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'Brahmo Samaj' (Bengali ''Bramho Shômaj'') is a social and religious movement, conceived of as a reformation of the prevailing ritualistic Hinduism of the time, founded during the 19th century Bengal Renaissance.
Rabindranath Tagore succinctly explains the backdrop for the movements:
^[1]

Contents

Background

Meaning of name

History and timeline

Social reform

Aims of the movement

Doctrine

See also

References and notes

External links

Background

Meaning of name

"''Brahmo Samaj''" literally means the society of worshippers of the 'One True God'. ''Brahmo'' (ব্রাহ্ম ''bramho'') means one who worships Brahman, or the supreme spirit of the universe, and ''Samaj'' (সমাজ ''shômaj'') means community of people united.^[2]

History and timeline

The movement was started on 20th August 1828 by Raja Rammohun Roy and his friends (Brajosundar Mitra and others) when they opened a place for public worship, ''Brahma Sabha'' ( ''Bramho Shôbha'' "One God Society") on Chitpore Road (now Rabindra Sarani), Kolkata, India. It was publicly inaugurated on 11th Magh or 23rd January 1830. The former date is celebrated as ''Bhadrotsab'' ( ''Bhadrotshôb'' "Bhadra celebration") and the latter as ''Maghotsab'' ( ''Maghotshôb'' "Magh celebration"). These are the two main festivals of Brahmo Samaj.
Of Roy's movement the noted physicist, Jayant Narlikar, writes:
Following the death of Raja Rammohun Roy in 1833, internal management was left entirely in the hands of Ram Chandra Vidyabagish. In 1839, Debendranath Tagore, son of Prince Dwarkanath Tagore, a friend and active supporter of Raja Rammohun Roy, joined the Sabha. On 7th Pous 1765 Shaka (1843) Debendranath Tagore and twenty others were formally initiated into what was then named Calcutta Brahmo Samaj for the first time with a signed covenant. The Pous Mela at Santiniketan starts on this day^[3] Under Debendranath Tagore, the Samaj moved away from western philospophies and anchored itself firmly in Hindu philosophies^[4]
Keshub Chunder Sen joined the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj in 1857. This name it retained till the year of the first schism in 1866, after which it was changed to Adi (original) Brahmo Samaj. The new one was called Brahmo Samaj of India.
Although, the Brahmo Samaj movement was born in Kolkata, the idea soon spread to the rest of India. That happened to be the period when the railways were expanding and communication was becoming easier. Outside Bengal presidency some of the prominent centres of Brahmo activity were: Punjab, Sind, and Bombay and Madras presidencies. Even to this day, there are several active branches outside West Bengal. Bangladesh Brahmo Samaj at Dhaka keeps the lamp burning.^[5]

Social reform

In all fields of social reform, including abolition of the caste system and of the dowry system, emancipation of women, and improving the educational system, the Brahmo Samaj reflected the ideologies of the Bengal Renaissance. ''Brahmoism'', as a means of discussing the dowry system, was a central theme of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's noted 1914 Bengali language novella, ''Parineeta''. The ''Brahmo Samaj Marriage Bill of 1871'' enacted as the ''Special Marriages Act of 1872'' set the age at which girls could be married at 14 ^[6].
It also supported social reform movements of people not directly attached to the Samaj, such as Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’s movement which promoted widow re-marriage.

Aims of the movement

The Brahmo Samaj aimed at developing a universal religion and that has evolved over a period. Bipin Chandra Pal has succinctly summarised the evolution,

One of the major contributions was the study of other religions and going to their roots. In 1869, Keshub Chunder Sen chose from amongst his missionaries, four persons and ordained them as ''adhyapaks'' ( ''oddhapôk'') or professors of four old religions of the world – Gour Govinda Ray for Hinduism, Protap Chunder Mozoomdar for Christianity, Aghore Nath Gupta for Buddhism and Giris Chandra Sen for Islam. All of them did adequate justice to the task allotted to them. The efforts of these four persons were subsequently followed up by others in the Brahmo Samaj.
The attempt to create a universal religion has been analytically explained by Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Speaking in 1917 he said,
^[7]

Doctrine

The fundamental principles of the Brahmo Samaj are that:

★ There is only one God, the creator and sustainer of the world, who is infinite in power, wisdom, love and holiness (see monotheism).

★ The human soul is immortal, capable of eternal progress, and responsible to God for its doings.

★ No created object (including Human being) is to be worshipped as God. God manifests himself directly to the human soul, and no prophets or scriptures are mediators between God and the soul.

★ Truth is the only religion of Brahmo. Neither Vedas, nor any other scriptures are infallible. All religious teachers and books are to be honored to the extent that they are in harmony with divine revelation to the soul.

★ God is to be worshipped daily by loving him and doing his will.^[8]

★ All human beings are equal before God. Thus there is no division based upon caste, colour, race or sex.
Additionally, Brahmos do not believe in heaven and hell as eternal, unchanging conditions of reward or punishment. Instead, they see heaven as the state of being filled with divine revelation and hell as the state of being filled with sinful thoughts.⁸
The basic religious ideology is derived to a large extent from the Isha Upanishad, a monotheistic Hindu scripture and one of the principal Upanishads, whose tentative date is assigned to the 7th century BCE.

See also

★ Sadharan Brahmo Samaj

★ Ayyavazhi

★ Arya Samaj

★ Prarthana Samaj

★ History of Bengal

★ Tattwabodhini Patrika

★ Brajendra Nath Seal

★ List of Hindu organisations

★ Hindu denominations

References and notes

1. Translated version from the Bengali-language ''Atmashakti'' (আত্মশক্তি ''Attoshokti'') by Rabindranath Tagore
2. ''History of the Brahmo Samaj'' by Sivanath Sastri
3. "The Tagores & Society
4. Debendranath Tagore - The Brahmo Samaj
5. There are references to some of the activities outside Bengal in ''History of the Brahmo Samaj'' by Sivanath Sastri. David Kopf has mentioned about his meeting with Brahmos outside Bengal at the All India Brahmo Conference held at Hazaribagh in 1970, in his ''The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind''.
6. Brahma Sabha
7. From a speech delivered at a meting held at the Overtoun Hall, Kolkata on January, 1917 in memory of late Keshub Chunder Sen printed in ''Deshbandhu Rachanasamagra''.
8.
Liturgy of the Brahmo Samaj

External links

★ Official website

★ ''Brahma Sabha'' in the Banglapedia

★ ''Brahmo Samaj'' in the Encyclopædia Britannica

★ "The Tagores & Society" from the Rabindra Bharati Museum at Rabindra Bharati University

★ Information from the Brahmo Samaj of Delhi

★ Universalist Church - Sermon

★ The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj