. In the community’s London Rescue Home, she saw first-hand how women who had fallen on hard times were helped. This experience moved her enormously. In particular, the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 impacted her. Back in India, she came to know Christ. She wrote: ‘The Holy Spirit made it clear from the Word of God that the salvation which God gives through Christ is present and not something future. I received, I believed and I was filled with joy.’

Her new goal was to translate the Bible into her own language. A translation into Marathi had already been completed in the early 19th century, as well as subsequent revisions too. But Pandita thought that these translations relied too heavily on Sanskrit words and phrases and did not speak to women of lower castes. Her translation had a specific audience: uneducated women of lower castes. She learnt Greek and Hebrew in order to translate the Scriptures into Marathi, and completed her translation just before her death in 1922.

For more information, check out Wycliffe Bible Translators' article about Pandita Ramabai her life and work.