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49-506: Mr. Chatterji, usually known as Mohini, was born in 1858 into a Brahmin family. His mother, Chandrajyoti Devi, was the granddaughter of Hindu reformer Rammohan Roy . He attended university in Calcutta, and was awarded Bachelor of Laws and Master of Arts degrees. His wife was the niece of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore . Mohini was an active member of the Brahmo Samaj , and became a member of

98-583: A Baptist Missionary settled in Serampore, and the Serampore missionaries. With Dwarkanath's munificence, he launched a series of attacks against Trinitarian Christianity and was now considerably assisted in his theological debates by the Unitarian faction of Christianity. He wrote Gaudiya Vyakaran which was the first complete Bangla grammar written book. It was published in 1826. In 1828, he launched Brahmo Sabha with Debendranath Tagore . By 1828, he had become

147-450: A Sunday close to his death anniversary date of 27 September. The Indian High Commission at London often come to Raja's annual commemoration and Bristol's Lord Mayor is also regularly in attendance. The commemoration is a joint Brahmo-Unitarian service, in which, prayers and hymns are sung, flowers laid at the tomb, and the life of the Raja is celebrated via talks and visual presentations. In 2013,

196-573: A brief falling out with Carey and separated from the group, but maintained ties to Ram Mohan Roy. In 1797, Raja Ram Mohan reached Calcutta and became a bania (moneylender), mainly to lend to the Englishmen of the Company living beyond their means. Ram Mohan also continued his vocation as pandit in the English courts and started to make a living for himself. He began learning Greek and Latin. In 1799, Carey

245-528: A chela of Master K.H. , he gave evidence to the Society for Psychical Research concerning the reality of psychic phenomena at Adyar, in what came to be known as the Hodgson investigation . Mohini worked as private secretary to H. S. Olcott and accompanied him and Madame Blavatsky on their European tour in 1884: The purpose of his trip to Europe was seemingly to give the members there some assistance in understanding

294-542: A full one episode on Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The title role was played by noted TV actor Anang Desai with Urmila Bhatt , Tom Alter and Ravi Jhankal as supporting cast. In 1984 Films Division of India created a documentary Raja Rammohan Roy directed by P. C. Sharma. In 2004, Roy was ranked number 10 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of All Time . Sankaracharya Too Many Requests If you report this error to

343-538: A massive task. For the next two decades Maha Nirvana Tantra was regularly augmented. Its judicial sections were used in the law courts of the English Settlement in Bengal as Hindu Law for adjudicating upon property disputes of the zamindars. However, a few British magistrates and collectors began to suspect and its usage (as well as the reliance on pandits as sources of Hindu Law) was quickly deprecated. Vidyavagish had

392-479: A philosophical discussion circle in Kolkata (then Calcutta) to propagate the monotheistic ideals of the vedanta and to campaign against idolatry, caste rigidities, meaningless rituals and other social ills. The East India Company was draining money from India at a rate of three million pounds a year by 1838. Ram Mohan Roy was one of the first to try to estimate how much money was being taken out of India and to where it

441-560: A poem entitled 'Mohini Chatterjee'. The adulation he received from some of the European members fueled his pride and he showed poor judgment on several matters. In late 1885, Mohini became involved in scandal with female Theosophists. The case came to public attention when one of the women, in response to Blavatsky's criticisms, intended to publicize letters written to her by Mohini Chatterjee. Mme. Blavatsky wrote to Mr. Sinnett in March 1886: Mohini

490-523: A rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly views and social reforms in Hinduism. His writings also sparked interest among British and American Unitarians. During the early years of East India Company rule, Ram Mohan Roy acted as a political agitator while employed by the company. In 1792, the British Baptist shoemaker William Carey published his influential missionary tract, An Enquiry of

539-464: A recently discovered ivory bust of Ram Mohan was displayed. In 2014, his original death mask at Edinburgh was filmed and its history was discussed. In 2017, Raja's commemoration was held on 24 September. Roy's commitment to English education and thought sparked debate between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore . Gandhi objected to Roy's devotion to English education and thought and disallowing independent thinking by being overly supportive of

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588-657: A village to the north-east of Bristol (now a suburb), on 27 September 1833 of meningitis or a chronic respiratory ailment. Ram Mohan Roy was originally buried on 18 October 1833, in the grounds of Stapleton Grove, where he had lived as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire and died of meningitis on 27 September 1833. Nine years later he was reburied on 29 May 1843 in a grave at the new Arnos Vale Cemetery , in Brislington, East Bristol. A large plot on The Ceremonial Way there had been bought by William Carr and William Prinsep, and

