Nilla Cram Cook (December 21, 1908 – October 11, 1982), also known as Nila Nagini Devi, was an American writer, linguist, translator, and arts patron.

[1][2] In 1931, Cook left her husband in Greece and brought her young son to Kashmir,[2] where she became a follower of Gandhi,[3][4] converted to Hinduism,[5] and studied Sanskrit, Hindi, and Persian literatures.

After she left Gandhi's ashram,[6] with a shaved head and barefoot,[7][8] she crashed a car,[9] and was detained as a vagrant and hospitalized for a month in 1934, in Calcutta,[10][11] then deported with her son back to the United States.

[12][13] On arrival at Ellis Island, she made odd pronouncements ("delusions of grandeur", according to her brother), and news stories remarked on the "dramatic" and "hectic" scene.

During that time, Cook converted to Islam, and spent years on a personal project, editing and translating the Koran into English, with her own commentary.