Akbar the Great

Akbar the Great or Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, was the third emperor of the Mughal Empire, after Babur and Humayun. He was the son of Nasiruddin Humayun and succeeded him as the emperor in the year 1556, when he was only 13 years old. One of the most successful emperors of the Mughal Empire, Akbar also made significant contribution in the field of art. Apart from commencing a large collection of literature, he also commissioned a number of splendid buildings during his reign.

Akbar reigned from 1556 to 1605 and who extended Mughal power over most of the Indian subcontinent. In order to preserve the unity of his empire, Akbar adopted programs that won the loyalty of the non-Muslim populations of his realm. He reformed and strengthened his central administration and also centralized his financial system and reorganized tax-collection processes. Although he never renounced Islam, he took an active interest in other religions, persuading Hindus, Parsis, and Christians, as well as Muslims, to engage in religious discussion before him. Illiterate himself, he encouraged scholars, poets, painters, and musicians, making his court a centre of culture.

Early Life
Shahzade (son of the emperor) Akbar was born on 14 October 1542 (the fourth day of Rajab, 949 AH), at the Rajput Fortress of Umerkot in Sindh (in modern day Pakistan), where Emperor Humayun and his recently wedded wife, Hamida Banu Begum of Paat village were taking refuge. At birth Akbar was named Badruddin, because he was born on the night of a badr (full moon). After the capture of Kabul by Humayun, Badruddin's circumcision ceremony was held and his date of birth and name were changed to throw off evil sorcerers and he was re-named Jalal-ud-din Muhammad by Humayun, a name which he had heard in his dream at Lahore.

The reign of Akbar the Great (1556 to 1605)
In 1556 when he succeeded his father Humayun. That year, a formidable anti-Mughal coalition, consisting mainly of Afghanis, tried to recapture northern India but lost its battle against the Mughals at Panipat. Mughal control over northern India was finally established.

Akbar pursued a policy of vigorous expansion until his empire reached the greater part of the sub-continent north of the Godavari, writes Hambly. Akbar proved himself as sophisticated a commander and leader as any of his ancestors. Akbar's far-sighted policies also included the employment of talented Hindus in senior administrative positions in a regime that previously had been exclusively Muslim.

In 1566, an attempt was made on Akbar's life. An assassin, posted on the roof of Khair al-Manzel, a madrasah built by Maham Anka near the Purana Qala, shot an arrow at the emperor as he rode back into Delhi. The arrow wounded Akbar's shoulder. This incident changed Akbar's method of rule, notes Hambly. Akbar now took into his own hands the supervision of the entire administration of the empire.

Akbar first attacked Malwa, a state of strategic and economic importance commanding the route through the Vindhya Range to the Deccan plateau and containing rich agricultural land; it fell to him in 1561.

Toward the zealously independent Hindu Rajputs (warrior ruling class) inhabiting rugged, hilly Rajasthan, Akbar adopted a policy of conciliation and conquest. Successive Muslim rulers had found the Rajputs dangerous, however weakened by disunity. But in 1562, when Raja Bihari Mal of Amber (now Jaipur), threatened by a succession dispute, offered Akbar his daughter in marriage, Akbar accepted the offer. The Raja acknowledged Akbar's suzerainty, and his sons prospered in Akbar's service. Akbar followed the same feudal policy toward the other Rajput chiefs. They were allowed to hold their ancestral territories, provided that they acknowledged Akbar as emperor, paid tribute, supplied troops when required, and concluded a marriage alliance with him. The emperor's service was also opened to them and their sons, which offered financial rewards as well as honour.

However, Akbar showed no mercy to those who refused to acknowledge his supremacy. When, after protracted fighting in Mewar, Akbar captured the historic fortress of Chitor in 1568, he massacred its inhabitants. Even though Mewar did not submit, the fall of Chitor prompted other Rajput rajas to accept Akbar as emperor in 1570 and to conclude marriage alliances with him, although the state of Marwar held out until 1583.

One of the notable features of Akbar's government was the extent of Hindu, and particularly Rajput, participation. Rajput princes attained the highest ranks, as generals and as provincial governors, in the Mughal service. Discrimination against non-Muslims was reduced by abolishing the taxation of pilgrims and the tax payable by non-Muslims in lieu of military service. Yet Akbar was far more successful than any previous Muslim ruler in winning the cooperation of Hindus at all levels in his administration. The further expansion of his territories gave them fresh opportunities.

In 1573 Akbar conquered Gujarat, an area with many ports that dominated India's trade with western Asia, and then turned east toward Bengal. A rich country with a distinctive culture, Bengal was difficult to rule from Delhi because of its network of rivers, always apt to flood during the summer monsoon. Its Afghan ruler, declining to follow his father's example and acknowledge Mughal suzerainty, was forced to submit in 1575. When he rebelled and was defeated and killed in 1576, Akbar annexed Bengal.

Toward the end of his reign, Akbar embarked on a fresh round of conquests. Kashmir was subjugated in 1586, Sind in 1591, and Kandahr (Afghanistan) in 1595. Mughal troops now moved south of the Vindhya Range into the Deccan in peninsular India. By 1601 Khandesh, Berar, and part of Ahmadnagar were added to Akbar's empire. His last years were troubled by the rebellious behaviour of his son, Prince Salm, who was eager for power.

Administrative reform
Previous Indian governments had been weakened by the disintegrating tendencies characteristic of pre-modern states—the tendency of armies to split up into the private forces of individual commanders and the tendency of provincial governors to become hereditary local rulers. Akbar combatted these trends by instituting comprehensive reforms that involved two fundamental changes. First, every officer was, at least in principle, appointed and promoted by the emperor instead of his immediate superior. Second, the traditional distinction between the nobility of the sword and that of the pen was abolished: civil administrators were assigned military ranks, thus becoming as dependent on the emperor as army officers.

These ranks were systematically graded from commanders of 10 persons to commanders of 5,000 persons, with higher ranks being allotted to Mughal princes. Officers were paid either in cash from the emperor's treasury or, more frequently, by the assignment of lands from which they had to collect the revenue, retaining the amount of their salary and remitting the balance to the treasury. Such lands seem to have been transferred frequently from one officer to another; this increased the officers' dependence on the emperor, but it may also have encouraged them to squeeze as much as they could from the peasants with whom their connection might be transitory. Politically, the greatest merit of the system was that it enabled the emperor to offer attractive careers to the able, ambitious, and influential. In this way, Akbar was able to enlist the loyal services of many Rajput princes.

Akbar's reforms required a centralized financial system, and thus by the side of each provincial governor (sbadr, later called nawab) was placed a civil administrator (dwn, or divan) who supervised revenue collection, prepared accounts, and reported directly to the emperor. As a further safeguard against abuses, Akbar reorganized the existing network of newswriters, whose duty it was to send regular reports of important events to the emperor. Akbar also seems to have instituted more efficient revenue assessment and collection in an effort to safeguard the peasants from excessive demands and the state from loss of money. But such efficiency could only have been enforced in the areas directly administered by the central government. This excluded the lands under tributary rulers such as the Rajputs and also the lands assigned for the maintenance of Mughal officers.

Yet, notwithstanding Akbar's reforms, travelers' accounts indicate that the Indian peasants remained impoverished. The official elite, on the other hand, enjoyed great wealth; liberal patronage was given to painters, poets, musicians, and scholars, and luxury industries flourished. Akbar also supported state workshops for the production of high-quality textiles and ornaments.

Political government
Akbar's system of central government was based on the system that had evolved since the Delhi Sultanate, but the functions of various departments were carefully reorganized by laying down detailed regulations for their functioning:

• The revenue department was headed by a wazir, responsible for all finances and management of jagir and inam lands.
• The head of the military was called the mir bakshi, appointed from among the leading nobles of the court. The mir bakshi was in charge of intelligence gathering, and also made recommendations to the emperor for military appointments and promotions.
• The mir saman was in charge of the imperial household, including the harems, and supervised the functioning of the court and royal bodyguard.
• The judiciary was a separate organization headed by a chief qazi, who was also responsible for religious endowments.

Akbar departed from the policy of his predecessors in his treatment of the territories he conquered. Previous Mughals extracted a large tribute from these rulers and then leave them to administer their dominions autonomously; Akbar integrated them into his administration, providing them the opportunity to serve as military rulers. He thus simultaneously controlled their power while increasing their prestige as a part of the imperial ruling class. Some of these rulers went on to become the navaratnas in Akbar's court.

