Dhondo Keshav Karve - First Marriage

First Marriage

Karve's parents arranged his marriage when he was 14 to an 8-year-old girl named Rādhābāi. Karve had written in his autobiography:

"… I was married at the age of fourteen and my wife was then eight. Her family lived very near to ours, and we knew each other very well and had often played together. However, after marriage, we had to forget our old relation as playmates and to behave as strangers, often looking toward each other but never standing together to exchange words…. We had to communicate with each other through my sister…… My marital life began under the parental roof at Murud when I was twenty…".

Radhabhai died in 1891 during childbirth at age 27, leaving behind a young son named Raghunath Karve. Raghunath became a visionary social reformer.

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