Indian writer and social reformer, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati (1858-1922), was orphaned at the age of 16.

Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati was born Ramabai Dongre. Her father was a Sanskrit scholar and home-schooled his daughter in Sanskrit.

After she was orphaned, Ramabai and her brother travelled across India reciting Sanskrit scriptures.

She went on to become the 1st woman in India to earn the title of pandita (meaning Sanskirt scholar) from the University of Calcutta at the age of 20.

Ramabai married in 1880 then after her husband’s death in 1882, she founded the Arya Mahila Samaj, a society of Hindu women promoting the education of girls. She also published her 1st book, Morals for Women.

Pandita Ramabai travelled to Britian in 1883 where she converted to Christianity. In 1886, she travelled to the US where she published The High Caste Hindu Woman, widely considered her most important book.

In 1888 Pandita Ramabai returned to India and the following year opened an education centre in Chowpatty, an area of Mumbai (then Bombay).

During the late 1880s, Pandita Ramabai became involved in housing thousands of child widows, orphans and destitute women at the Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission https://globalaid.net/2019/11/15/mukti-mission-a-place-to-love-and-be-loved/