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 Ram Mohan Roy
Roy Ram Mohan

Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as the Father of the Bengal Renaissance.

Alternate name(s): Roy Rammohun

Date of birth: August 14, 1774(1774-08-14)

Place of birth: Radhanagore, Bengal

Date of death: September 27, 1833 (aged 59)

Place of death: Stapleton, Bristol

Major organizations: Brahmo Samaj

Religion: Brahmo

Ram Mohan Roy, also written as Rammohun Roy, or Raja Ram Mohun Roy

(Bangla: রাজা রামোমাহন রায়, Raja Rammohon Rae), (August 14, 1774 – September 27,

1833) was a founder in 1828 (with Dwarkanath Tagore and other Bengali

Brahmins) of the Brahma Sabha which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an

influential Indian socio-religious reform movement. His remarkable influence was

apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and education as well as

religion. He is best known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the

corrupted Hindu funeral practice in which the widow were compelled to sacrificed

herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. It was he who first introduced the word

"Hinduism" (or "Hindooism") into the English language in 1816. For his diverse

contributions to society, Raja Ram Mohan Roy is regarded as one of the most

important figures in the Bengal Renaissance and is hailed as "the father of

modern India".

Contents
 • 1 Early life and education (1774 - 1796)

• 2 Christian and Company period (1795 - 1828)

• 3 Middle "Brahmo" period (1820 - 1830)

○ 3.1 The struggle against Suttee

• 4 Life in England (1831- 1833)

• 5 Reformer

○ 5.1 Religious Reform of Rammohun

○ 5.2 Social Reforms of Rammohun

○ 5.3 Educationist

○ 5.4 Journalist

• 6 Epitaph

• 7 See also

• 8 References

• 9 External links

Early life and education (1774 -

1796)
Roy was born in Radhanagore, Bengal, in 1774[1]. His family background displayed

an interesting religious diversity. His father Ramkanta was a Vaishnavite, while

his mother Tarinidevi was from a Shivaite family. This in itself was unusual for

Vaishanavites did not marry Shaivites at the time.

"Thus one parent prepared him for the occupation of a scholar, the

sastrin, the other secured for him all the worldly advantage needed to

launch a career in the laukik or worldly sphere of public administration.

Torn between these two parental ideals from early childhood, Rammohun

vacillated the rest of his life, moving from one to the other and back.[2]

Rammohun's early education was controversial. The common version is

Rammohun started his formal education in he village pathshala where he

learned Bengali and some Sankrit and Persian. Later he is said to have

studied Persian and Arabic in a madrasa in Patna and after that he was
sent to Benares (Kashi) for learning the intricacies of Sanskrit and Hindu

scripture, including the Vedas and Upanishads. The dates of his sojourn

in both these places is uncertain. However, we will go by the commonly

held belief that he was sent to Patna when he was nine years old and two

years later to Benares."[3]

The period in which the Raja was born

and grew up was, perhaps, the

darkest age in modern Indian history.

An old society and polity had

crumbled down, and a new one had

not yet been built in its place.

Devastation reigned in the land. All

vital limbs of society were paralysed;

religious institutions and schools,

village and home, agriculture,

industry and trade, law and

administration, all were in a chaotic

condition. An all-round reconstitution

and renovation were necessary for the

continued existence of social life and

order. But what was to be the

principle for organisation? For there

were three bodies of culture, three

bodies of civilisations, which were in

conflict, - the Hindu, the Moslem, and

the Christian or Occidental; and the

question was, - how to find a rapport,

of concord, of unity, amongst these

heterogeneous, hostile and warring

forces. The origin of Modern India lay

there. The Raja by his finding of this

point of concord and convergence

became the Father and Patriarch of

Modern India, an India with a

 composite nationality and a synthetic

civilisation; and by the lines of

convergence he laid down, as well by

the type of personality he developed

in and through his own experiences,

he pointed the way to the solution of

the larger problem of international

culture and civilisation in human

history, and became a precursor, an

archetype, of coming Humanity.[4]

Brajendra Nath Seal

His faithful contemporary biographer writes,

"Rammohun with his new found madrasa knowledge of Arabic also tasted

the fruit forbidden to Brahmins of Quran and was converted to its strict

monotheism. Rammohun's mother Tarini Devi was scandalised and

packed her son off to Benares (to study Sanskit and Vedas) before he

could take the irrevocable step. In Benares, Rammohun's rebellion

continued and he persisted in interpreting the Upanishads through the

Holy Quran's monotheist strictures especially against idolatry. Benares,

the spiritual seat of traditional Hinduism, was awash with temples to the

billion gods of Hindu pantheon, and Rammohun would not complete his

formal Vedantic education there. He instead travelled widely (not much is

known of where he went, but he is said to have extensively studied

Buddhism at this time) to eventually return to his family around 1794

when a search party sent by his father tracked him down to Benares in

the company of some Buddhists with similar notions. Between 1794 and

1795 Rammohun stayed with his family attending the family zamindari

holdings. There was considerable friction in the family between

Rammohun and his father, who died in about 1796 leaving some property

to be divided amongst his sons.

