In 1856, the East India Company imposed the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act, allowing widows to remarry after their husband’s death. The Act was controversial at the time: Hindu traditionalists, particularly in higher castes, prevented widows from remarrying to protect the family’s honor, and even teenage and child widows were expected to live lives of austerity.

Yamuna’s Journey is the English translation of Baba Padmanji’s 1857 Marathi novel Yamunaparyatan. “Yamuna” is both the name of the female protagonist of this novel as well as a reference to the river Yamuna in India; “paryatan” means journey or travel. “Yamunaparyatan” (“Journey to the Yamuna”) can be interpreted as travel to Vrindaban, a holy city on the banks of the river Yamuna, where Hindu widows were sent to live a life of spirituality and—widowhood being considered a curse—penance in homes set aside for them. Most of them were however in fact abandoned by their relatives and forced to live in abject poverty and isolation. The title, thereby, is suggestive of the trials and tribulations of widowhood in 19th century Hindu society.