Taxation
Akbar set about reforming the administration of his empire's land revenue by adopting a system that had been used by Sher Shah Suri. A cultivated area where crops grew well was measured and taxed through fixed rates based on the area's crop and productivity. However, this placed hardship on the peasantry because tax rates were fixed on the basis of prices prevailing in the imperial court, which were often higher than those in the countryside. Akbar changed to a decentralised system of annual assessment, but this resulted in corruption among local officials and was abandoned in 1580, to be replaced by a system called the dahsala. Under the new system, revenue was calculated as one-third of the average produce of the previous ten years, to be paid to the state in cash. This system was later refined, taking into account local prices, and grouping areas with similar productivity into assessment circles. Remission was given to peasants when the harvest failed during times of flood or drought. Akbar's dahsala system is credited to Raja Todar Mal, who also served as a revenue officer under Sher Shah Suri, and the structure of the revenue administration was set out by the latter in a detailed memorandum submitted to the emperor in 1582-83.

Other local methods of assessment continued in some areas. Land which was fallow or uncultivated was charged at concessional rates. Akbar also actively encouraged the improvement and extension of agriculture. The village continued to remain the primary unit of revenue assessment. Zamindars of every area were required to provide loans and agricultural implements in times of need, to encourage farmers to plough as much land as possible and to sow seeds of superior quality. In turn, the zamindars were given a hereditary right to collect a share of the produce. Peasants had a hereditary right to cultivate the land as long as they paid the land revenue. While the revenue assessment system showed concern for the small peasantry, it also maintained a level of distrust towards the revenue officials. Revenue officials were guaranteed only three-quarters of their salary, with the remaining quarter dependent on their full realisation of the revenue assessed.

Finance and army
The mainstay of the imperial treasury, as always in India, was the land revenue, or Crown rent, the State's share of the produce, paid in either kind or cash.  The land revenue in 1600 is estimated to have amounted to about nineteen million pounds sterling, and the customs and miscellaneous revenue to about as much again, but the figures are open to doubt.  Many taxes were remitted by Todar Mall.

The army was chiefly a cavrly militia raised by the Mansabdars and Jagirdars, who were much addicted to making false returns.  Akbar tried to correct such abuses, but with only partial success.  The standing, or permnanently enrolled, army was small, twenty-five thousand menin the latter part of the reign, of whom about half were troopers, the rest being gunners and infantry.  The practice of enslaving prisoners of war was firbidden in 1563.

Ain-i-Akbari and Abu-I Fazl.  The imperial regulations concerning the court and every department of the administration are recorded in detail in the unique work of Abu-I-Fazl entitled Ain-i-Akbari, or 'Institutes of Akbar', which forms part of the Akbarnama or 'History of the Reign of Akbar'.  Shaikh Abu-I Fazl, who was introduced to Akbar in 1574, was one of the most learned men ofn his age, and is still remembered counsillors, and the emperor's gradual estrangement from Islam was largely due to his intimacy with Abu-I Fazl and his equally learned and freethinking brother, Shaikh FAizi, who had come to court six years earlier.  The following lines composed by him :
  'O God, in every temple I see people that seek Thee, and in every language I hear spoken, people praise The! . . . If it be a mosque, people murmur the holy prayer, and if it be a Christian church, people ring the bell from love of Thee, Sometimes I frequent the Christian cloister, and sometimes the mosque, But it is Thou whom I search for from temple to temple.'

Religious View and Policy
Akbar, as well as his mother and other members of his family, are believed to have been Sunni Hanafi Muslims. His early days were spent in the backdrop of an atmosphere in which liberal sentiments were encouraged and religious narrow-mindednness was frowned upon. From the 15th century, a number of rulers in various parts of the country adopted a more liberal policy of religious tolerance, attempting to foster communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. These sentiments were earlier encouraged by the teachings of popular saints like Guru Nanak, Kabir and Chaitanya, the verses of the Persian poet Hafez which advocated human sympathy and a liberal outlook, as well as the Timurid ethos of religious tolerance that persisted in the polity right from the times of Timur to Humayun, and influenced Akbar's policy of tolerance in matters of religion. Further, his childhood tutors, who included two Irani Shias, were largely above sectarian prejudices, and made a significant contribution to Akbar's later inclination towards religious tolerance.

One of Akbar's first actions after gaining actual control of the administration was the abolition of jizya, a tax which all non-Muslims were required to pay, in 1562. The tax was reinstated in 1575, a move which has been viewed as being symbolic of vigorous Islamic policy, but was again repealed in 1580. Akbar adopted the Sulh-e-Kul (or Peace to All) concept of Sufism as official policy, integrated many Hindus into high positions in the administration, and removed restrictions on non-Muslims, thereby bringing about a composite and diverse character to the nobility. As a mark of his respect for all religions, he ordered the observance of all religious festivals of different communities in the imperial court.

Akbar and Christianity
The arrival of two Jesuits in Bengal in 1576 first drew the attention of the emperor to Christianity.  He became much interested, and asked the Portuguese at Goa to send him learned theologians.  They complied gladly and dispatched three separate  missions which stayed at court respectively from 1580 to 1583, from 1590 to 1591, and from 1595 to the end of the reign, and later.  The Jesuits at one time had good hopes of converting Akbar, but the hope never fulfilled as Akbar had no real intension to change his religion. He just wanted to know about the Christianity.

Akbar and Jainism
Akbar regularly held discussions with Jain scholars and was also greatly impacted by some of their teachings. His first encounter with Jain rituals was when he saw a Jain shravika named Champa's procession after a six month long fast. Impressed by her power and devotion, he invited her guru or spiritual teacher AcharyaHiravijaya Suri to Fatehpur Sikri. Acharya accepted the invitation and began his march towards the Mughal capital from Gujarat.

Akbar was greatly impressed by the scholastic qualities and character of the Acharya. He held several debates and discussions on religion and philosophy in his courts. Arguing with Jains, Akbar remained sceptical of their rituals, and yet became convinced by their arguments for vegetarianism and end up deploring the eating of all flesh.

The Indian Supreme Court too has cited examples of co-existence of Jain and Mughal architecture. Terming Mughal emperor Akbar as "the architect of modern India", a bench said that Akbar, who had great respect for Jainism, had declared "Amari Ghosana" banning the killing of animals during Paryushan and Mahavir Jayanti. He rolled back the Jazia tax from Jain pilgrim places like Palitana. These farmans were also issued in 1592, 1584 and 1598.

Akbar's coinage
In the 30th year of his reign, Akbar, who was distanciating himself from Islam and searching for a universal religion, replaced the Hegira era dates by the Ilahi era (the "Divine" era) ones, calculated in solar years from the beginning of his reign. He dropped from the obverse of his coins the Muslim profession of faith and the expression "Allah akbar", "God is great" was substituted. He also suppressed his own name, or maybe not: the arabic expression on the obverse could also mean "Akbar is God".

Personality and assessment
Akbar maintained a luxurious and brilliant court at which elaborate ceremonies emphasized his distance from other men, though he was careful to cultivate public opinion outside court circles. Every morning at dawn he stood at an open window to be seen and reverenced by the people. Foreign observers commented on the graceful manner in which he accepted little gifts from the people and showed himself ready to hear the complaint of any man who dared to approach him.

Physically, he was strong and could withstand hardship on campaigns. Although he seems to have been no more than five feet seven inches tall, he impressed observers as a dominating personality. Clearly, although he was illiterate, he had a powerful and original mind. His unprejudiced inquiries into Christian doctrines misled the Jesuit missionaries he invited to his court into thinking that he was on the point of conversion. He persuaded the Muslim theologians at his court to accept him as arbiter on points of Islamic law in dispute among them. Although this seems to have been little more than an expression of his systematic approach to problems, the orthodox were offended. He gave further offense by the religious discussions he encouraged between Muslims, Hindus, Parsis, and Christians. These discussions were continued by a small group of courtiers who shared with Akbar a taste for mysticism. Although their doctrines and ceremonies, known as the Divine Faith (Dn-e Ilh), assigned a central place to Akbar himself, it would be an oversimplification to ascribe political motives to these developments.

Begun in 1570 and abandoned in 1586, Akbar's capital of Fatehpur Sikri, near Delhi, is evidence of the resources he could command. Its combination of Hindu and Muslim architectural styles symbolizes the contact of cultures that he encouraged. Similarly, he commissioned the translation of Sanskrit classics into Persian, giving illustrated copies to his courtiers. He also received with enthusiasm the European pictures brought by the Jesuits, and his painters incorporated European techniques of realism and perspective into the distinctive Mughal style (characterized by a vivid treatment of the physical world) that began to develop during his reign. Akbar's reign was an example of the stimulating effects of cultural encounter. It has also often been portrayed as a model for future governments—strong, benevolent, tolerant, and enlightened. Effective government in a country as geographically vast and as socially complex as India demands a wide measure of social support. Akbar understood this need and satisfied it.