Christian and Company period

(1795 - 1828)
 During these overlapping periods, Rammohun acted as a political agitator and

agent, representing Christian missionaries whilst employed by the East India

Company and simultaneously pursuing his vocation as a Pandit. To understand

fully this complex period in his life leading up to his eventual Brahmoism is not

easy without reference to his peers,

"In 1792 the British Baptist shoemaker William Carey published his influential

missionary tract "An Enquiry of the obligations of Christians to use means for the

conversion of heathens".

In 1793 William Carey lands in India to settle here. His objective is to translate,

publish and distribute the Bible into Indic languages and convert the Hindus

thereby. Astutely he realizes that the "mobile" (i.e. service class) Brahmins and

Pundits are best situated to help him in this endeavour, and he begins cultivating

them. He learns the Buddhist and Jain religious works that expose chinks in the

armor of Hinduism's doctrine.

In 1795 Carey makes contact with a Sanskrit scholar - the Tantric Hariharananda

Vidyabagish - who later introduces him to Rammohun Roy who wished to learn

English. Roy is already a colourful character in his own right.

Between 1796 and 1797 the trio of Carey, Vidyaagish and Roy fabricate a

spurious religious work known as the "Maha Nirvana Tantra" (or "Book of the

Great Liberation") and palm it off as an ancient religious text to "the One True

God" actually the Holy Spirit of Christianity masquerading as Brahma. (The

explanation later given by Rammohun to his family concerning his whereabouts

during this period is that he went to "Tibet" –then as far away as "Timbuktoo").

For the next 2 decades this amazing document is regularly and conveniently

added to. Its "judicious" translations are used in the law courts of the English

Settlement in Bengal as Hindu Law for adjudicating upon property disputes of the

zamindari. However a few British Magistrates and Collectors begin to suspect its

"convenient" forgeries and its usage (as well as the reliance on Pundits as sources

of Hindu Law) is quickly deprecated. Hariharananda has a brief falling out with

Carey and separates from the group to go about his mendicancy but maintains

lifelong personal and familial ties to Rammohun. (The Maha Nirvana Tantra's

significance for Brahmoism lies in the wealth that accumulates to Rammohun Roy

and Dwarkanath Tagore by its "judicious" application, and not due to any religious

wisdom within – although it does contain an entire chapter devoted to "the One
 True God" and his worship).

In 1797, Rammohun reached Calcutta to become a "banian" (ie. moneylender)

mainly to impoverished Englishmen of the Company living beyond their means.

Rammohun also continues his vocation as Pundit in the English courts and starts

to make a living for himself. He begins learning the rudiments of Greek and Latin.

In 1799, Carey is joined by misisonary Joshua Marshman and the printer William

Ward at the Danish settlement of Serampore, after the news of his great triumphs

in India reach back home.

From 1803 till 1815, Rammohun served the English Company's "Writing Service"

commencing as private clerk "munshi" to Thomas Woodforde, Registrar of the

Appellate Court at Murshidabad (whose distant nephew - also a Magistrate - later

made a rich living off the spurious Maha Nirvana Tantra under the pseudonym

Arthur Avalon). Roy resigned from Woodforde's service shortly due to allegations

of corruption. Later he secured employment with John Digby a Company collecor

and Rammohun spent many years at Rangpur and elsewhere with Digby, where

he renewed his contacts with Hariharananda. William Carey by this time is well

settled at Serampore and the old trio renew their profitable association. William

Carey is also aligned now with the English Company, then headquartered at Fort

William, and his religious and political ambitions were increasingly intertwined. At

the turn of the 19th century the Muslims, although considerably vanquished after

the battles of Plassey and Buxar, still posed a formidable political threat to the

Company. Rammohun was now chosen by Carey to be the agitator among them.

He thus embarked on a remarkable new career described by the contemporary

biographer as,

"Rammohun's remaining life is a melange of his denunciation of various

religious beliefs, if now Islam, then Hinduism and finally Christianity in his

career as political agent for diverse vested interests.

