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History of Bengali Language and Literature c11.s3: IV (a) Decadance of the high spiritual ideal in Hindu Society, and the advent of Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy

History of Bengali Language and Literature c11.s3

Language
English

IV (a) Decadance of the high spiritual ideal in Hindu Society, and the advent of Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy

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When Buddhism had sunk into depraved Tantrik rites, sophistry and atheism, the Hindu Society awaited but a touch from outside for blossoming into that living faith which is so preeminently observed in the lives of Chaitanya and Nānaka. The Renaissance brought about by the great Çankara required only a touch with the faith of Islam to develop the creed of faith into the creed of love, which in the 16th century showed itself in the glories of renunciation and the spiritual ecstasies of so many ardent souls. Similarly also when towards the end of the 18th century, the religion of the Hindus was more or less reduced to superstitious practices, and empty ceremonies, and ritual, Hindu society required only a touch from outside to be restored to a realisation of high spiritual truths. The Christian Missionaries awakened the spirit of research into religious truth once more in the minds of our countrymen, who were never found slow to respond to a call for putting forth their best activity in the cause of religion.

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The simple ways taught by Chaitanya Deva, of reciting the name of God and of praying to Him in the spirit of true renunciation had gradually fallen into disfavour. Pompous processions and great festivities accompanied with dances of *nauch* girls and display and flourish of materialistic grandeur now attracted people to religion, which had, however, lost its serious character, and become a source of amusement to the vulgar. The great devotees had already begun to realise the uselessness of a multiplicity of religious rites, and the vanity which in many cases prompted the ostentation of religious festivals in Bengal. Rājā Rāma Kriṣṇa expressed the idea in one of his songs that he would fling away his rosary into the waters of the Ganges as soon as true devotion for the divine Mother should dawn on his mind,—thus showing an utter disregard of formal observances in religion; and Rāma Prasada, already quoted on page 716, said of himself that he was a fool to worship an image of clay, when his divine Mother was manifesting herself throughout the whole universe. He said how foolish it was to kill goats before the image instead of sacrificing the passions—his real enemies, and that it was but so much energy wasted to visit the sacred shrines. If one’s mind is fixed on the lotus feet of the Mother, there he will feel all the sanctity of the Ganges and of the holy cities of Benares and Gaya.

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Violation of petty rules was regarded as a great sin in the code of the Brahmins. “That infidel who has not cleansed his teeth before sunrise, has no right to worship God.”* “One who takes Putikā (*Basella lucida*) on the twelfth day of a lunation is worse than a murderer of Brahmins.” “One who takes a meal while touching the seat with his feet is to be reckoned as a beef eater.”†

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† Raja Rama Mohana Roy’s Bengali works edited by Raja Narayan Bose p. 620.

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“If one raises a cup of water with his left hand and drinks therefrom he commits the offence of him who drinks wine.”‡

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‡ Raja Rama Mohana Roy’s Bengali works, published from the Panini Karyalaya, Allahabad, page 228.

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These were some of the rules for the guidance of a Hindu householder’s life. “Murder, theft or perjury, though brought home to the guilty man by a judicial sentence, so far from inducing loss of caste, is visited in their society with no peculiar mark of infamy or disgrace. A trifling present to the Brahmin commonly called Prāyaçchitta, with the performance of a few idle ceremonies, are held as sufficient atonement for all those crimes; and the delinquent is at once freed from all temporal inconvenience as well as dread of future retribution.”§

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∗ “उदिते जगतीनाथे यः कुर्याद्दन्तधावनम् । स पापिष्ठः कथंक्रुते पूजयामि जनार्दनम् ॥” Smriti.

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§ Raja Rama Mohana Roy’s English works, published by Cri Kanta Roy vol. I, p. 203.