Character of Akbar
Although Akbar cannot be described as a mixture of opposites,' like Mohammed bin Tughlak or Jahangir, his nature was complex, and not easy to understand.  He was a very human man, not a saint, and was not free from serious faults and frailties.  The portrait drawn by most historians-all light with no shadow-is false.  In the early years of his reign, after the fall of Bairam Khan, he was in the hands of bad advisers, including the scoundrel Pir Mohammed, who was allowed to commit appealing cruelties in Malwa without censure, so far as appears.  Towards the close of the reign, when Akbar had exercised uncontrolled poower for some forty years, and his generous nature had become to a certain extent corrupted, he committed various foolish and unworthy acts, especially the deliberate insults to Islam mentioned above.  He had previously acquired the evil opium habit, which probably shortened his life.  In earlier days he sometimes drank more than was good for him.

The Jesuits, who give by far the best personal descriptions, rightly praise Akbar's zeal and care i the justice was of the bloody, ferocious kind then in fashion, and that men were commonly impaled, does not seem to have taken pleasure in witnessing such scenes, as Jahangir and Shahjahan did.

Akbar's vanity was, perhaps, his weakest point, as may be learnt from the critical pages of BAdaoni.  His insatiable curiosity led him into absurd positions from time to time.

Neverthel;ess, when all that can be said against him has been said, it remains true tht Akbar was one of the greatest of kings, comparable in India with Asoka alone, and fully worthy to stand as an equal beside his European contemporaries Elizabeth of England (1558-1603) and Henry IV of France (1593-1610).

HE possessed exceptional bodily strength, and courage as undaunted as that of Alexander of Macedon.  His fights in Gujarat and his nine day's ride to Ahmadabad were heroic performances.

Akbar and literature
Akbar's most lasting contributions were to the arts. He initiated a large collection of literature, including the Akbar-nama and the Ain-i-Akbari, and incorporated art from around the world into the Mughal collections.

The Akbarnāma, which literally means Book of Akbar, is the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (r. 1556–1605), commissioned by Akbar himself and written in Persian by his court historian and biographer, Abul Fazl who was one of the nine jewels in Akbar's court. It includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times.

The Ain-i-Akbari or the "Institutes of Akbar", is a 16th century, detailed document recording the administration of emperor Akbar's empire, written by his vizier, Abul-Fazl ibn Mubarak. It makes the Volume III. While Akbarnamah is technically a history book, Ain-i-Akbari embodies Ains or rules and regulations framed and put into effect for proper administration by Akbar. It is regarded as an administrative manual and is like a modern gazetteer. 

Final Years
Akbar was greatly troubled in the last few years of his life due to the misdemeanors of his sons. Especially his third son, Salim, was frequently in rebellion against his father. The last conquest of Akbar comprised of Asirgarh, a fort in the Deccan. Thereafter, he faced the rebellion of his son and breathed his last on 12th October 1605. His body was entombed in a magnificent mausoleum at Sikandra city, near Agra.

Akbar left behind a rich legacy both for the Mughal Empire as well as the Indian subcontinent in general. He firmly entrenched the authority of the Mughal empire in India and beyond, after it had been threatened by the Afghans during his father's reign, establishing its military and diplomatic superiority. During his reign, the nature of the state changed to a secular and liberal one, with emphasis on cultural integration. He also introduced several far-sighted social reforms, including prohibiting sati, legalising widow remarriage and raising the age of marriage.

Navratnas
Akbar's court had Navaratnas (Nine Jewels), meaning a group of nine extraordinary people. They included:

•     Abul Fazel (Akbars's chief advisor and author of Akbarnama)
•     Faizi (Akbar's poet laureate)
•     Mian Tansen (a Hindu singer who converted to Islam)
•     Birbal (a noble known for his wittiness)
•     Raja Todar Mal (Akbar's finance minister)
•     Raja Man Singh (trusted general of Akbar)
•     Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana (a noble and a renowned poet)
•     Fakir Aziao-Din
•     Mullah Do Piaza

Timeline of Akbar

        Death of Humayun, accession of Akbar: Jan.   1556
        Second battle of PAnipat; defeat and death of Hemu: Nov.   1556
        Occupation of the Panjab: 1556
        Assumption of full authority by Akbar: March  1560 
        Abolition of the Jizya tax: 1565
        Siege of Chitor: 1567-8
        Foundation of Fatehpur Sikri: 1569
        Reduction of Gujarat: 1573
        Capture of Surat: 1573

        Suppression of revolt in Gujarat: 1573
        Completion of fort at Agra: 1573       

        Introduction of Abu-I Fazl at court: 1574
        Conquest of Bengal and Bihar ; death of Daud: 1574-6
        Rajput rising ; battle of Gogunda: 1576
        Decree making Akbar head of the Church: 1579
        Death of Mohammed Hakim: 1585

        Absorption of Kabul: 1585
        Akbar's capital at Lahore: 1585-98
        Defeat of Raja Birbal by the Yusufzi: 1586
        Conquest of Kashmir: 1586-87
        Conquest of Sind: 1588-90
        Embassies to the kingdoms of the Deccan: 1591
        Annexation of Kandahar: 1595
        Defence of Ahmadnagar by Chand Bibi: 1595
        Famine in Hindustan: 1595-8
        Death of Prince Murad: 1599
        Fall of Ahmadnagar: 1600
        Capture of Asirgarh: 1601
        Rebellion of Prince Salim; murder of Abu-I Fazl: 1602
        Death of Akbar: Oct.1605

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Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala

Jyoti Prasad Agarwala was a great Assamese playwright, dramatist, film maker, poet, producer, songwriter and writer from Assam. He was considered as Assamese cultural icon, deeply revered for his creative vision and output and is popularly called the Rupkonwar (Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala) of Assamese culture. In fact, he is regarded as the founder of Assamese cinema for Joymati (1935).

He was born on 17 June 1903 in Tamulbari Tea Estate. His father was Paramanada Agarwala and mother was Kiranmayee. He is the nephew of another cultural icon, Chandra Kumar Agarwala. His forefather, Nabrangram Agarwala, had come to Assam in 1811 from the Marwar region in Rajasthan. 

He started his education in Tezpur Government High School and passed his matriculation examination (2nd Division) from  Chitranjan Das University, Kolkata. During high school time itself he joined the freedom movement. After matriculation he joined National College of Calcutta and completed his I.A from there. For his graduation he went to Edinburgh University, Britain. He also joined M.A but before finishing it he came to Germany to study Films. After seven months of studies in Filmat the UFA studio in Germany, he came back to Assam in 1930.

After his return to Assam, he continued his activities for Indian independence and joined the Non Co-operation movement in 1921. He started working more actively after returning from foreign soil. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for fifteen months and was fined 500 rupees in 1932 for his active involvement in the fightings of Independence. Despite suffering from Typhoid in the Silchar jail, he completed his period of imprisonment. In 1941 joined the Volunteer Group Of Congress where he rendered selfless service and after a period of time he became it’s leader. He was actively involved in various activities during the freedom movement from various regions of Assam. In 1942,due to his involvement in the freedom struggle, was declared an absconder by the British Government. Surrendered in 1943 in Tezpur, but was subsequently freed due to lack of evidence.

Jyoti Prasad Agarwala started writing since the age of 14 years only. At that time he wrote down the famous play 'Sonit-Konwari'. For next few years during his student days he wrote many short stories. Jyoti Prasad was very good in studying children psychology. He wrote many stories for children. During his lifetime he had written drama, poetry, biography, books etc. He also delevered speeches in different functions on subjects like  literature, music and culture. Some other plays written by him are Rupalim, Karengar Ligiri, Lobhita, etc. His plays are acted on stage till date in Assam.

Jyoti Prasad Agarwala was a fantastic poet as well. He wrote more than 300 songs and gave music to most of them. These songs collection is known as Jyoti Sangeet. It bacame a new genre of music itself in Assam in later days.

He established the Chitraban Studio at the Bholaguri Tea Estate and began filming the movie Joymoti around the end of 1933. This was the first film from Assam. The film, released in 1935, was based on a play by Laxminath Bezbarua about the heroic Ahom princess Sati Joymoti imprisoned and tortured by a repressive Ahom swargadeo. In 1936 he married Devajani Chaliha.