Under Carey's secret tutelage in the next 2 decades, Rammohun launched his

spirited attack against the bastions of Hinduism of Bengal, namely his own Kulin

Brahmin priestly clan (then in control of the many temples of Bengal) and their

priestly excesses. The social and theological issues Carey chose for Rammohun

were calculated to weaken the hold of the dominant Kulin class (especially their

younger disinherited sons forced into service – who constituted the mobile gentry

or "bhadralok" of Bengal) from the Mughal zamindari system and align them to
 their new overlords of Company. The Kulin excesses targeted include - sati (the

concremation of widows), polygamy, idolatory, child marriage, dowry. All causes

equally dear to Carey's ideals.

In the final analysis of Rammohun's life in this extraordinary period, we find that

Rammohun's religious reform is but a tool to implement his powerful social reform

agenda which lays the foundation for modern India.

Here is what Roy's contemporary biographer records for this period,

"In 1805 Rammohun published Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to

Monotheists) - an essay written in Persian with an introduction in Arabic

in which he rationalised unity of God. Although a critique of the deception

and universal falsehood prevalent in all organised religions, it was a paen

to "rational ego" and Rammohun's own hitherto unrecognised divine gift

of intellectual power and acquired knowledge. Being published in Persian,

it particularly antagonised sections of the Muslim community and for the

next decade Rammohun travelled to serve with John Digby of the East

India Company as munshi and then as Diwan. His English and knowledge

of England's Baptist Christianity increased tremendously. He also

cultivated friendship in a Jain community to better understand their

approach to Hinduism - rejecting priesthood (which for long in Bengal

demanded bloody ritual sacrifices) and God itself,

In 1815 after amassing large wealth, enough to leave the Company,

Rammohun resettled in Calcutta and started an Atmiya Sabha - as a

philosophical discussion circle to debate monotheistic Hindu Vedantism

and like subjects. Rammohun's mother, however, had not forgiven him

and ironically from 1817 a series of lawsuits were filed accusing

Rammohun of apostasy with the object of severing him from the family

zamindari. Rammohun countered denouncing his family's practice of sati

where widows were burned on their husband's pyres so that they laid no

claim to property via the British courts. 1817 was also the year when

Rammohun was alienated from Hindu zamindars in an incident

concerning the Hindu (later Presidency) College involving David Hare.

Hindu public outrage in 1819 also followed Rammohun's triumph in a

public debate over idolatry with Subramanya Shastri, a Tamil Brahmin.

The victory, however, also exposed chinks in Rammohun's command over

 Brahmanical scripture and Vedanta whose study he had somewhat

neglected. The trusted younger brother of Hariharanda, a Brahmin of

great intellect Ram Chunder Vidyabagish was brought in to repair the

breech and would be increasingly identified as Rammohun's alter-ego in

matters theological for the rest of Rammohun's life especially in matters

of Bengali concern and language. By now it was suspected (but never

established) that Carey and Marshman were behind Rammohun's English

works, a charge repeatedly made by the Hindu zamindars. From time to

time Dwarkanath Tagore a young Hindu Zamindar had been attending

Sabha meetings and he privately persuaded Rammohun (financially

reduced by lawsuits and in constant danger from Hindu assassins) to

disband the Atmiya Sabha in 1819 and instead be political agent for him."

From 1819, Rammohun's battery now increasingly turns against Carey

and the Serampore missionaries. With Dwarkanath's munificence he

launches a series of attacks against Baptist "Trinitarian" Christianity and

is now considerably assisted in his theological debates by the Unitarian

faction of Christianity." [5]

Middle "Brahmo" period (1820 -

1830)
This was Rammohun's most controversial period. Sivanath Sastri commenting on

his published works alone writes:-

"The period between 1820 and 1830 was also eventful from a literary point of

view, as will be manifest from the following list of his publications during that

period

• Second Appeal to the Christian Public, Brahmanical Magazine^ Parts I, II

and III, with Bengali translation and a new Bengali newspaper called

Sambad Kaumudi in 1821;

• An Urdu paper called <Mirat-ul-Akkbar> a tract entitled Brief Remarks on

Ancient Female Rights and a book in Bengali called Answers to Four

Questions in 1822;

• Third and final appeal to the Christian public, a memorial to the King of

England on the subject of the liberty of the press, Ramdoss papers

relating to Christian controversy, Brahmanical Magazine, No. IV, letter to

 Lord Arnherst on the subject of English education, a tract called "Humble

Suggestions" and a book in Bengali called "Pathyapradan or Medicine for

the Sick," all in 1823 ;

• A letter to Rev. H. Ware on the " Prospects of Christianity in India" and

an "Appeal for famine-smitten natives in Southern India " in 1824 ;

• A tract on the different modes of worship, in 1825 ;

• A Bengali tract on the qualifications of a God loving householder, a tract

in Bengali on a controversy with a Kayastha, and a Grammar of the

Bengali language in English, in 1826;

