Jnanadanandini Tagore (pronounced Bengali: [gjanodanondini ˈʈʰakuɾ] (née Mukhopadhyay; 26 July 1850 – 1 October 1941) was a social reformer who pioneered various cultural innovations and influenced the earliest phase of women's empowerment in 19th century Bengal.

[1] Jnanadanandini was born to parents Abhaycharan Mukhopadhyay and Nistarini Devi of Narendrapur village in Jessore, Bengal Presidency (Bangladesh).

[3] In 1862, while pursuing his probationary training for the Indian Civil Service (ICS), Satyendranath asked for Jnanadanandini to join him in England, however his father did not consent.

[5] Upon Satyendranath's return from England in 1864 as the first Indian member of the Civil Service, Jnanadanandini went to live with her husband in Bombay, Pune and Bijapur.

This shift in social role required her to dress appropriately, for which the traditional Bengali style of wearing the sari became too unwieldy.

[10] While in Calcutta, Jnanadanandini, breaking the customs of the upper-caste household, accompanied her husband to a Christmas party thrown by the Viceroy, Lord Lawrence in 1866.

Prasanna Coomar Tagore of Pathuriaghata, who was also among the invitees was deeply outraged by Jnanadanandini's boldness and left the viceregal palace in shock.

[16] However, Jnanadanandini resented leaving her children in the custody of servants—often against the wishes of her own husband—making evident the emotional contours of a nuclear family that were already beginning to evolve in her mind.

[19] At a time when an Indian woman crossing the seas was unheard of—let alone heavily pregnant, with three children and unaccompanied by her husband—her fortitude created a social sensation.

[20] She was received in London by her husband's uncle Gnanendramohan Tagore who, in spite of being the first Asian barrister and a Christian convert, shared in the shock.

Yet, from the memoirs of her daughter Indira and niece Sarala, we learn that Jnanadanandini never relinquished her attachment with the Tagore's Jorasanko house.

[28] From Indira Devi's recollection we also learn that in spite of her high standing, Jnanadanandini did not socialize with the Calcutta glitterati of her time.

[29] That Calcutta society was not favourably disposed towards Jnanadanandini either is evident from an article in the October 1889 issue of the popular Bengali journal Bangabasi, which slandered her for acting in the play Raja O Rani.

On the one hand, she is among the few women who presided over the Maghotsav celebrations at the Brahmo Samaj, while on the other she is known to have advocated marriage with the non-Brahmin Cooch-Behar royal family which brought her at loggerheads, yet again, with Debendranath Tagore.

While she single-handedly nursed Rabindranath's daughter Meera Devi through her difficult pregnancy in 1911, she also fell out with him over the issue of withdrawing her grandson Subirendranath from Santiniketan ashram in 1921.

In the words of her daughter Indira Devi, "my mother had ... a quality of centrality, that is the power of attracting people around her, owing to her hospitable and hearty nature".