637-511: A well known figure in India. In 1830, he had gone to England as an envoy of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar Shah II, who invested him with the title of Raja to the court of King William IV. This was Ram Mohan's most controversial period. Commenting on his published works Sivanath Sastri writes: "The period between 1820 and 1830 was also eventful from a literary point of view, as will be manifest from

686-590: Is believed that he was sent to Patna when he was nine years old and two years later he went to Benares . Ram Mohan Roy's impact on modern Indian history was his revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads. He preached the unity of God, made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Unitarian Society and founded

735-550: Is disputed. One view is that Ram Mohan started his formal education in the village pathshala where he learned Bengali and some Sanskrit 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 to learn the intricacies of Sanskrit and Hindu scripture, including the Vedas and Upanishads . The dates of his time in both these places are uncertain. However, it

784-708: The Brahmo Samaj expounded by Rajnarayan Basu are: Having studied the Qur’an , the Vedas and the Upanishads , Roy's beliefs were derived from a combination of monastic elements of Hinduism , Islam , eighteenth-century Deism , Unitarianism , and the ideas of the Freemasons . Roy founded the Atmiya Sabha and the Unitarian Community to fight the social evils, and to propagate social and educational reforms in India. He

833-458: The Brahmo Samaj , a socio-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent . He was given the title of Raja by Mughal emperor Akbar II ( r.  1806–1837 ). His influence was apparent in the fields of politics , public administration , education and religion. He was known for his efforts to abolish the practices of sati and child marriage . Roy wrote Gaudiya Vyakaran which

882-616: The Bengal Theosophical Society on April 6 , 1882, the same day the Bengali branch was established. In the same month, he had his first meeting with Madame Blavatsky when she visited the Calcutta Theosophists. According to Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett , "When HSO opened the first Theosophical Sunday School in Calcutta on March 10 , 1883, with 17 boys, Mohini was appointed their teacher". Being

931-506: The Brahmo Sabha, precursor to Brahmo Samaj . The Brahmo Samaj played a major role in reforming and modernizing the Indian society. He successfully campaigned against sati , the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country's traditions. He established a number of schools to popularize a modern system of education in India. He promoted

980-669: The British and thus seeking to legitimise Hinduism in the eyes of the Christian world. In early September 1833 Roy came to Bristol to visit his Unitarian friend, Dr Lant Carpenter , where he made a deep impression on Lant's daughter and future social reformer, Mary Carpenter . While in Bristol Roy preached at the Lewins Mead Meeting House . In mid September he became ill and was diagnosed with meningitis. He died at Stapleton , then

1029-559: The Buddhist and Jain religious works to better argue the case for Christianity in a cultural context. In 1795, Carey made contact with a Sanskrit scholar, the Tantric Saihardana Vidyavagish, who later introduced him to Ram Mohan Roy, who wished to learn English. While there are rumors that between 1796 and 1797, the trio of Carey, Vidyavagish, and Roy created a religious work known as the "Maha Nirvana Tantra" (or "Book of

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1078-457: The Eastern doctrines which had been brought into prominence by APS in his book Esoteric Buddhism ." From a letter from Mme. Blavatsky to Mr. Sinnett, it would appear that he was going to be used in a similar manner as Babaji was: On February 17th Olcott will probably sail for England on various business, and Mahatma K. H. sends his chela, under the guise of Mohini Mohun Chatterjee, to explain to

1127-620: The English Company, then head-quartered at Fort William, and his religious and political ambitions were increasingly intertwined. While in Murshidabad, in 1804 Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (A Gift to Monotheists) in Persian with an introduction in Arabic. Bengali had not yet become the language of intellectual discourse. The importance of Tuhfat-ul-muwahhidin lies only in its being

1176-587: The Great Liberation"). Scholars like John Duncan Derrett are skeptical of this claim calling it "highly improbable" and Hugh Urban argues that "It is probable that we will never know the true author and date of the Maha Nirvana Tantra". Carey's involvement is not recorded in his very detailed records and he reports only learning to read Sanskrit in 1796 and only completed a grammar in 1797, the same year he translated part of The Bible (from Joshua to Job),

1225-532: The King to increase the Mughal Emperor's allowance and perquisites. He was successful in persuading the British government to increase the stipend of the Mughal Emperor by £30,000. While in England, he embarked on cultural exchanges, meeting with members of parliament and publishing books on Indian economics and law. Sophia Dobson Collet was his biographer at that time. The religious reforms of Roy contained in some beliefs of

