Anne Feldhaus is Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She has published several books, including Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra.

"Maharashtrian leaders have had an especially important influence in shaping the contemporary fate of women. A number of early social reformers were based here, as were important leaders of the reaction that derailed India's first 'female emancipation' movement. This book offers very rich materials on this movement and reaction, as well as additional valuable insights into Maharashtrian women's own perspectives and lives." — Nancy Auer Falk, Western Michigan University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Women in Eighteenth-Century Maharashtra 1. Family Disputes, Family Violence: Reconstructing Women's Experience from Eighteenth-Century Historical RecordsAnne B. Waters2. Women in the Kotwal's Papers, Pune, 1767-1791N. K. Wagle3. The Dancing Girls of MaharashtraV. S. KadamII. The Nineteenth-Century Debate: Conservatism and Reform 4. The Status and Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra: Vishnubawa Brahmachari's Views in the Context of Hindu RevivalFrank F. Conlon5. Sexual Property/Sexual Violence: Wives in Late Nineteenth-Century BombayJim Masselos6. Child Brides and Child Mothers: The Age of Consent Controversy in Maharashtra as a Conflict of Perspectives on WomenMeera Kosambi7. Gender Consciousness in Mid-Nineteenth-Century MaharashtraJayant Lele8. Pandita Ramabai's Stri-Dharma Niti and Tarabai Shinde's Stri-Purus Tulana: The Inner Unity of the TextsVidyut BhagwatIII. Some Contemporary Images 9. Women as Bullocks: A Self-Image of Maharashtrian Village WomenSharon F. Kemp10. Images of Women in a Maharashtrian Village: A Photo EssayHemalata C. Dandekar11. Sharda: A Mahar Woman's Path to SelfhoodMaxine Berntsen12. A Bibliographic Essay on Women in MaharashtraEleanor ZelliotAbout the ContributorsIndex

Anne Feldhaus is Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She has published several books, including Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra.

"Maharashtrian leaders have had an especially important influence in shaping the contemporary fate of women. A number of early social reformers were based here, as were important leaders of the reaction that derailed India's first 'female emancipation' movement. This book offers very rich materials on this movement and reaction, as well as additional valuable insights into Maharashtrian women's own perspectives and lives." — Nancy Auer Falk, Western Michigan University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Women in Eighteenth-Century Maharashtra 1. Family Disputes, Family Violence: Reconstructing Women's Experience from Eighteenth-Century Historical RecordsAnne B. Waters2. Women in the Kotwal's Papers, Pune, 1767-1791N. K. Wagle3. The Dancing Girls of MaharashtraV. S. KadamII. The Nineteenth-Century Debate: Conservatism and Reform 4. The Status and Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra: Vishnubawa Brahmachari's Views in the Context of Hindu RevivalFrank F. Conlon5. Sexual Property/Sexual Violence: Wives in Late Nineteenth-Century BombayJim Masselos6. Child Brides and Child Mothers: The Age of Consent Controversy in Maharashtra as a Conflict of Perspectives on WomenMeera Kosambi7. Gender Consciousness in Mid-Nineteenth-Century MaharashtraJayant Lele8. Pandita Ramabai's Stri-Dharma Niti and Tarabai Shinde's Stri-Purus Tulana: The Inner Unity of the TextsVidyut BhagwatIII. Some Contemporary Images 9. Women as Bullocks: A Self-Image of Maharashtrian Village WomenSharon F. Kemp10. Images of Women in a Maharashtrian Village: A Photo EssayHemalata C. Dandekar11. Sharda: A Mahar Woman's Path to SelfhoodMaxine Berntsen12. A Bibliographic Essay on Women in MaharashtraEleanor ZelliotAbout the ContributorsIndex

Anne Feldhaus is Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She has published several books, including Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra.

"Maharashtrian leaders have had an especially important influence in shaping the contemporary fate of women. A number of early social reformers were based here, as were important leaders of the reaction that derailed India's first 'female emancipation' movement. This book offers very rich materials on this movement and reaction, as well as additional valuable insights into Maharashtrian women's own perspectives and lives." — Nancy Auer Falk, Western Michigan University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Women in Eighteenth-Century Maharashtra 1. Family Disputes, Family Violence: Reconstructing Women's Experience from Eighteenth-Century Historical RecordsAnne B. Waters2. Women in the Kotwal's Papers, Pune, 1767-1791N. K. Wagle3. The Dancing Girls of MaharashtraV. S. KadamII. The Nineteenth-Century Debate: Conservatism and Reform 4. The Status and Image of Women in Nineteenth-Century Maharashtra: Vishnubawa Brahmachari's Views in the Context of Hindu RevivalFrank F. Conlon5. Sexual Property/Sexual Violence: Wives in Late Nineteenth-Century BombayJim Masselos6. Child Brides and Child Mothers: The Age of Consent Controversy in Maharashtra as a Conflict of Perspectives on WomenMeera Kosambi7. Gender Consciousness in Mid-Nineteenth-Century MaharashtraJayant Lele8. Pandita Ramabai's Stri-Dharma Niti and Tarabai Shinde's Stri-Purus Tulana: The Inner Unity of the TextsVidyut BhagwatIII. Some Contemporary Images 9. Women as Bullocks: A Self-Image of Maharashtrian Village WomenSharon F. Kemp10. Images of Women in a Maharashtrian Village: A Photo EssayHemalata C. Dandekar11. Sharda: A Mahar Woman's Path to SelfhoodMaxine Berntsen12. A Bibliographic Essay on Women in MaharashtraEleanor ZelliotAbout the ContributorsIndex