1934 -Constructed " Chitraban Studio" in Bholaguri Tea State temporarily and made the first Assamese movie "Joymati"
1935- "Joymati"  was released
1936-37 - Produced jointly with Bishnu Prasad Rabha the  record play  "Joymati" and "Sonit Kunwari"
1937 - Constructed Jonaki cinema hall in Tezpur.
1939 - Made the second Assamese movie Indra Malati even before the stipulated time.
1940 - Established Tezpur music school. He republished "Asomiya" which was a closed down newspaper since 1944 (for seven months).
He was a pioneer in  establishing an University in Assam,  and also prepared a architectural print for the construction of University.

Another contribution of Jyotiprasad agarwala is the publication of the newspaper 'Axomiya' in 1944. He also established an assamese music school in Tezpur.

Due to ill  health resigned from the post of editor of the newspaper and took the responsibility for  maintenance of Tamulbari Tea Garden near Dibrugarh. Tried to give a new dimension to employer-employee  relationship. And at the same time he continued his literary and cultural persuits.

Jyoti Prasad Agarwala died of cancer on 17 January 1951 at 'Poki', Tezpur. His death anniversary, 17 June is calebrated as 'Jyoti Divas' in Assam every year.

Family Profile:

Wife:          Late Debyani Agarwala(marriage solemnized in 1936)
Son:            Chinmay Agarwala                       

Daughters: Jaisree (married to Satyabrat Chaliha.)
                   Gyansree (married to Prof. Priyalal Pathak.)
                   Satyasree (married to Anil Das).
                   Hemasree (married to Anal Chaliha).
                   Manasree (married to Jogen Hazarika).

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Srimanta Sankardeva

Srimanta Sankardeva (1449-1568) was a great saint-scholar, playwright, social-religious reformer and a colossal figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. With great endeavour he had tried to spread the Vaishnava faith among the people as well as decrease the religious attitude of people. The Vaishnava faith that was initiated by him is known as ekasarana dharma or devotion to one Supreme God. He was a multi faceted personality. He was a poet and a religious reformer too. He was a renowned Sanskrit scholar. This is evident from Bhakti Ratnakara which is a discourse on Sanskrit Vaishnavism. Its cardinal features are: Sravana kirtana dharma: it is a principle of audition that was accepted as an inspiring device for religious devotion, the view that the relation of man to God was like that of a servant to his sovereign.

Sankardeva in order to propagate his religious doctrines began composing literary works, poems and dramas. He had translated Bhagavatam. This was the starting point of enthusiasm and inspiration for Assamese literature. His intelligence is evident in the poem Harischandra upakhyana which was composed when he was in his teens. The poetical work that has given Sankardeva great fame is the Kiriana that contains 26 poems and 2,261 couplets. He is noted for clear and chiseled phrasing. The Sisulila and the Adi Dasama also contain captivating portraits of Lord Krishna`s childhood. This also revealed in his Bargeetas and Ankargeetas. He laid the foundation of mysticism in Assamese literature with his Bargeetas and Ankargeetas.

His Rukminiharana kavya, inspired by Bhagavatam and the Harivamsa, is a long narrative poem written with touches of local colour and life. His dramas are interspersed with beautiful songs. Nature has been a major part of his poems. This is seen in his poems like Haramohan, Trikuta varnan, Rasa krida. He believed in the power of literary art.

Srimanta Shankardeva is credited with providing a thread of unity to Ahom and Koch kingdoms of Assam. He inspired Bhakti in Assam. The Sattras established by him continue to flourish. His Poetic works are: Kirtana-ghosha, Harischandra-upakhyana, Rukmini-harana, Ajamilopakhyana, Bali-chalana, Kurukshetra-yatra, Gopi-uddhava-samvada, Amrta-manthana, Krishna-prayana-pandava-niryana and Kamajaya.

His works in drama include: Cihna Yatra, Patni-prasada, Kalia-damana, Keli-gopala, Rukmini-harana, Parijata-harana and Srirama-vijaya.

Srimanta Shankaradeva was born into the Shiromani (chief) Baro-Bhuyans family, near Bordowa in Nagaon in a village called Ali-pukhuri, Bordowa of present day Nagaon district in c1449. The Baro-Bhuyans were independent landlords in Assam, and belonged to the kayastha Hindu caste. His family-members, including parents Kusumvara and Satyasandhya Devi, were saktas , mention may me made of his great grandfather Chandivara alias Devidasa. The Saint lost both his father and his mother at a very tender age and was raised by his grandmother Khersuti. He began attending the tol or chatrasaal (school) of the renowned scholar Mahendra Kandali at the age of 12 and soon started to write verses. He completed his first poem before he was taught the vowels except, and is often cited as an example of the early flowering of his poetic genius. He was physically very able, and according to legend, he could swim across the Brahmaputra while it was in spate.

He left the tol in his late teens (c1469) to attend to his responsibilities as the Shiromani Bhuyan. He moved from Alipukhuri to Bordowa, and wrote his first work, Harishchandra upakhyan. Sankardeva produced a dance-drama called Cihna yatra, for which he painted the Sapta vaikuntha (seven heavens), guided the making of musical instruments and played the instruments himself.

At Bordowa, he constructed a dharmagrha or a Hari-grha (house of the Lord) in which he installed an image of Vishnu that was found during the construction of the grha. But it was not meant for worshipping; it was just a "showpiece of art work". In fact, he was absolutely against any kind of worshipping of Idols or Images of gods. He married his first wife Suryavati when he was in his early 20s. His wife died soon after his daughter Manu was born.

Might be the death of his wife increased his spiritual inclination as his mind began to focus, more than ever before, on the transcendental. When his daughter turned nine, he married her off to Hari, handed over the Shiromaniship to his grand uncles and left for a pilgrimage (a religious tour rather) (c1482). At this point of time, he was 32. The pilgrimage took him to Puri, Mathura, Dwaraka, Vrindavan, Gaya, Rameswaram, Ayodhya, Sitakunda and almost all the other major seats of the Vaishnavite religion in India. At Badrikashrama, he composed his first bargeet—mana meri ram charanahi lagu—in Brajavali. He returned home to Ali-pukhuri after 12 years (his family had moved back from Bordowa in his absence). During his pilgrimage, he witnessed the Bhakti movement that was in full bloom in India at that time.

After his return, he refused to take back the Shiromaniship. On his grandmother's insistence, he married Kalindi at the age of 44. Finally, he moved back to Bordowa and constructed his first naamghar (prayer hall), and began preaching. He wrote Bhakti pradipa and Rukmini harana. Soon after, he received a copy of the Bhagavata Purana from Jagadisa Misra of Tirhut which had in it commentaries from Sridhara Swami of Puri, an Advaita scholar, and began rendering it into Assamese. He also began composing the Kirtana ghosha. The 13 years at Ali-pukhuri was the period during which he reflected deeply on Vaishnavism and on the form that would best suit the spiritual and ethical needs of the people.


From Ali-pukhuri he moved again to Gajalasuti and then back to Bordowa. In the mean time the Bhuyans were getting weak politically and Bordowa was attacked by the neighboring tribes. Shankaradeva had to move again from place to place. At Gangmau he stayed for five years where his son Ramananda was born. While at Gangmau, the Koch king Viswa Singha attacked the Ahoms. The Bhuyans fought for the Ahoms and the Koch king was defeated. Due to the unsettled situation at Gangmau Sankaradeva next moved to Dhuwahat, present day Majuli, now an island on the Brahmaputra. At Dhuwahat, he met his spiritual successor Madhavadeva. Madhavdeva, a sakta, got into a religious altercation with his brother-in-law Ramadasa who had recently converted to Vaishnavism. Ramadasa took him to Shankaradeva, who, after a long debate, could finally convince him of the power and the efficacy of Naam Dharma. At Dhuwahat he initiated many others into his religion and continued composing the Kirtana ghoxa. He tried to appease the brahmans by gentle persuasion and debate, but they felt threatened by the emergence of a new religion propagated by a non-brahmin. Some brahmans submitted a complaint with the Ahom king Suhungmung, who summoned Shankaradeva and Madhavadeva to court. They gave adequate replies to the royal queries and were let off.

Though the relationship with the Ahom royalty began cordially, it soon deteriorated. Once on the charge of dereliction of duty, Hari, Shankaradeva's son-in-law, and Madhavadeva were arrested and sent to the capital Garhgaon, where Hari was executed. Madhavadeva's life was spared but he was imprisoned for a year. This incident pained Shankaradeva much and he, along with his family and Madhavadeva, journeyed toward the Koch kingdom.

The drama Patniprasada was written at Dhuwahat


At Sunpora he initiated Bhavananda, a rich trader who had extensive business interest in the Garo and Bhutan hills besides Kamarupa. The trader, Narayana Das, settled at Janiya near Barpeta and took to agriculture. A man of the world otherwise, he soon flourished and became a provider to Shankaradeva and his devotees. He came to be known popularly as Thakur Ata.

