Page 3 - Lady Navajbai Tata

LADY MEHERBAI TATA
LADY MEHERBAI TATA
LADY MEHERBAI TATA
(1879 - 1931)
(1879 - 1931)
(1879 - 1931)
Meherbai was supervised her reading in English
b o r n i n Literature. She was an accomplished
Bombay on pianist and one of those who was
October 10, sought after at every public concert
1879. When in Mysore.
she was three,
the family In the words of Stanley Reed, former
m o v e d t o Editor of the Times of India,
B a n g a l o r e .
FROM THE
w a s
S h e
at
educated
Hormusji Bhabha with h o m e i n
his wife and children - Gujarati and
Jehangir and Mehri - e l e m e n t a r y
circa 1890. English and
the
COLLECTION
joined
Bishop Cotton School.

Her father, Hormusji J. Bhabha was
one of the first Parsis who went to
England to complete his education
and his enthusiasm for Western ways
OF THE
was shown, among other things, in
his spelling of his daughter’s name, Young Mehri – circa 1894.
“Mary”. This however, was not to her
taste, and pride in her nationality "Meherbai was of medium height. Of
made her change the spelling from regular feature, clear cut, and clear-
the English “Mary” to the Persian eyed, with that flush through the
TATA CENTRAL ARCHIVES
faintly tinted live skin which painters
“Mehri”.

tell us is the perfect complexion…
In 1884, her father, Hormusji She was well endowed with brains,
Bhabha was transferred to Mysore as learned and accomplished. She was
Principal of the Maharaja’s College. devoted to all outdoor games; a
Mehri, progressed in English and proficient tennis player, she was
Latin under her father’s guidance, equally at home in all forms of
attending college only for the science exercise.”
c l a s s e s . S h e p a s s e d h e r
Matriculation at the age of 16, In 1890, Jamsetji Tata, Founder of
thereafter pursuing her studies in her the House of Tata visited Bangalore
father’s excellent library. at the invitation of Sheshadri Iyer, the
Dewan of Mysore. It is on one of
Young Mehri also learnt music under these frequent subsequent visits that
a missionary lady who also he came in close contact with the