• A Sanskrit tract on " Divine worship by Gayatri " with an English

translation of the same, the edition of a Sanskrit treatise against caste,

and the previously noticed tract called " Answer of a Hindu to the

question &c.," in 1827 ;

• A form of Divine worship and a collection of hymns composed by him and

his friends, in 1828 ;

• "Religious Instructions founded on Sacred Authorities" in English and

Sanskrit, a Bengali tract called "Anusthan," and a petition against Suttee,

in 1829 ;

• A Bengali tract, a grammar of the Bengali language in Bengali, the Trust

Deed of the Brahmo Samaj, an address to Lord William Bentinck,

congratulating him for the abolition of Suttee, an abstract 'in English of

the arguments regarding the burning of widows, and a tract in English on

the disposal of ancestral property by Hindus, in 1830.

It is indeed a matter for wonder how, in the midst of so much active work and

such furious contests, Ram Mohan Roy could make time to write such masterly

treatises on such a variety of subjects !"[6]

The struggle against Suttee

Rammohun is best known abroad for his agitation against suttee, the practice of

burning a widow alive on her husband's pyre. Seeing his brother's widow cruelly

forced to commit suttee in 1812, and unable to stop it then, Roy set his mind to

abolish the practice.

"Suffice it to say that as many as 309 widows were burnt alive with their
 husbands within the jurisdiction of Calcutta in the year 1828, the year in

which the Brahma Sabha was established. It was but natural that the

misery and degradation of womanhood should have strongly appealed to

the sympathetic heart of Ram Mohun Roy. His earnest pleadings on their

behalf form an important feature of his writings. The women of India

have found no greater defender of their rights than the founder of

Brahmoism. He defended the legal rights of females, advocated their

right to education and enlightenment, and, above all, devoted all the

energies of his noble soul to save them from a cruel death."[7]

Life in England (1831- 1833)

In 1831 Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of

the Mughal Empire to ensure that the Lord Bentick's regulation banning the

practice of Sati was not overturned. He also visited France.

He died at Stapleton then a village to the north east of Bristol (now a suburb) on

the 27th September 1833 of meningitis and is buried in Arnos Vale Cemetery in

southern Bristol.

Reformer
Religious Reform of Rammohun
• He believed in one Supreme Being - "Author and Preserver of Existence".

• He denounced idolatry and vowed to erase it from India.

• He denounced rituals, which he deemed meaningless and giving rise to

superstitions.

Social Reforms of Rammohun

• Crusaded against social evils like sati, polygamy and child marriage etc.

• Demanded property inheritance rights for women.

• In 1828, he set up the Brahma Sabha a movement of reformist Benali

Brahmins to fight against social evils.

Educationist
• Roy believed education to be an implement for social reform.

• In 1817, in collaboration with David Hare, he set up the Hindu College at

Calcutta.
 • In 1830, he helped Alexander Duff in establishing the General Assembly's

Institution, by providing him the venue vacated by Brahma Sabha and

getting the first batch of students.

• He supported induction of western learning into Indian education.

• He also set up the Vedanta College, offering courses as a synthesis of

Western and Indian learning.

Journalist
• Roy published journals in English, Hindi, Persian and Bengali.

• His most popular journal was the Samvad Kaumudi. It covered topics like

freedom of press, induction of Indians into high ranks of service, and

separation of the executive and judiciary.

• When the English Company muzzled the press, Rammohun composed 2

memorials against this in 1829 and 1830 respectively.

Epitaph
"To great natural talents, he united through mastery of many languages and

distinguished himself as one of the greatest scholars of his day. His unwearied

labour to promote the social, moral and physical condition of the people of India,

his earnest endeavours to suppress idolatry and the rite of sati and his constant

zealous advocacy of whatever tended to advance the glory of God and the welfare

of man live in the grateful remembrance of his countrymen."

See also
• Brahmo Samaj

• Hindu School, Kolkata

• Presidency College, Kolkata

• Scottish Church College, Calcutta

References
1. ^ Tombstone affixed by his descendants and also the diary of

Dwarkanath Tagore 1839

2. ^ page 8, Raja Rammohun Roy - The Renaissance Man, H.D.Sharma,

2002
 3. ^ ibid:2002, H.D.Sharma

4. ^ Brajendra Nath Seal Address delivered on the occasion of the death

anniversary of Raja Rammohun Roy, held at Bangalore on 27th

September 1924.

5. ^ Nabble - Origins of Brahmoism - Part 2

6. ^ Sivanath Sastri, History of the Brahmo Samaj, 1911, 1st ed. pg. 44-46

7. ^ Sivanath Sastri, History of the Brahmo Samaj, 1911, 1st ed. pg. 47

External links
• Biography (Calcuttaweb.com)

v • d • e

Bengal Renaissance

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