The widows had to be tonsured, of course. Liberal and progressive men like Gowandey after the 1850s started employing widows as cooks. Those men took the rituals associated with cooking very seriously and did not hesitate in reprimanding the lady of the house in case she made an error. These cooks would take bath, wear a special silk cloth called “sovale,” and then enter the kitchen. Since he considered her as a liability, he found a job for her.Īlmost all households then employed men as cooks. She ate only once a day.Īfter her in-laws passed away in quick succession, her brother-in-law brought her to Pune where he worked as a priest. She had to face the wall while having lunch comprising a bowl of buttermilk and puffed rice. She was allowed to cook because she had gotten rid of her hair. She was made to cook for the entire household. She was not supposed to step out of the house or peak out of a window. She was now considered “inauspicious” for the household, and the society. Her mother-in-law made her take off all her jewellery, and her head was shaved. She was sent to live with her husband immediately.įive years later, widowhood was forced upon Kashibai. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)īorn in a village near Ratnagiri, she had been married off to a thirty-two-year-old man in a neighbouring village when she was five years old. But for that, they had to shave their heads. The widows cooked and made it easier for future generations of women to step out and earn their living. Raosaheb Sadashiv Ballal Gowandey, who was an officer in the Inaam Commission, employed in his house a Brahmin widow as a cook.
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