Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/73

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way in which, every morning, she repeated the precepts teaching a wife's duties, and marked her forehead with the spot of paint which showed she was a married woman. Before leaving India she had told her own people, "I will go to America as a Hindu, and come back and live among my people as a Hindu." And this brave resolve she carried out unflinchingly. She wore her native dress, refused to eat anything but the vegetable food allowed by her religion, and endeavoured in every way that was possible, during the whole period of her residence in the States, to conform to the customs of her people.

In the autumn of 1883 she commenced her medical studies in earnest. She had been offered a scholarship in the Homoeopathic College in New York, but after much consideration it was decided that the best thing she could do was to enter on the regular four-years' course at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. Mrs. .Carpenter took her to Philadelphia and introduced her to Dr. Eachel Bodley, the Dean of the College, who at once took a warm interest in her, and became one of her most valued friends. Dr. Bodley held a reception for her in her own house, when she excited great interest and curiosity by her native dress and jewellery, and everyone felt drawn to the young stranger, who matriculated at the College in October of that year.