After a great deal of moving, Shankaradeva settled at Patbausi near Barpeta and constructed a Kirtanghar (house of prayer). Some of the people he initiated here are Chakrapani Dwija and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, brahmins; Ketai Khan, a kayastha; Govinda, a Garo; Jayarama, a Bhutia; Murari, a Koch and Chandsai a Muslim. He also befriended Ananta kandali, a profound scholar of Sanskrit, who translated parts of the Bhagavata Purana. Damodardeva, another brahmin, was initiated by Shankaradeva and he later became the founder of the Brahma Sanghati sect of Shankaradeva's religion.

Among his literary works, he completed his rendering of the Bhagavata Purana and wrote other independent works. He continued composing the Kirtana Ghosha, further translated the first book of the Ramayana (ADI KANDA) and instructed Madhavadeva to translate the last book (UTTAR KANDA), portions that were left undone by the 14th century poet Madhav Kandali. He wrote four dramas: Rukmini harana, Parijata harana, Keligopala and kalidamana. Another drama written at Patbausi, kamsa vadha, is lost. At Patbausi, he had lent his bargeets numbering aroung 240 to Kamala Gayan. But unfortunately, his house was gutted and most of the bargeets were lost. Since that incident Sankaradeva stopped composing bargeets. Of the 240, 34 remain today.

Shankaradeva once again left for a pilgrimage with a large party of 117 disciples that included Madhavadeva, Ramarama, Thakur Ata and others. Madhavadeva, on the request of Shankaradeva's wife Kalindi urged him to return from Puri and not proceed to Vrindavana. He returned to Patbausi within six months.


On hearing complaints that Shankaradeva was corrupting the minds of the people by spreading a new religion, Naranarayana the Koch king, ordered Shankaradeva's arrest. Shankaradeva managed to go into hiding, but Narayan Das Thakur Ata and Gokulchand were captured. They were taken to Kochbehar and subjected to inhuman torture, but they did not divulge the location where their Guru was staying, and the royals soon gave up.

In the meantime Chilarai, the general of the Koch army and brother of Naranarayana, who had been influenced by the religion and had married Kamalapriya alias Bhuvaneshwari the daughter of Shankaradeva's cousin Ramaraya, arranged for Shankaradeva's audience with Naranarayana. As he moved up the steps to the throne, Shankardev sang his Sanskrit totaka hymn (composed extempore) to Lord Krishna , now known as Totaya or Deva bhatimaand as he sat down, he sang a borgeet, narayana kahe bhakati karu tera. Naranarayana was overwhelmed by the Saint's personality. The king then asked Sankaradeva's opponents to prove their complaint. After Sankaradeva defeated them in the debate, Naranarayana declared him free from all allegations. Sankaradeva began attending Naranarayana's court at the king's request. When he met Naranarayana, he was well over a hundred years old and had just A FEW more years to live.

After the debate, Shankaradeva shuttled between Kochbehar and Patbausi. On the request of Nara Narayan and Chilarai he supervised the creations of the 60mx30m woven Vrindavani vastra, that depicted the playful activities of Krishna in Vrindavana. This was presented to the Koch king.

He made arrangements with Madhavadeva and Thakur Ata and gave them various instructions at Patbausi and left the place for the last time. He set up his home at Bheladonga in Kochbehar. During his stay at Kochbehar, Naranarayana expressed his wish to be initiated. Shankaradeva was reluctant to convert a king and declined to do so. According to one of the biographers (Ramcharan Thakur), a painful boil—a visha phohara – had appeared in some part of his body and this led to the passing away of the Saint. According to other accounts (Guru Charit Katha et al.), Naranarayan's adamance that he be initiated into the new religion led the saint to surrender his life to the Lord by way of meditative communion. Thus, in 1568, after leading a most eventful life dedicated to enlightening humanity; the Mahapurusha died – within six months of his stay at Bheladonga – at the remarkable age of 120 years.

Eka Sarana

Sankaradeva used the form of Krishna to preach devotion to a single God (eka sarana), who can be worshiped solely by uttering His various names (naam). In contrast to other bhakti forms, eka sarana follows the dasya attitude (a slave to God). Moreover, unlike the 'Gaudiya Vaishnavism' of Bengal, Radha is not worshiped along with Krishna. In uttering the name of God, Hari, Rama, Narayana and Krishna are most often used.

Sankaradeva himself and the religion in general are particularly antagonistic to saktism which was strongly prevalent in Assam at the time. This probably explains the non-use of Radha as an icon. His famous debate with Madhavadeva, who was a staunch sakta (devotee of Shakti) earlier, and Madhavadeva's subsequent conversion to Vaishnavism, is often cited as the single most epoch-making event in the history of the neo-Vaishnavite movement in Assam. Madhavadeva, an equally multi-talented person, became his most celebrated disciple.

A non-brahmin, Srimanta Sankaradeva started a system of initiation (saran lowa) into his religion. He caused a huge Social revolution by fighting against anti-social elements like casteism prevailing at that time. He initiated people of all castes and religions, including Muslims. After initiation, the devotee is expected to adhere to the religious tenets of eka sarana. Failure to adhere to these tenets led to ex-communication in certain cases.

Though he himself married twice, had children and led the life of a householder, his disciple Madhavadeva did not. Some of his followers today follow celibate monkhood (kevaliya bhakat) in the Vaishnavite monasteries – the sattras.

The people who practice his religion are called variously as Mahapurushia, Sarania or Sankari.

Works
Literary
Sankaradeva produced a large body of work. Though there were others before him who wrote in the language of the common man – Madhav Kandali who translated the Ramayana into Assamese in the 14th century – his was the first ramayana to be written in a modern Indian language – Harivara Vipra and Hema Saraswati, it was Sankaradeva who opened the floodgates and inspired others like Madhavadeva to carry on where he left off.

His language is lucid, his verses lilting, and he infused bhakti into everything he wrote. His magnum opus is his Kirtana-ghosha, a work so popular that even today it is found in nearly every household in Assam. It contains narrative verses glorifying Krishna meant for community singing. It is a bhakti kayva par excellence, written in a lively and simple language, it has "stories and songs for amusement [for children], it delights the young with true poetic beauty and elderly people find here religious instruction and wisdom".

For most of his works, he used the Assamese language of the period so the lay person could read and understand them. But for dramatic effect in his songs and dramas he used Brajavali, an artificial mixture of Braj language and Assamese.

Other literary works include the rendering of eight books of the Bhagavata Purana including the Adi Dasama (Book X), Harishchandra-upakhyana (his first work), Bhakti-pradip, the Nimi-navasiddha-samvada (conversation between King Nimi and the nine Siddhas), Bhakti-ratnakara (Sanskrit verses, mostly from the Bhagavata, compiled into a book), Anadi-patana (having as its theme the creation of the universe and allied cosmological matters), Gunamala and many plays like Rukmini haran, Patni prasad, Keli gopal, Kurukshetra yatra and Srirama vijaya. There was thus a flowering of great Bhakti literature during his long life of 120 years.

Poetic works (kavya)
    Kirtana-ghosha
    Harischandra-upakhyana
    Rukmini-harana
    Ajamilopakhyana
    Bali-chalana
    Kurukshetra-yatra
    Gopi-uddhava-samvada
    Amrta-manthana
    Krishna-prayana-pandava-niryana
    Kamajaya

Bhakti Theory
    Bhakati-pradipa
    Anadi-patana
    Nimi-navasiddha-samvada
    Bhakti Ratnakara (in Sanskrit)
    Gunamala

Transliteration
    Bhagavat (Book VI, VIII, I, II, VII, X, XI, XII, IX ,X(partial, XI(partial) & XII)
    Ramayana (adikanda, supplemental to Madhav Kandali's Katha Ramayana)

His translation of the Bhagavata is actually a transcreation, because he translates not just the words but the idiom and the physiognomy too. He has adapted the original text to the local land and people and most importantly for the purpose of bhakti. Portions of the original were left out or elaborated where appropriate. For example, he suppressed the portions that revile the lowers castes of sudra and kaivartas, and extols them elsewhere.

Drama (Ankia Nat)
    Cihna Yatra (lost)
    Patni-prasada
    Kalia-damana
    Keli-gopala
    Rukmini-harana
    Parijata-harana
    Srirama-vijaya

Sankaradeva was the fountainhead of the Ankiya naat, a form of one-act play. In fact, his Cihna Yatra – staged by him when he was only 19 – is regarded as one of the first open-air theatrical performances in the world. Cihna yatra was probably a dance drama and no text of that show is available today. Innovations like the presence of a Sutradhara (narrator) on the stage, use of masks etc., were used later in the plays of Bertolt Brecht and other eminent playwrights.

