Ashapurna Debi was born in 1909. Her conservative family did not send her to school, but encouraged by her mother, she learnt to read and write on her own and published her first poem in the children’s magazine Shishu Saathi. Married at fifteen to Kalidas Gupta of Krishnanagar, she continued to write with his support. Pratham Pratisruti (1964) is the first of a trilogy that includes Subarnalata (1966) and Bakul Katha (1973). Translated here as The First Promise, it won her the Rabindra Puraskar in 1966 and the Bharatiya Jnanpith award in 1977. Ashapurna published 181 novels, 38 anthologies of short stories, and 52 books for children. She died in 1995.
Tejaswini Niranjana is currently Professor and Head, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, and Visiting Professor with the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University
Jasleen Dhamija is an internationally renowned expert in the field of living cultural traditions, intangible heritage, rural non-farm development and history of textiles and costumes. Her stint in
Swarnalatha Rangarajan is professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras, and is passionate about environmental humanities. She is the founding editor of the Indian Jou
Okbazghi Yohannes is Political Science Professor Emeritus at University of Louisville in Louisville, KY, and author of Eritrea: A Pawn in World Politics.
