Parvatibai Athavale (1870 – 1955) was a close associate of Dr.

Dhondo Keshav Karve '' Dhondo Keshav Karve (18 April 1858 – 9 November 1962), popularly known as Maharshi Karve, was a social reformer in India in the field of women's welfare. He advocated widow remarriage and he himself married a widow. Karve was a pioneer in ...

, one of India's great social reformers. She made major contributions in social upliftment of women, particularly

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

widows. Parvatibai Athavale was born in 1870 in

Devrukh Devrukh is a town in the tehsil of Sangameshwar in the Ratnagiri district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is headquarters for the Sangameshwar tehsil and a part of the Konkan region. The town enjoys salubrious climate, and the majority ...

, a small town in Kokan region on the west coast of India. Her maiden name was Miss Krishna Joshi. She was married at the young age of eleven with Mr. Mahadev Narayan Athavale. She gave birth to three children after her marriage but only one son (Mr. Narayan Mahadev Athavale) survived. Later in her life, Parvatibai went to the U.S. to collect funds and donations for the widow education and upliftment, in associated with Karve. She herself became a widow early in life and had to shave off her head and stopped wearing any jewellery and took on the traditional dress of a Maharashtrian Brahmin widow, as was the tradition during those times. After working in the Widows Home, Parvatibai realised that if a change had to come, it had to be initiated by the widows themselves and to set an example, she decided to discard the signs of widowhood. In 1912, she stopped shaving her head and gave up her widow's garb. She says she was criticized a lot, but she did not give in to those insults. Parvatibai Athavale has also penned down her autobiography, later translated in English by Justin E. Abbott and published in 1930, by the name of ''My Story: The Autobiography of a Hindu Widow'',Athavale, Parvati, and Justin E. Abbott. 1930. My story: the autobiography of a Hindu widow. New York: Putnam. which makes a social impact even today.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athavale, Parvatibai Indian humanitarians Indian autobiographers Indian women non-fiction writers Women autobiographers Women writers from Maharashtra