These cultural traditions still form an integral part of the heritage of the Assamese people.

Songs
    Borgeet (composed 240, but only 34 exist now)
    Bhatima
        Deva bhatima – panegyrics to God
        Naat bhatima – for use in dramas
        Raja bhatima – panegyrics to kings (to king Nara Narayan)

The Borgeets (literally: great songs) are devotional songs, set to music and sung in various raga styles. These styles are slightly different from either the Hindustani or the Carnatic styles [1]. The songs themselves are written in the 'Brajavali' language.

Dance
Sattriya dance, that Sankaradeva first conceived and developed and which was later preserved for centuries by the sattras, is now among the classical dance forms of India. Although certain devout Sankarite calls this form as Sankari dance

Visual Art
    Sapta vaikuntha – part of the Cihna yatra production, does not exist today.
    Vrindavani vastra – parts of this work are preserved in London.

The famous Vrindavani Vastra—the cloth of Vrindavan—a 120 x 60 cubits tapestry depicted the lilas of Lord Krishna at Vrindavan through richly woven and embroidered designs on silk.[2] A specimen, believed to be a part of this work, is at the Association pour l'Etude et la Documentation des Textiles d'Asie collection at Paris (inv. no. 3222). The vastra, commissioned by Chilarai, was woven by 12 master weavers in Barpeta under the supervision of Sankaradeva probably between 1565 and 1568. It was housed in the Madhupur sattra but it disappeared at some point. It is believed this cloth made its way to Tibet and from there to its present place.

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Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa (26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), was the youngest child of Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu and was originally named 'Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Ans'. Agnes received her first communion at the age of five. From her childhood, she attended prayers and devoted herself in the worship of the Almighty. When Agnes was eight years old, her father died, because of which, the family faced financial crisis. Drane Bojaxhiu, then, assumed the dual role - of being a mother and a father - and helped her children develop a good character. Under the influence and guidance of her mother and a priest, Agnes decided to carry out missionary work.

Agnes decided to become a Catholic nun, in order to do missionary work and spread the message of love and compassion in the world. In 1928, she became a Catholic nun and changed her name from Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Teresa. Later on, she joined the Irish order 'The Sisters of Loretto'. In order to carry out missionary work in India, she was sent to Calcutta on 6th January 1929, where she was appointed as a teacher at St. Mary's High School. Sister Teresa became Mother Teresa on 24th May 1937, when she made final Profession of Vows to become the ‘Spouse of Jesus for Eternity’. She continued to work as a teacher. In 1944, she was made the Principal of the school.

Agnes founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India in 1950. For over 45 years she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death she was beatified  by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

In the 1970s, she became well-known internationally for her humanitarian work and advocacy for the rights of the poor and helpless, which was documented by Malcolm Muggeridge in his documentary and subsequent book Something Beautiful for God. Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity continued to grow during her life-time, and at the time of her death, they had 610 missions in 123 countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programs, orphanages, and schools.

Governments, charity organisations and prominent individuals have been inspired by her work. She received numerous awards, including a number from the Indian Government, one of which was the Bharat Ratna (1980), as well as international awards, such as the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She has not been without her critics, however, including prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens, cultural critic Michael Parenti, Indian-English Medical Doctor Aroup Chatterjee and the World Hindu Council (Vishva Hindu Parishad). They accuse her of proselytizing, strongly opposing contraception and abortion, believing in poverty's spiritual goodness and alleged 'secret baptisms of the dying'.

In 2010 on the 100th anniversary of her birth, she was honoured around the world, and her work praised by Indian President Pratibha Patil.

“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God’s thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. “God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor.” She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: “to quench His thirst for love and for souls.”

This luminous messenger of God’s love was born on 26 August 1910 in Uskub, Ottoman Empire (now Skopje, capital of the Republic of Macedonia). Although she was born on 26 August, she considered 27 August, the day she was baptized, to be her "true birthday." She was the youngest of the children of a family from Shkodër, Albania, born to Nikollë and Drana Bojaxhiu. Her father, who was involved in Albanian politics, died in 1919 when she was eight years old. After her father's death, her mother raised her as a Roman Catholic. Her father, Nikollë Bojaxhiu (his name means 'painter') was of Kosovar Albanian origin possibly stemming from Prizren, Kosovo(a)  while her mother's origin was possibly from a village near Đakovica, Kosovo.

Agnes was fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service in Bengal, and by age 12 was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. Her final resolution was taken on August 15, 1928, while praying at the shrine of the Black Madonna of Letnice, where she often went on pilgrimage. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. She never again saw her mother or sister.

Agnes initially went to the Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland to learn English, the language the Sisters of Loreto used to teach school children in India. She arrived in India in 1929, and began her novitiate in Darjeeling, near the Himalayan mountains, where she learnt Bengali and taught at the St. Teresa’s School, a schoolhouse close to her convent. She took her first religious vows as a nun on 24 May 1931. At that time she chose to be named after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries, but because one nun in the convent had already chosen that name, Agnes opted for the Spanish spelling Teresa.

She took her solemn vows on 14 May 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Entally, eastern Calcutta. Teresa served there for almost twenty years and in 1944 was appointed headmistress. Although Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. The Bengal famine of 1943 brought misery and death to the city; and the outbreak of Hindu/Muslim violence in August 1946 plunged the city into despair and horror.

Missionaries of Charity

On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith."

She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. In the beginning of 1949 she was joined in her effort by a group of young women and laid the foundations to create a new religious community helping the "poorest among the poor".

Her efforts quickly caught the attention of Indian officials, including the prime minister, who expressed his appreciation.

Teresa wrote in her diary that her first year was fraught with difficulties. She had no income and had to resort to begging for food and supplies. Teresa experienced doubt, loneliness and the temptation to return to the comfort of convent life during these early months. She wrote in her diary:

"Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Today I learned a good lesson. The poverty of the poor must be so hard for them. While looking for a home I walked and walked till my arms and legs ached. I thought how much they must ache in body and soul, looking for a home, food and health. Then the comfort of Loreto [her former order] came to tempt me. 'You have only to say the word and all that will be yours again,' the Tempter kept on saying ... Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard. I did not let a single tear come."

Teresa received Vatican permission on 7 October 1950 to start the diocesan congregation that would become the Missionaries of Charity. Its mission was to care for, in her own words, "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."

It began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta; today it has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices and charity centers worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor andhomeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine.

In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the first Home for the Dying in space made available by the city of Calcutta. With the help of Indian officials she converted an abandoned Hindu temple into the Kalighat Home for the Dying, a free hospice for the poor. She renamed it Kalighat, the Home of the Pure Heart (Nirmal Hriday). Those brought to the home received medical attention and were afforded the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites. "A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels—loved and wanted."

Mother Teresa soon opened a home for those suffering from Hansen's disease, commonly known as leprosy, and called the hospice Shanti Nagar (City of Peace). The Missionaries of Charity also established several leprosy outreach clinics throughout Calcutta, providing medication, bandages and food.

As the Missionaries of Charity took in increasing numbers of lost children, Mother Teresa felt the need to create a home for them. In 1955 she opened the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart, as a haven for orphans and homeless youth.The order soon began to attract both recruits and charitable donations, and by the 1960s had opened hospices, orphanages and leper houses all over India. 

Mother Teresa then expanded the order throughout the globe. Its first house outside India opened in Venezuela in 1965 with five sisters. Others followed in Rome, Tanzania, and Austria in 1968; during the 1970s the order opened houses and foundations in dozens of countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.

The Missionaries of Charity Brothers was founded in 1963, and a contemplative branch of the Sisters followed in 1976. Lay Catholics and non-Catholics were enrolled in the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, and the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests, and in 1984 founded with Fr. Joseph Langford the Missionaries of Charity Fathers to combine the vocational aims of the Missionaries of Charity with the resources of the ministerial priesthood. By 2007 the Missionaries of Charity numbered approximately 450 brothers and 5,000 nuns worldwide, operating 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries.

Mother Teresa's philosophy and implementation have faced some criticism. Catholic newspaper editor David Scott wrote that Mother Teresa limited herself to keeping people alive rather than tackling poverty itself.

She has also been criticized for her view on suffering. She felt that suffering would bring people closer to Jesus. Sanal Edamaruku, President of Rationalist International , criticised the failure to give pain killers, writing that in her Homes for the Dying, one could “hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is ‘the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ’.”