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The plant Tulasi is sacred with the Vaiṣṇavas and the Bel tree with the Çaivas. When regarded in the light of simple devotion and as possessed of emblematic significance, these plants have a charm for the Hindus which is indescribable. When the pious wife lights the evening lamp at the foot of the sacred Tulasi, the darkness of evening yields to that quiet light glittering through the leaves, and the vermillion-marked forehead bends low in the act of making obeisance to the deity whose symbol it is, the small scene breathes poetry to the soul which feels in its presence as before some alter; but when the atrocious Brahminic code lays down "the great sinner who seeing a Bilva tree or a tulasi plant does not instantly bow down, will be sent to hell and be afflicted with leprosy,"*—the poetry and spirituality of the whole vanishes, and our mind revolts against such ordinances and feels strongly against Brahminic tyranny. The horrid hook-swinging festivity called the Chaḍaka, the custom of throwing children to the Sāgara, human sacrifices offered to Kāli and other atrocious ceremonies performed under the sanction and control of the Brahmins compelled our enlightened rulers to check them by enacting new laws, and if the missionaries were unsparing in their abuses of our religion and called us semi-barbarious, they were justified in their condemnation of the crimes that pervailed in the lower stratum of our society.

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∗ "বিল্বং বা তুলসীং দৃষ্ট্বা ন নম্যেদ্যা নরাধমঃ। সযাতি নরকং ঘোরং মহারোগেণ পীড্যতে॥ Skanda Purāṇa.

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The pure faith promulgated by Chaitanya was now giving its last flicker. In the lower order of the Vaiṣṇava community men and women mixed promiscuously and, interpreting the emblematical religion in the light of gross sensualism, preached unrestrained licentiousness; and the cries of those who were forcibly made to play sutties,—though subdued and unheard owing to the noisy music deliberately kept to drown them, rose to heaven where the Lord heard them though men would not. The missionaries drew attention to these matters. Such were some of the superstitions and crimes that pervaded the whole of our society at the moment we are considering. Young men of the new generation, who had not fathomed the depths of religious life that still pervaded the quiet villages of Bengal inspite of their superstitions, ran to the extreme, and in the general sweep of their reformatory procedures turned their backs upon good and evil alike, indiscriminately condemning all in their own society. They did not wish to reform but aimed at totally upsetting society, which, though in its lower grades showed Brahminical craft and oppression, had in its great heights—on its topmost pinnacles, an unequalled glory which is conspicuous in the doctrines of love and renunciation inculcated by the Vedanta.

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Young men saw wrongs on all sides and did not care to hear of the speculative theology of the Hindus or to keep the patience to scale its great height themselves. They felt that Christianity was better than their own religion owing to the moral principles which were a living force amongst its votaries. "Young Bengal" showed a decided leaning towards the new creed.

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Rāja Rāma Mohana Roy,

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At this juncture stepped forward Rāma Mohana Roy, born at the village of Rādhānagar in the district of Hughli in the year 1774,—the year in which the great Rāma Prasāda Sen died at Hālisahara.

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(b) A comprehensive review of his life and work.

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A born fighter.

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As I look upon the portrait of Rāja Rāma Mohana, with his huge turban on his head, his loose flowing garments, his dark eye brows bent in serious thought and his brilliant eyes with their meditative look,—a voluminous book held tightly in his right hand and lips which display determination and the power of persuasive eloquence,—the high forehead beaming with intellectuality,—his tall robust figure erect to its full height,—he appears to me rather as a warrior bound for the battle field, than as a pious religious man—the part he chose to play in life.

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He was in fact a born fighter. The combative element is not only found throughout his stupendous writings in English, Bengali, Sanskrit and Persian, but even in the hymns he offered to God. He could not forget the fighting and controversial spirit even when he was addressing praises to the Deity. Referring to the rite of Prana pratistha or "endowment of animation" and that of subsequently throwing the clay image in the water after the puja is over, Rāma Mohana sings in one of his hymns "O deluded mind, whom do you invoke, and whom do you cast away." Again, dealing with the swinging ceremony in the Dolotsava he sings: "You want to swing him who moves the sun, the moon and the stars! How vain your efforts are! He who feeds the beasts, and birds, fishes and men, how absurd it is to think of feeding him! The Deity who pervades the whole universe, with what propriety can you say to him ‘stay here’ (refers to the mantra ইহ তিষ্ঠ &c.)

