''Bhagyawati'' is an 1888 novel by Shardha Ram Phillauri. The book is now acknowledged as one of the first novels in Standard

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. Previously, Lala Sri Niwas had written his Hindi novel Pariksha guru, which was published in 1882. ''Bhagyawati'' is believed to have been written mainly in

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

and was first published in 1888. According to ''

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *''Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) * ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' *''San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *''Kokomo Tribune' ...

'' (India), the novel was written specifically to "bring an awakening" amongst Indian women. The book's main character was a woman, and it offered a progressive perspective on women's rights and status. At a time when widow remarriage were considered unholy and impure, child marriage was common, neglect of education, the novel advocated widow marriage, condemned child marriage, and affirmed the equality of male and female children. The book was often given to daughters at marriage as a part of the dowry.

References

19th-century Indian novels 1888 novels Feminist novels Works about widowhood Hindi-language novels Hindi-language literature {{poli-novel-stub