RAMMOHUN ROY RAMSAY 



809 



tingitished himself by his literary attainments and 

 his conversion from the ancient Hindoo faith to a 

 belief in Unitarian Christianity, was born about the 

 year 1780, at Bourduan, in the province of Bengal. 

 The first elements of his education he received un- 

 der the paternal roof, where he also acquired a 

 knowledge of the Persian language. He was after- 

 wards sent to Patna to learn Arabic ; and here, 

 through the medium of translations of Aristotle and 

 Kuclid, he studied logic and mathematics. When 

 he had completed these studies, he went to Calcutta 

 to learn Sanscrit, the sacred language of the' Hindoo 

 scriptures, the knowledge of which was indispen- 

 able to his caste and profession as a Bramin. (See 

 Caste, and Bramin.) About the year 1804 or 18(15, 

 he became possessed, by the death of his father and 

 of an elder and younger brother, of the whole family 

 property, which is said to have been very consider- 

 able. He now quitted Bourduan, and fixed his re- 

 sidence at Mourshedabad, where his ancestors had 

 chiefly lived. Shortly after his settlement at this 

 place, he commenced his literary career by the 

 publication of a work in the Persian language, with 

 a preface in Arabic, which he entitled, Against the 

 idolatry of all Nations. The freedom with which he 

 animadverted on their respective systems gave great 

 umbrage, both to the Mahommedans and the Hin- 

 doos, and created him so many enemies that he 

 Ibund it necessary to remove to Calcutta, where he 

 again took up his residence in the year 1S14. Two 

 years previously to this period, he had begun to 

 study the English language ; but he did not then 

 apply to it with much ardour or success. Being 

 some years after appointed dewan, or chief native 

 officer in the collection of the revenues, and the 

 duties of his office affording him frequent opportunity 

 of mixing with English society, and of reading Eng- 

 lish documents, he applied to it with increased at- 

 tention, and very soon qualified himself to speak and 

 write it with considerable facility, correctness and 

 elegance. He afterwards studied the Latin, Greek 

 and Hebrew languages. A careful study of the 

 sacred writings of the Hindoos had convinced him 

 that the prevailing notions respecting the multipli- 

 city of deities, and the superstitious devotion to the 

 licentious and inhuman customs connected with 

 them, were grounded upon a gross perversion of 

 their religion. These original records appeared to 

 him to inculcate a system of pure Theism, which 

 maintained the existence of one God, infinite in his 

 perfections, and eternal in his duration ; and that it 

 required from its professors a mental rather than a 

 corporeal worship, accompanied by strict and ex- 

 emplary virtue. Having embraced these views of 

 the Hindoo theology and morals, he became anxious 

 to reform the creed and practice of his countrymen, 

 and determined to devote his talents and his fortune 

 to this important and honourable undertaking. The 

 sacred books or Vedas (see Indian languages and 

 literature) contain the religious documents of the 

 Hindoos. This work Rammohun Roy translated 

 from the Sanscrit into the Bengalee and Hindoo 

 languages, and distributed the translation gratuit- 

 ously. This he afterwards published in English, 

 for the purpose of proving to his European friends, 

 " that the superstitious practices which deform the 

 Hindoo religion, have nothing to do with the pure 

 spirit of its dictates.'' But, as might be expected, 

 his benevolent conduct, and zeal for the good of his 

 fellow men, exposed him to many personal incon- 

 veniences. He had, nevertheless, the gratification 

 of witnessing the beneficial effects of his labours. 

 From the perusal of the New Testament, in his 

 " long and uninterrupted researches into religious 

 truth, he found (he says) the doctrines of Christ 



more conductive to moral principles, and better 

 adapted for the use of rational beings, than any 

 other which had come to his knowledge." As the 

 most likely method of acquiring a correct knowledge 

 of his doctrines, he determined upon a careful peru- 

 sal of the Jewish and Christian scriptures in their 

 original languages. From this undertaking he rose 

 with a full conviction that the Christian religion is 

 true and divine. In 1820, he accordingly published 

 a work, entitled the Precepts of Jesus the Guide to 

 Peace and Happiness, consisting chiefly of a selec- 

 tion of moral precepts from the Evangelists. In 

 this undertaking he was governed by the considers 

 lion, that historical and some other passages are 

 liable to the doubts and disputes of free-thinkers and 

 anti-Christians, especially miraculous relations, 

 which are much less wonderful than the fabricated 

 tales handed down to the natives of Asia, and would 

 consequently be apt at best to carry little weight 

 with them. Rammohun Roy, in his doctrinal views, 

 was a Unitarian, holding, however, the pre-existence 

 and superangeiic dignity of Christ, and considering 

 the doctrine of the Trinity as a species of polytheism, 

 objectionable in itself, and calculated to prevent 

 the adoption of what he considered the Christian 

 faith by the natives of Hindoostan. See Correspon- 

 dence relative to the Prospect of the Reception of 

 Christianity in India. This work was followed by 

 the First, Second, and Final Appeal to Christians, 

 in reply to the animadversions of Dr Marshman, 

 Baptist missionary at Serampore, who defended the 

 Trinitarian views of the deity of Christ, and the 

 atonement. In 1833, Rammohun Roy visited Eng- 

 land, where he was seized with a fever, which 

 proved fatal. ' He died at Stapleton Grove, the 

 residence of Dr Lant Carpenter, near Bristol, on 

 the 27th September of that year. When in the ex- 

 tremities of death, he went through the rites of the 

 Braminical religion, in order that his children might 

 not Jose their property and caste. For the same 

 reason, he was privately interred at Stapleton Grove, 

 instead of a Christian cemetery. 



RAMPANT, in heraldy ; a term applied to a 

 lion, leopard, or other beast, that stands on his hind 

 legs, and rears up his fore tVet in the posture of 

 climbing, showing only one half his face, as one 

 eye, &c. It is different from salient, in which the 

 beast seems springing forward. 



RAMSAY, ALLAN, next to Burns, the most dis- 

 tinguished among the modern Scottish poets, was 

 born on the 15th of October, 1686, at Leadhills, in 

 Lanarkshire. His father was superintendent of lord 

 Hopetoun's mines there, and his mother, Alice 

 Bower, was the daughter of a gentleman in Derby- 

 shire. All the education which Allan ever received 

 was at his native parish school in Crawfordmuir, 

 where it is probable he merely went through the 

 common routine of instruction to be had at such 

 seminaries. The death of his father in early life 

 prevented him, it is to be supposed, from receiving 

 any thirg like a liberal education, and forced him to 

 seek, while yet a youth, a means of livelihood in 

 the Scottish capital. There he became bound as an 

 apprentice to a wig-maker an occupation which 

 thegrealer part of his biographers are very anxious 

 to distinguish from a larber, but with what degree 

 of justice we know riot. Allan himself, it would 

 seem, was not ashamed of his trade, but continued 

 in it long after his apprenticeship had ceased ; nor 

 did he abandon it for the more congenial pursuit 

 of bookselling, until he had held for some time a 

 name in the poetical world. The exact period when 

 he commenced bookseller we cannot ascertain ; but 

 he is said to have been the first who established a 

 circulating library in Scotland. The library itilJ 