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“It is vain, if you do not accept the truth; it is like taking food through the nose when you are endowed with a mouth.”*

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When half a century before, Rāma Prasāda had composed songs in this strain, there had been a sincerity in his utterances, and there was no polemic spirit in them; he was actually engaged in all the multifarious ritual of Hindu worship, and passing through them as an orthodox Hindu, he only refreshed his consciousness of the clay image as an emblem by referring to the monotheistic views which he really held and realised through all the rites to which he had to conform outwardly. But Rājā Rāma Mohana had given up all Hindu practices and declared them idolatrous. His hymn to the Deity in the passages quoted above

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* “মন একি ভ্রান্তি তোমার
আবাহন বিসর্জন কর তুমি কার?
চন্দ্র সূর্য গ্রহ যত,
যে চালায় অবিরত,
তারে দোলাইতে কত করহ যতন।
পশুপক্ষী জলচরে, যে আহার দেয় নরে,
চাহ সেই পরাৎপর করাতে ভোজন।
যে বিভু সর্ব্বত্র থাকে
ইহ তিষ্ঠ বল তাঁকে।”
“সত্য সূচনা বিনা সকলি বৃথায়
যেমন বদন থাকিতে অদন করা নাসিকায়।”

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sounds the trumpet of battle; and though he apparently applied to himself the word ‘deluded’, it is really meant for those who held views in religion other than his own.

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Throughout all his writings this combativeness is obvious. He probably felt it necessary for the times, believing that people had begun to accept the image as God Himself and forget that it was a mere emblem.

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As a combatant he was superior to most who came in contact with him, not only by the strong and forcible manner in which he marshalled his arguments, based on a learning which was most extraordinary, but in the equanimity of temper that he preserved throughout all controversy. Seldom or never did he resort to the language of abuse so freely indulged in against him by his opponents. He was master of many languages,--Hebrew, Greek, Persian, English, Sanskrit, Arabic Hindusthani and Bengali, and knew something of French besides. The missionaries found in him a scholar who could point out flaws in their translations of the Bible and refer them to the original text in Hebrew, or Greek.* His antagonists were generally brought to their knees by the solid learning of the Rājā who, with all respect for the scriptures of different religions, assailed his opponents with ample quotations from the books held sacred by them, and beat them on their own ground in the most effective way. In

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His European admirers.

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∗ "He argues the matter very fairly and quotes with great ease and fluency the passages of both Old and New Testaments explaining some maltranslations of Hebrew which Trinitarians sometimes urged in their favour." Monthly Repository, 1822. Page, 754.

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fact his giant intellect struck every one with the sense of his superiority, and the testimonies of admiration left by Europeans are even more laudatory than those which he received from his own countrymen. Sir John Bowring, while greeting him with an address of welcome from the Unitarian Society of London, said "I recollect some writers have indulged themselves with inquiring, what they should feel, if any of those time-honoured men, whose names have lived through vicissitudes of ages, should appear among them. They have endeavoured to imagine what would be their sensations if a Plato, or a Socrates, a Milton or a Newton, were unexpectedly to honour them with their presence. I recollect that a poet, who has well been called divine, has drawn a beautiful picture of the feelings of those who first visited the scenes of the southern hemisphere, and there saw, for the first time, that beautiful constellation, the Gold Cross. It was with feelings such as they underwent, that I was overwhelmed when I stretched out in your name the hand of welcome to the Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy."*