The quality of care offered to terminally ill patients in the Homes for the Dying has been criticised in the medical press. The Lancet and the British Medical Journal reported the reuse of hypodermic needles, poor living conditions, including the use of cold baths for all patients, and an approach to illness and suffering that precluded the use of many elements of modern medical care, such as systematic diagnosis. Dr. Robin Fox, editor of The Lancet, described the medical care as "haphazard", as volunteers without medical knowledge had to take decisions about patient care, because of the lack of doctors. He observed that her order did not distinguish between curable and incurable patients, so that people who could otherwise survive would be at risk of dying from infections and lack of treatment.

Colette Livermore, a former Missionary of Charity, describes her reasons for leaving the order in her book Hope Endures: Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith, and Searching for Meaning. Livermore found what she called Mother Teresa's "theology of suffering" to be flawed, despite being a good and courageous person. Though Mother Teresa instructed her followers on the importance of spreading the Gospel through actions rather than theological lessons, Livermore could not reconcile this with some of the practices of the organization. Examples she gives include unnecessarily refusing to help the needy when they approached the nuns at the wrong time according to the prescribed schedule, discouraging nuns from seeking medical training to deal with the illnesses they encountered (with the justification that God empowers the weak and ignorant), and imposition of "unjust" punishments, such as being transferred away from friends. Livermore says that the Missionaries of Charity "infantilized" its nuns by prohibiting the reading of secular books and newspapers, and emphasizing obedience over independent thinking and problem-solving.

International charity

In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients. 

When Eastern Europe experienced increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake, and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia. In 1991, Mother Teresa returned for the first time to her homeland and opened a Missionaries of Charity Brothers home in Tirana, Albania.

By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country.

The spending of the charity money received has been criticized by some. Christopher Hitchens and the German magazine Stern have said Mother Teresa did not focus donated money on alleviating poverty or improving the conditions of her hospices, but on opening new convents and increasing missionary work.

Additionally, the sources of some donations accepted have been criticized. Mother Teresa accepted donations from the autocratic and corrupt Duvalier family in Haiti and openly praised them. She also accepted 1.4 million dollars from Charles Keating, involved in the fraud and corruption scheme known as the Keating Five scandal and supported him before and after his arrest. The Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles, Paul Turley, wrote to Mother Teresa asking her to return the donated money to the people Keating had stolen from, one of whom was "a poor carpenter". The donated money was not accounted for, and Turley did not receive a reply.

Last Years Of Life
During the last years of her life, despite facing several health problems, Mother Teresa continued to serve the poor and needy and work for her Society and Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa’s Sisters numbered nearly 4000, working in about 610 foundations in 123 countries across the world. Her newly-elected successor was appointed the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity, in March 1997. After meeting Pope John Paul II, she returned to Calcutta, where she spent her last weeks receiving visitors and giving instructions to her Sisters.

Declining health and death

Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in Rome in 1983, while visiting Pope John Paul II. After a second attack in 1989, she received an artificial pacemaker. In 1991, after a battle with pneumonia while in Mexico, she suffered further heart problems. She offered to resign her position as head of the Missionaries of Charity. But the nuns of the order, in a secret ballot, voted for her to stay. Mother Teresa agreed to continue her work as head of the order.

In April 1996, Mother Teresa fell and broke her collar bone. In August she suffered from malaria and failure of the left heart ventricle. She had heart surgery but it was clear that her health was declining. She was treated at a California hospital, too, and this has led to some criticism. The Archbishop of Calcutta, Henry Sebastian D'Souza, said he ordered a priest to perform an exorcism on Mother Teresa with her permission when she was first hospitalized with cardiac problems because he thought she may be under attack by the devil.

On 13 March 1997, she stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity. She died on 5 September 1997.

At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, and an associated brotherhood of 300 members, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. These included hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, personal helpers, orphanages, and schools. The Missionaries of Charity were also aided by Co-Workers, who numbered over 1 million by the 1990s.

Mother Teresa lay in repose in St Thomas, Kolkata for one week prior to her funeral, in September 1997. She was granted a state funeral by the Indian Government in gratitude for her services to the poor of all religions in India.

Recognition and reception

In India
Mother Teresa had first been recognised by the Indian government more than a third of a century earlier when she was awarded the Padma Shri in 1962 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969. She continued to receive major Indian rewards in successive decades including, in 1972, in 1980, India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

Her official biography was authored by an Indian civil servant, Navin Chawla, and published in 1992.

Indian views on Mother Teresa were not uniformly favourable. Her critic Aroup Chatterjee, who was born and raised in Calcutta but lived in London, reports that "she was not a significant entity in Calcutta in her lifetime". Chatterjee blames Mother Teresa for promoting a negative image of his home city. Her presence and profile grated in parts of the Indian political world, as she often opposed the Hindu Right. The Bharatiya Janata Party clashed with her over the Christian Dalits, but praised her in death, sending a representative to her funeral. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad, on the other hand, opposed the Government's decision to grant her a state funeral. Its secretary Giriraj Kishore said that "her first duty was to the Church and social service was incidental" and accused her of favouring Christians and conducting "secret baptisms" of the dying. But, in its front page tribute, the Indian fortnightly Frontline dismissed these charges as "patently false" and said that they had "made no impact on the public perception of her work, especially in Calcutta". Although praising her "selfless caring", energy and bravery, the author of the tribute was critical of Mother Teresa's public campaigning against abortion and that she claimed to be non-political when doing so. More recently, the Indian daily The Telegraph mentioned that "Rome has been asked to investigate if she did anything to alleviate the condition of the poor or just took care of the sick and dying and needed them to further a sentimentally moral cause." On 28 Aug 2010, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the Government of India issued a special 5 Rupee coin, being the sum she first arrived in India with. President Pratibha Patil said of Mother Teresa, "Clad in a white sari with a blue border, she and the sisters of Missionaries of Charity became a symbol of hope to many - the aged, the destitute, the unemployed, the diseased, the terminally ill, and those abandoned by their families."

In the rest of the world
In 1962, Mother Teresa received the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, given for work in South or East Asia. The citation said that "the Board of Trustees recognizes her merciful cognizance of the abject poor of a foreign land, in whose service she has led a new congregation". By the early 1970s, Mother Teresa had become an international celebrity. Her fame can be in large part attributed to the 1969 documentary Something Beautiful for God, which was filmed by Malcolm Muggeridge and his 1971 book of the same title. Muggeridge was undergoing a spiritual journey of his own at the time. During the filming of the documentary, footage taken in poor lighting conditions, particularly the Home for the Dying, was thought unlikely to be of usable quality by the crew. After returning from India, however, the footage was found to be extremely well lit. Muggeridge claimed this was a miracle of "divine light" from Mother Teresa herself. Others in the crew thought it was due to a new type of ultra-sensitive Kodak film. Muggeridge later converted to Catholicism.

Around this time, the Catholic world began to honor Mother Teresa publicly. In 1971, Paul VI awarded her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize, commending her for her work with the poor, display of Christian charity and efforts for peace. She later received the Pacem in Terris Award (1976). Since her death, Mother Teresa has progressed rapidly along the steps towards sainthood, currently having reached the stage of having been beatified. 

Mother Teresa was honoured by both governments and civilian organizations. She was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1982, "for service to the community of Australia and humanity at large". The United Kingdom and the United States each repeatedly granted awards, culminating in the Order of Merit in 1983, and honorary citizenship of the United States received on 16 November 1996. Mother Teresa's Albanian homeland granted her the Golden Honour of the Nation in 1994. Her acceptance of this and another honour granted by the Haitian government proved controversial. Mother Teresa attracted criticism from a number of people for implicitly giving support to the Duvaliers and to corrupt businessmen such as Charles Keating and Robert Maxwell. In Keating's case she wrote to the judge of his trial asking for clemency to be shown.

Universities in both the West and in India granted her honorary degrees. Other civilian awards include the Balzan Prize for promoting humanity, peace and brotherhood among peoples (1978), and the Albert Schweitzer International Prize (1975).

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India, stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." Building on this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

Towards the end of her life, Mother Teresa attracted some negative attention in the Western media. The journalist Christopher Hitchens has been one of her most active critics. He was commissioned to co-write and narrate the documentary Hell's Angel about her for the British Channel 4 after Aroup Chatterjee encouraged the making of such a program, although Chatterjee was unhappy with the "sensationalist approach" of the final product. Hitchens expanded his criticism in a 1995 book, The Missionary Position.

