Maharani of Cooch Behar Sunity Devee

Born in 1864, Sunity Devee became Maharani of Cooch Behar and was known not only as a royal figure but also as an educator, social worker, and author. She was the daughter of Keshub Chandra Sen, a major reformer of the Brahmo Samaj, and that background shaped her lifelong interest in women’s education and social progress.

She wrote across several genres, but she is especially remembered for The Autobiography of an Indian Princess, a memoir that offers a rare first-person view of princely life in British India. Her writing is valued for its warmth, detail, and the way it captures a life lived between tradition and modernity.

Sunity Devee died in 1932, but her legacy endures through her books and through the institutions linked with her support for girls’ education in Cooch Behar.