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Dr. Booth, an American physician of London, wrote to Mr. Estlin on the 27th November, 1833, "I have studied his (Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy’s) writings with a subdued feeling since his death and risen from their perusal with a more confirmed conviction of his having been unequalled in past or present time."† The Rev. J. Scott Porter said in a funeral sermon on the death of the Rājā—preached in the meeting-house of the first Presbyterian congregation, Belfast, on the 10th of November, 1833:— "Never have I known a person who brought a greater variety of knowledge to bear upon almost every topic on which he conversed, never one whose remarks were more original, solid and useful........., —one of the most extraordinary men whom the world has witnessed for centuries."* The Rev. J. Fox spoke of the Rāja in his sermon delivered at Finsbury Chapel, South Place, on Sunday October 14, 1833, "His presence has passed away as a poetic image fades from the brain! . . . . . And, 'being dead, he yet speaketh' with a voice to which not only India but Europe and America will listen for generations."† The Rev. R. Aspland preached a funeral sermon in the New Gravel Pit Meeting, Hackney, in the course of which he said "the name of Rāma Mohana Roy will endure as long as the history of religious truth."‡ Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzclarence, latterly Earl of Munster, wrote (in his Journal of a Route across India through Egypt to England in the years of 1817 and 1818) "The most extraordinary Brahmin....... His learning is most extensive, as he is not only conversant with the best books in English, Arabic, Sanskrit, Bengali and Hindusthani but has even studied rhetoric in Arabic and English, and quotes Locke and Bacon on all occasions."§ The English editor of the *India Gazette* referred to him while writing about his controversy with Dr. Marshman as "a most gigantic combatant in the theological field.”* Many English writers wrote verses on his death, and those by Miss Dale, Miss Acland, Mrs. Thomas Woodforde, the Rev. W. J. Fox, and Dr. Carpenter, quoted in ‘The Last Days of the Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy’ by Mary Carpenter, are not only exquisite as pieces of poetic composition, but also breathe those sentiments of profound love and respect, which his great personality raised in the minds of all who came in contact with him. The tender care with which he was attended by the ladies at Stapleton Grove during his last illness, and their tears at his death, lend deep pathos to the description of the scene of his death at Bristol; and our heart goes forth in gratitude to those kind friends of a foreign clime who not only appreciated the noble qualities of the great Indian but felt for him a veneration which annulled all distinctions of birth and associations.

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∗ Monthly Repository, June, 1831. (Vol. V, pages 417-20.)

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† Last days of Rama Mohana Roy by Mary Carpenter Page 174.

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∗ Last days of Rama Mohana Roy Page 223. † do. do. do. 242. ‡ do. do. do. 207. § do. do. do. 40.

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† do. do. do. 111.

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In his controversies with the Çrīrāmapore Missionaries, some of whom went the length of calling him a heathen, his mild answers bearing the impress of superior reasoning power, showed that he was a far better Christian in spirit than his adversaries; and the impression they made on the mind of the distinguished William Roscoe, who poured over the Rājā’s Precepts of Jesus with admiring delight, amply testifies to the great appreciation of his writings throughout the whole of Christendom. Mr. Recorder Hill writes about his encounter with the celebrated Robert Owen :—“ one of the guests was Robert Owen who evinced a strong desire to

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Robert Owen's defeat.

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∗ Last days of Rama Mohana Roy, Page 17.

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bring over the Rājā to his socialistic opinions. He persevered with great earnestness, but the Rājā, who seemed well acquainted with the subject and who spoke our language in marvellous perfection, answered his arguments with consummate skill, until Robert somewhat lost his temper,—a very rare occurrence which I never witnessed before. The defeat of the kind hearted philanthropist was accompanied with great sauvity on the part of his opponent.” Dr. T. Boot wrote about the Rājā to Mr. Estlin, in November 1833:—“to me he stood in the single majesty of, I had almost said, perfect humanity, no one in past or present ever came to my judgment clothed in such wisdom, or humility.” Another Englishman spoke of him as “a rare combatant. We are constrained to say he has not met with his match here.” “It is well known” writes Mary Carpenter (p. 252) “that Mr. William Adam a Baptist of Çrīrāmapore, who endeavoured to make him a convert to orthodoxy, concluded his task by acknowledging himself a convert to the true Evangelical opinions of the Rājā.” The greatest philosopher of England at the time, Jeremy Bentham, gave him a cordial reception and addressed him as “intensely admired and dearly beloved collaborator in the service of mankind.” “Your works,” wrote Bentham to the Rājā, “are made known to me by a book in which I read a style which, but for the name of a Hindu, I should certainly have ascribed to the pen of a superiorly educated and instructed Englishman” and in the same letter while praising the great work of James Mill on the History of India, Bentham remarked, “though as to the style I wish I could with truth and sincerity pronounce it equal to yours."* The poet Campbell was also one of his great admirers. When he landed in England the Rājā met with a reception which only the most exalted men of Europe could expect to receive. He was presented to His Majesty the King by the President of the Board of Control and had a place assigned to him among the foreign ambassadors. The highest honours were publicly accorded to him. "Persons most remarkable for their social standing and literary eminence sought his society and highly esteemed the privilege of intercourse with him. He was received into our English homes not only as a distinguished guest but as a friend."† During his short stay at Paris he was more than once at the table of Louis Philippe. Wherever he went he had to attend meetings according him a most hearty and cordial reception. Mary Carpenter writes that she had herself met some of those "who still treasured the remembrance of the Rājā; one of these, now a grayheaded man, recollected when a young midshipman on arriving at Calcutta, going to visit the magnificent residence and grounds of the Brahmin who was even then celebrated. It was in the Circular Road at the Eastern extremity of the town. He did not see the master of the mansion, but he picked up in the large aviary a relic in remembrance of the distinguished man which he still treasures."‡

