Back of the Book In a moment of rare passion Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, author of Sarasvatichandra, exclaimed 'I only want their souls'. He was referring to the souls of his countrymen and women, which he sought to cultivate through his literary writings. Lilavati was his and Lalitagauri's eldest daughter. Her education and the writing of Sarasvaticandra were intertwined. She was raised to be the perfect embodiment of virtue, and died at the age of twenty-one, consumed by tuberculosis. In moments of 'lucidity', she spoke of her suffering and that challenged the very foundations of Govardhanram's life. In 1905 he wrote her biography, Lilavati Jivankala. This is a rare work in biographical literature, a father writing about the life of a deceased daughter. Despite Govardhanram's attempts to contain Lilavati as a unidimensional figure of his imagination, she goes beyond that, sometimes by questioning the fundamental tenets of Brahminical beliefs, and at others by being so utterly selfless as to be unreal even to him.
Lilavati: A Life is a cross between literature in translation, social and political history, and women's studies. Tridip Suhrud's introduction dwells on the themes of the cultivation of selfhood, of nation and the ideal of sacrifice, which is sure to resonate with contemporary readership, especially women.
Introduction I wish to produce, or see produced, not this or that event-but a people who shall be higher and stronger than they are, who shall be better able to look and manage for themselves than is the present helpless generation of my educated and uneducated countrymen. What kind of a nation that should be and how that spark should be kindled for the organic flame: these were, and are, the problems before my mind. I lay With these words Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi (1855-1907) articulated his svadbarma. Govardhanram was born on 20 October 1855, in a Vadnagara Nagar Brahmin family at Nadiad.
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