1274-625: The London Theosophists of the Secret Section — every or nearly every mooted point and to defend you and your assumptions. You better show Mohini all the Master's letters of a non-private character — saith the Lord, my Boss — so that by knowing all the subjects upon which he wrote to you he might defend your position the more effectually — which you yourself cannot do, not being a regular chela. Do not make

1323-616: The Masters . He was described by Laura Carter Holloway as being “nearer the Master than all others in the room, not even excepting H.P.B.” In 1885, he went to Ireland to lecture, and helped to establish the Dublin Lodge of the TS. There, he produced a deep impression on Irish poets George Russell (Æ) and William Butler Yeats and is said to have influenced the oriental turn of their writings. Yeats wrote

1372-576: The Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of Heathens . In 1793, William Carey landed in India to settle. His objective was to translate, publish and distribute the Bible in Indian languages and propagate Christianity to the Indian people. He realised the "mobile" (i.e. service classes) Brahmins and Pandits were most able to help him in this endeavour, and he began gathering them. He learnt

1421-508: The Rarhi district of West Bengal were notorious in the 19th century for living off dowries by marrying several women. Kulinism was a synonym for polygamy and the dowry system, both of which Rammohan campaigned against. His father, Ramkanta, was a Vaishnavite , while his mother, Tarini Devi, was from a Shaivite family. He was a great scholar of Sanskrit, Persian and English languages and also knew Arabic, Latin and Greek. One parent prepared him for

1470-562: The Western philosophical discourses. Tagore wrote a letter rejecting Gandhi's view, saying "[Roy] had the full inheritance of Indian wisdom. He was never a school boy of the West, and therefore had the dignity to be a friend of the West." In 1983, a full-scale Exhibition on Ram Mohan Roy was held in Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery. His enormous 1831 portrait by Henry Perronet Briggs still hangs there and

1519-519: The body in its lac and a lead coffin was placed later in a deep brick-built vault, over seven feet underground. Two years after this, Dwarkanath Tagore helped pay for the chhatri raised above this vault, although there is no record of him ever visiting Bristol. The chhatri was designed by the artist William Prinsep, who had known Ram Mohan in Calcutta . Bristol Arnos Vale cemetery have been holding remembrance services for Raja Ram Mohan Roy every year on

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1568-632: The first known theological statement of one who achieved later fame and notoriety as a Vedantin . On its own, it is unremarkable, perhaps of interest only to a social historian because of its amateurish eclecticism. Tuhfat was, after all, available as early as 1884 in the English translation of Maulavi Obaidullah EI Obaid, published by the Adi Brahmo Samaj. Raja Ram Mohan Roy did not know the Upanishad at this stage in his intellectual development. In 1814, he started Atmiya Sabha (i.e. Society of Friends)

1617-641: The following list of his publications during that period: He publicly declared that he would emigrate from the British Empire if Parliament failed to pass the Reform Bill. In 1830, Ram Mohan Roy travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of the Mughal Empire to ensure that Lord William Bentinck's Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829 banning the practice of sati was not overturned. In addition, Roy petitioned

1666-453: The garden is marked by railings and a granite memorial stone. His tomb and chhatri at Arnos Vale are listed as a Grade II historic site by English Heritage and attract many visitors today. A 1965 Indian Bengali -language film Raja Rammohan about Roy's reforms, directed by Bijoy Bose and starring Basanta Chowdhury in the title role. In 1988 Doordarshan Serial Bharat Ek Khoj produced and directed by Shyam Benegal also picturised

1715-551: The mistake, my dear boss, of taking the Mohini you knew for the Mohini who will come. There is more than one Maya in this world of which neither you nor your friends and critic Maitland is cognisant. The ambassador will be invested with an inner as well as with an outer clothing. Dixit. Mohini was present in London in 1884 when the young German artist Hermann Schmiechen painted the Portraits of

1764-480: The next two decades, Ram Mohan along with William Carey, launched his 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 Kulin excesses targeted include sati (the co-cremation of widows), polygamy, child marriage and dowry. From 1819, Ram Mohan's battery increasingly turned against William Carey,

1813-485: The occupation of a scholar, the Shastri , while the other secured for him all the worldly advantages needed to launch a career in the laukik or worldly sphere of public administration. Torn between these two parental ideals from early childhood, Ram Mohan vacillated between the two for the rest of his life. During his childhood Ram Mohan Roy witnessed the death of his sister-in-law through sati . The seventeen-year-old girl