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† Mary Carpenter's life of the Raja, page 65.

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‡ Do. do. page 67.

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Social and religious reformation he chose as the chief object of his pursuit. His evidence before Evidence before the select Committee.

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∗ Bowring's works of Bentham, vol. X; page 586.

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the Select Committee of the House of Commons in England regarding the Judicial and Revenue system of India and his essay on the European colonisation show a masterly grasp of the subject as also the vast range of his study and minute observation in every detail of the administrative questions of the country, upon which the British press bestowed at the time their highest encomiums. His writing materially assisted the Government in enacting legislation for the administration of the country on a more solid and efficacious basis. His letter on the question of education preceded the memorable minute of Lord Macaulay and sounded the key note of the future educational policy of the Government.

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On Education.

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In fact in every department of thought, calculated to advance the cause of his countrymen, his great intelligence and zealous advocacy of all that he considered right have left a powerful impress. In all movements, whether of social or political nature, the start that he gave to the enlightened Hindu Society of Bengal has kept it going forward up to the present. Thoroughly acquainted with the political conditions in Europe, the sympathy of his great mind went forth to the cause of liberty and freedom, wherever it was at stake. His humane feelings were also as cosmopolitan. When on one occasion he attended divine worship at Carter Lane Chapel, the Minister was reading a letter from a clergyman in that quarter describing the sufferings of the poor people in the west of Ireland, then in a state of lamentable distress. Writes Mr. Poter on the occasion "the tears that fell from his, (Rājā's) eyes declared how deeply

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Broad sympathy and cosmopolitan views.

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he was moved by the reciter."* He materially contributed to the fund collected for affording them relief.

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For women the sympathy of his heart was ever in readiness; and one, who reads his arguments in favour of the abolition of Suttee, cannot but be struck with the great humanity with which he advocated the cause, as also with the high reverence in which he held Indian women. When a pro-Suttee champion declared woman-kind as weak, frail and irreligious, his honest indignation burst forth in a glorious speech in which the sufferings, the devotion and the firmness of Hindu Women are so vividly represented, that no poet could do it in better language or in more effective form. He suffered all kinds of persecution, intolerance and abuses from his opponents who even tried to waylay and belabour him, but reading his answers to the charges made against him by orthodx Hindus, and even by the clergy, one is struck with his gentle and persuasive eloquence, his kindly words indicating a sweet and unruffled temperament. These are found in sharp contrast to the foul and wanton abuse of his antagonists. He himself says in some of his answers that as a child frets, when the well-meaning doctor gives him medicine, but the doctor heeds it not, even so does he treat those who without understanding his good intentions are crying down his works. He was never weary of arguing in favour of what he considered to be the truth. Such an untiring champion of truth is scarcely to be met with now. Mr. Arnot writes of him,

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Good for evil.

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∗ Miss Carpenter's "Last Days of Raja Rama Mohana Ray," page 225.

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Vindicates the unity of God.

