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BRAHMO SOMAJ. 



with which popular Hindooism has become 

 encumbered. It owes its origin to an effort to 

 restore the pure doctrine of the Vedas ; the 

 aim was modified, first in the direction of a 

 religion of theism, then of a religion of nature, 

 in which stage the attitude of the society ap- 

 peared unfriendly to Christianity, if not antago- 

 nistic to it. Within two years, however, the 

 progressive and most active section of the so- 

 ciety, as represented by its best known leader, 

 the Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, has shown a 

 growing friendliness toward Christianity and a 

 disposition to approach it. 



The " Brahmo Somaj of India " was formed 

 by a separation from the "Brahmo Somaj," an 

 older society for the reform of the Hindoo 

 worship, which was formed by the Rajah Ram 

 Mohun Roy. This leader, a Brahman who 

 believed fully in the inspiration of the Vedas, 

 was also acquainted with the teachings of the 

 New Testament and esteemed them. He 

 founded a church in Calcutta, published a 

 work called " The Precepts of Jesus," and en- 

 tered into fraternal relations with the Unitarian 

 Christians who had been established at Madras 

 since 1813. Ram Mohun Roy died in 1813; 

 and, while the influence he had exercised suf- 

 fered a decline, the society which he had 

 formed was kept up by the accession of stu- 

 dents from the religionless Government schools, 

 who had lost their old faith without receiving 

 a new one. A new impulse was given to the 

 movement for religious reform by the acces- 

 sion in 1839 of the Baboo Debendranath Ta- 

 gore, who soon became the leader of the society. 

 At first he gave a more exclusive adherence to 

 the religious books of the Hindoos than Ram 

 Mohun Roy had done ; but the continued study 

 of the Vedas showed that that they did not 

 teach a pure monotheism, and doubts began to 

 be entertained about 1845 of their divine ori- 

 gin. Instead of the whole books, the Brahm- 

 ists employed collections of isolated texts and 

 sentences from the ancient sages as expressions 

 of their common faith, and at length came to 

 reject the possibility of a written revelation. 

 About the same time the theists became read- 

 ers of the writings of Francis Newman, and 

 received the ideas of an inward light and a 

 mystical kind of intuition. Soon afterward a 

 movement in the direction of Christianity set 

 in, occasioned, according to the " Indian Mir- 

 ror," by the accession from the missionary 

 schools of members who became leading men. 

 A new epoch in the history of the society was 

 marked by the accession of Baboo Keshub 

 Chunder Sen in 1857. Mr. Sen was born in 

 1838, a member of the Vaidya caste. He be- 

 came dissatisfied with the religion of his fa- 

 thers while a student at the Presidency College, 

 Calcutta, and turned to the Brahmo Somaj in 

 the hope of finding a better one there. At first 

 he followed the lead of Baboo Debendranath 

 Tagore, but soon became the leader of a pro- 

 gressive party. In 1865 he presented, in the 

 name of his party, three demands as an ultima- 



tum, on the rejection of which they would sep- 

 arate and form a new society. They were : 1. 

 That external marks of caste, such as the 

 Brahmanical thread, should no longer be used ; 

 2. That those Brahmists only should be per- 

 mitted to conduct divine service in the Somaj 

 who were of sufficient ability and bore a good 

 moral character, and whose life accorded with 

 their profession; 3. That nothing should be 

 said in the Somaj which breathed hatred or 

 contempt toward other religions. The con- 

 servative party were not ready to give up the 

 use of the Brahmanical thread, and a disrup- 

 tion took place. The progressive party took 

 the name of the Brahmo Somaj of India, while 

 the old party styled itself the Adi (or original) 

 Brahmo Somaj. 



The " Brahmo Public Opinion," of India, at 

 the beginning of 1879, in giving a review of 

 the history and development of the Brahmo So- 

 maj from its origin in 1830, divided the history 

 into three epochs the Vedantic, the Puranic, 

 and the Eclectic. In the first period, which 

 closed with the death of Ram Mohun Roy, 

 there were, it says, strong and earnest protests 

 against idolatry, along with evident indications 

 of a belief in the infallibility of the Vedas. 

 In the hymns and songs there were symptoms 

 of a belief in the transmigration of souls, along 

 with traces of a corresponding faith in the 

 Vedantic doctrine of Unification with the Di- 

 vine Essence." When the Vedas were given 

 up, Baboo Debendranath Tagore came forward 

 with the doctrine that religion is based on the 

 intuitions of the soul, and directed his atten- 

 tion to the construction of a new form of 

 church service and a new and unidolatroua 

 code of ceremonies. In doing this he did not 

 depart from the Hindoo Shastas, but collected 

 his texts from them alone, and published the 

 book known as the " Brahma Dhurma." This 

 period is styled the Puranic period, because the 

 development of the Puranic idea of separate 

 entity of the Godhead from the human soul, 

 and the development of the Puranic practice 

 of worshiping that Godhead, took place in it. 

 Another leader was growing up in the mean 

 time Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, who with 

 his friends " fretted, as it were, under the con- 

 ventional barriers of the Shastras, and longed to 

 proclaim a broader and more catholic faith to 

 the world, and to inaugurate an era of nobler 

 self-sacrifice." From the day of the separa- 

 tion, the " Public Opinion " continues, dates 

 an unusual expansion of the Brahmo Church. 

 " From that day Brahmoism has been presented 

 to the world as a perfectly broad and catholic 

 faith, eclectic in its principles and universal in 

 its character." 



The old party, or Adi Somaj, suffered a loss 

 of religious influence after the disruption, while 

 the Brahmo Somaj has been brought into wide 

 notice by the preaching of Keshub Chunder 

 Sen. Other societies, as the Prarthana Somaj, 

 the Aria Somaj, the Ekimishvarionandali, etc., 

 professing similar principles, are allied with the 



