Page:Who's Who in India Supplement 2 (1914).djvu/219

SUPPLEMENT 141 important resolution on the Public Service question in India in consequence of which the Public Service Commission was appointed. Address: Rajahmundry. Sarojini Naidu, Mrs. — Sarojini Chattopadhyaya was born at Hyderabad on 13th February, 1879. Her father, Dr. Aghore Nath Chattopadhyaya, is descended from the ancient Brahmin family of Chatterjees of Brahm^nagram and is a Doctor of Science of the University of Edinburgh and founder of the Nizam College at Hyderabad. Sarojini is the eldest of his children, and was given a very good training by her talented father. She herself says that though her father was determined that she should be a great mathematician or a scientist yet the poetic instinct which she inherited from him and also from her mother (who wrote some lovely Bengali lyrics in her youth) proved stronger. *' One day," she says, "when I was eleven I was sighing over a sum in Algebra it would^nt come right, but, instead, a whole poem came to me suddenly." At thirteen she wrote a long poem a la ' Lady of the Lake' — 1)300 lines — in six days and has since been the author of innumerable poems. Sarojini Chattopadhyaya passed the matriculation examina- tion of the Madras University in her 12th year and at once became famous throughout India. She was sent to England in 1895 and stayed there till 1898 studying first at King's College and afterwards at Girton. She returned to Hyderabad in September, 1898, and in December married Dr. Naidu, though he belonged to a different caste. Her wedded life has been happy and has left her ample leisure to fulfil the great purpose and passion of her life — the dedication of her soul to the services of the Muse of Poetry, She has recently appeared on various platforms in India and has shown rare talents as a stirring speaker. In Hyderabad she is a great social force making for harrtiony and happiness. As a woman of great beauty and personal charm, as a sweet toned and stirring speaker on public platform her life has been a brilliant record of rare achievement for the up-lift of India. As a