Chatterjee writes that while she was alive Mother Teresa and her official biographers refused to collaborate with his own investigations and that she failed to defend herself against critical coverage in the Western press. He gives as examples a report in The Guardian in Britain whose "stringent (and quite detailed) attack on conditions in her orphanages ... [include] charges of gross neglect and physical and emotional abuse", and another documentary Mother Teresa: Time for Change? broadcast in several European countries.

The German magazine Stern published a critical article on the first anniversary of Mother Teresa's death. This concerned allegations regarding financial matters and the spending of donations. The medical press has also published criticism of her, arising from very different outlooks and priorities on patients' needs. Other critics include prominent marxist, Tariq Ali, a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review, and the Irish investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre.

Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities. In tribute, Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that she was "a rare and unique individual who lived long for higher purposes. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity." The former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar said: "She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world." During her lifetime, Mother Teresa was named 18 times in the yearly Gallup's most admired man and woman poll‎ as one of the ten women around the world that Americans admired most, finishing first several times in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1999, a poll of Americans ranked her first in Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In that survey, she out-polled all other volunteered answers by a wide margin, and was in first place in all major demographic categories except the very young.

Spiritual life

Analyzing her deeds and achievements, John Paul II asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength and perseverance to place herself completely at the service of others? She found it in prayer and in the silent contemplation of Jesus Christ, his Holy Face, his Sacred Heart." Privately, Mother Teresa experienced doubts and struggles over her religious beliefs which lasted nearly fifty years until the end of her life, during which "she felt no presence of God whatsoever", "neither in her heart or in the eucharist" as put by her postulator Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk. Mother Teresa expressed grave doubts about God's existence and pain over her lack of faith:

"Where is my faith? Even deep down ... there is nothing but emptiness and darkness ... If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul ... How painful is this unknown pain—I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, ... What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."

With reference to the above words, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, her postulator  (the official responsible for gathering the evidence for her sanctification) indicated there was a risk that some might misinterpret her meaning, but her faith that God was working through her remained undiminished, and that while she pined for the lost sentiment of closeness with God, she did not question his existence. Many other saints had similar experiences of spiritual dryness, or what Catholics believe to be spiritual tests ("passive purifications"), such as Mother Teresa's namesake, St. Therese of Lisieux, who called it a "night of nothingness."  Contrary to the mistaken belief by some that the doubts she expressed would be an impediment to canonization, just the opposite is true; it is very consistent with the experience of canonized mystics.

Mother Teresa described, after ten years of doubt, a short period of renewed faith. At the time of the death of Pope Pius XII in the fall of 1958, praying for him at a requiem mass, she said she had been relieved of "the long darkness: that strange suffering." However, five weeks later, she described returning to her difficulties in believing.

Mother Teresa wrote many letters to her confessors and superiors over a 66-year period. She had asked that her letters be destroyed, concerned that "people will think more of me—less of Jesus." However, despite this request, the correspondences have been compiled in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (Doubleday). In one publicly released letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, she wrote, "Jesus has a very special love for you. [But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see,—Listen and do not hear—the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me—that I let Him have [a] free hand."

Many news outlets have referred to Mother Teresa's writings as an indication of a "crisis of faith." Some critics of Mother Teresa, such as Christopher Hitchens, view her writings as evidence that her public image was created primarily for publicity despite her personal beliefs and actions. Hitchens writes, "So, which is the more striking: that the faithful should bravely confront the fact that one of their heroines all but lost her own faith, or that the Church should have gone on deploying, as an icon of favorable publicity, a confused old lady who it knew had for all practical purposes ceased to believe?" However, others such as Brian Kolodiejchuk, Come Be My Light's editor, draw comparisons to the 16th century mystic St. John of the Cross, who coined the term the "dark night of the soul" to describe a particular stage in the growth of some spiritual masters. The Vatican has indicated that the letters would not affect her path to sainthood. In fact, the book is edited by the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, her postulator.

In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI mentioned Teresa of Calcutta three times and he also used her life to clarify one of his main points of the encyclical. "In the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta we have a clear illustration of the fact that time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbour but is in fact the inexhaustible source of that service." Mother Teresa specified that "It is only by mental prayer and spiritual reading that we can cultivate the gift of prayer."

Although there was no direct connection between Mother Teresa's order and the Franciscan orders, she was known as a great admirer of St. Francis of Assisi. Accordingly, her influence and life show influences of Franciscan spirituality. The Sisters of Charity recite the peace prayer of St. Francis every morning during thanksgiving after Communion and many of the vows and emphasis of her ministry are similar. St. Francis emphasized poverty, chastity, obedience and submission to Christ. He also devoted much of his own life to service of the poor, especially lepers in the area where he lived.

Miracle and beatification

After Mother Teresa's death in 1997, the Holy See  began the process of beatification, the third step toward possible canonization. This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa.

In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, after the application of a locket containing Mother Teresa's picture. Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Critics—including some of Besra's medical staff and, initially, Besra's husband—insisted that conventional medical treatment had eradicated the tumor. Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who told The New York Times he had treated Besra, said that the cyst was not cancer at all but a cyst caused by tuberculosis. He insisted, "It was not a miracle.... She took medicines for nine months to one year." According to Besra’s husband, “My wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle.”

An opposing perspective of the claim is that Besra's medical records contain sonograms, prescriptions, and physicians' notes that could prove whether the cure was a miracle or not. Besra has claimed that Sister Betta of the Missionaries of Charity is holding them. The publication has received a "no comments" statement from Sister Betta. The officials at the Balurghat Hospital where Besra was seeking medical treatment have claimed that they are being pressured by the Catholic order to declare the cure a miracle.

Christopher Hitchens was the only witness called by the Vatican to give evidence against Mother Teresa's beatification and canonization process, because the Vatican had abolished the traditional "devil's advocate" role, which fulfilled a similar purpose. Hitchens has argued that "her intention was not to help people," and he alleged that she lied to donors about the use of their contributions. “It was by talking to her that I discovered, and she assured me, that she wasn't working to alleviate poverty,” says Hitchens. “She was working to expand the number of Catholics. She said, ‘I'm not a social worker. I don't do it for this reason. I do it for Christ. I do it for the church.”

In the process of examining Teresa's suitability for beatification and canonization, the Roman Curia (the Vatican) pored over a great deal of documentation of published and unpublished criticism of her life and work. Vatican officials say Hitchens's allegations have been investigated by the agency charged with such matters, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and they found no obstacle to Mother Teresa's beatification. Because of the attacks she has received, some Catholic writers have called her a sign of contradiction. The beatification of Mother Teresa took place on 19 October 2003, thereby bestowing on her the title "Blessed." A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.

Mother Teresa Timelines:
    Aug 27, 1910 - Born as Agnes Gionxhu Bejuxhiu ans in Skopje in the former Yugoslavia
   1928 - Becomes Roman Catholic Loretto nun and begins noviate training in Loretto Abbey, Dublin, Ireland, takes name Sister Teresa
    1929 - Arrives in Calcutta, India, becomes a teacher at St. Mary's High School
    1937 - Takes final vows as a nun
    1948 - Permitted to leave order and moves to slums to start school
    1948 - Transfers her citizenship from Yugoslavia to India. Left the convent to
    work alone in the slums. Receives medical training in Paris
    1950 - Founds the Missionaries of Charity
    1952 - Opens Nirmal Hriday ("Pure Heart"), home for the dying
    1953 - Opens orphanage
    1957 - Begins her work with lepers for which her order becomes well known around the world
    1958 - Order's first facility outside of Calcutta opens in Drachi, India
    1962 - Wins first prize for work among the poor: Padma Shri award
    1965 - The Catholic Church grants the order permission to organize missions outside of India
    1971 - Receives the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize and uses the $25,000 to build a leper colony
    1979 - Awarded Nobel Peace Prize for work with destitute and dying
    1982 - Persuades the Israelis and Palestinians to cease fire long enough to rescue 37 retarded children from Beirut
    1983 - Has heart attack while visiting Pope John Paul II
    1985 - Awarded ‘Medal of Freedom’
    1989 - Suffers second heart attack, fitted with pacemaker
    1990 - Re-elected superior general of her order of the Missionaries for Charity, despite her wish to step down
    1992 - Enters the hospital in La Jolla, California for treatment of pneumonia and
    congestive heart failure
    1993 - Falls and breaks three ribs in May, hospitalized for malaria in August, undergoes surgery for blocked blood vessel in September
    1996 - Falls and breaks collarbone in April, suffers malarial fever and left ventricle failure in August, receives honorary citizenship on November sixteenth
    March 13, 1997 - Steps down as the head of her order, is succeeded by Sister Nirmala
    September 5, 1997 - Dies of a massive heart attack in Calcutta at the age of 87

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