1862-406: The pseudonym Arthur Avalon ). Roy resigned from Woodroffe's service and later secured employment with John Digby, a Company collector, and Ram Mohan spent many years at Rangpur and elsewhere with Digby, where he renewed his contacts with Hariharananda. William Carey had by this time settled at Serampore and the old trio renewed their profitable association. William Carey was also aligned now with

1911-452: The pseudonym " Two Chelâs ". He translated The Crest-Jewel of Wisdom (Viveka-Cūḍāmaṇi) of Sankaracharya . He worked with G. R. S. Mead in translating the Upanishads in 1896, using the pseudonym J. C. Chattopadhyaya. Yeats and George Russell (Æ) believed that at the turn of the century Mohini was working as a lawyer in Bombay. According to Harbans Rai Bachchan, the last heard of him

1960-431: The pure spirit it dictates!" The "superstitious practices", to which Ram Mohan Roy objected, included sati, caste rigidity, polygamy and child marriages. These practices were often the reasons British officials claimed moral superiority over the Indian nation. Ram Mohan Roy's ideas of religion actively sought to create a fair and just society by implementing humanitarian practices similar to the Christian ideals professed by

2009-469: The sake of their political advantage and social comfort. Roy's experience working with the British government taught him that Hindu traditions were often not credible or respected by western standards and this no doubt affected his religious reforms. He wanted to legitimise Hindu traditions to his European acquaintances by proving that "superstitious practices which deform the Hindu religion have nothing to do with

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2058-400: Was disappearing. He estimated that around one-half of all total revenue collected in India was sent out to England, leaving India, with a considerably larger population, to use the remaining money to maintain social well-being. Ram Mohan Roy saw this and believed that the unrestricted settlement of Europeans in India governing under free trade would help ease the economic drain crisis. During

2107-493: Was dragged towards the pyre where Ram Mohan Roy witnessed her terrified state. He tried to protest but to no avail. She was burned alive. The people chanted "Maha Sati! Maha Sati! Maha Sati!" (great wife) over her painful screams. Ram Mohan Roy was married three times. His first wife died early. He had two sons, Radhaprasad in 1800, and Ramaprasad in 1812 with his second wife, who died in 1824. Roy's third wife outlived him. The nature and content of Ram Mohan Roy's early education

2156-582: Was joined by missionary Joshua Marshman and the printer William Ward at the Danish settlement of Serampore . From 1803 until 1815, Ram Mohan served the East India Company's "Writing Service", commencing as private clerk ( Munshi ) to Thomas Woodroffe, Registrar of the Appellate Court at Murshidabad (whose distant nephew, John Woodroffe —also a magistrate—and later lived off the Maha Nirvana Tantra under

2205-532: Was sent, and at first won the hearts and poured new life into the L.L. He was spoiled by male and female adulation, by incessant flattery and his own weakness. Mohini resigned from the Theosophical Society in 1887 and went back to his former home in Calcutta, where he resumed his practice of law. Mohini wrote poetry and prose in both English and his native Bengali. He and Mrs. Holloway wrote Man: Fragments of Forgotten History , published in 1887 under

2254-511: Was that he was a blind old man living in London with his daughter, in the early 1930s. Mohini died in February, 1936. See also references in: Rammohan Roy Ram Mohan Roy FRAS (22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833), popularly regarded as the "Father of Indian Renaissance," was an Indian reformer and writer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, the precursor of

2303-526: Was the first complete Bangla grammar written book. Ram Mohan Roy was born in Radhanagar , Hooghly District , Bengal Presidency . His great-grandfather Krishnakanta Bandyopadhyay was a Rarhi Kulin (noble) Brahmin . Among Kulin Brahmins ;– descendants of the five families of Brahmins imported from Kannauj by Ballal Sen in the 12th century as per popular myth – those from

2352-454: Was the man who fought against superstitions, a pioneer in Indian education, and a trend setter in Bengali prose and Indian press. Roy's political background and Devandra's Christian influence influenced his social and religious views regarding reforms of Hinduism. He writes, The present system of Hindus is not well calculated to promote their political interests… It is necessary that some change should take place in their religion, at least for

2401-467: Was the subject of a talk by Max Muller in 1873. At Bristol's centre, on College Green, there is a full-size bronze statue of Raja by a modern Kolkata sculptor Niranjan Pradhan. Another bust by Pradhan, gifted to Bristol by Jyoti Basu, sits inside the main foyer of Bristol's City Hall. A pedestrian path at Stapleton has been named "Rajah Rammohun Walk". There is a 1933 Brahmo plaque on the outside west wall of Stapleton Grove, and his first burial place in

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