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“During the greater part of the period of Rāma Mohana Roy’s residence at Calcutta, the whole powers of his mind were directed to the vindication of the doctrine of the unity of God. In this, he maintained, the sacred books of the Hindus and Mussalmans, Jews and Christians agreed; and that all apparent deviations from it were modern corruptions. He propagated it day and night by word and writings, with the zeal of an apostle and the self-denial of a martyr. He was ever ready to maintain it against all gain-sayers, from the believer in thirty three millions of God to the denier of one, for both extremes are common in the East. The writer remembers finding him at his Garden House near Calcutta, one evening, about 7 o’clock, closing a dispute with one of the followers of Buddha, who denied the existence of the Deity. The Rājā had spent the whole day in the controversy, without stopping for food, rest or refreshment, rejoicing more in confuting one atheist than in triumphing over hundred idolators: the credulity of the one he despised; the scepticism of the other he thought pernicious; for he was deeply impressed with the importance of religion for the virtue and happiness of mankind.”*

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Rejects miracles.

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His pro-Christian tendencies are well known. Yet he would not agree with the missionaries in their orthodox views. When the Çri Rāmapur missionaries advanced their arguments in support of them iracles of Christ, the Rājā quietly remarked:— “His miracles were less stupendous than those of the Hindu who drank up the ocean and discharged it from his body.'"* Though attacking the idolatrous practices of the Hindus, the Rājā boldly declared his profound respect for the Hindu philosophy before his European friends. An English writer writes, "he (the Rājā) asserts that he has found nothing in European books equal to the scholastic philosophy of the Hindus."†

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∗ “Last Days in England” by Miss Mary Carpenter, page 299.

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He combined in himself the best elements of European and Asiatic ideals. In spirituality he was a Vedantist and in morality he was a follower of Christ.

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This extraordinary man, with his noble efforts in all works of reformation, did a great service to the cause of Bengali literature to which we shall refer hereafter. We here briefly give a sketch of his life as narrated by himself.

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"My ancestors were Brahmins of a high order and, from time immemorial, were devoted to the religious duties of their race, down to my fifth progenitor who, about one hundred and forty years ago, gave up spiritual exercises for worldly pursuits and aggrandisements. His descendants ever since have followed his example and, according to the usual fate of courtiers, with various success, sometimes rising to honour and sometimes falling; sometimes rich and sometimes poor; sometimes excelling in success, sometimes miserable through disappointment. But my maternal ancestors, being of the sacerdotal order by profession as well as by birth, and of a family than which none holds a higher rank in that profession, have up to the present day adhered to a life of religious observances and devotion, preferring peace and tranquillity of mind to the excitements of wordly grandeur.

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∗ History of Cri Ramapur Mission Vol. I, page 238. † Monthly Repository 1818, Vol. XV, pp. 2-4.

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"In conformity with the usage of my paternal race, and the wish of my father, I studied the Persian and Arabic languages,—these being indispensable to those who attached themselves to the courts of the Mahomedan princes; and agreeably to the usage of my maternal relations, I devoted myself to the study of the Sanskrit and the theological works written in it, which contain the body of Hindu literature, law and religion.

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"When about the age of sixteen, I composed a manuscript calling in question the validity of the idolatrous system of the Hindus. This, together with my known sentiments on that subject, having produced a coolness between me and my immediate kindred, I proceeded on my travels, and passed through different countries, chiefly within, but some beyond, the bounds of Hindustan, with a feeling of great aversion to the establishment of British power in India. When I had reached the age of twenty, my father recalled me, and restored me to his favour; after which I first saw and begun to associate with Europeans and soon after made myself tolerably acquainted with their laws and form of government. Finding them generally more intelligent, more steady and moderate in their conduct, I gave up my prejudice against them, and became inclined in their favour, feeling persuaded that their rule, though a foreign yoke, would lead more speedily and surely to the amelioration of the native inhabitants; and I enjoyed the confidence of several of them even in their public capacity. My continued controversies with the Brahmins on the subject of their idolatry and superstition, and my interference with their custom of burning widows, and other pernicious practices, revived and increased their animosity against me; and through their influence with my family, my father was again obliged to withdraw his countenance openly, though his limited pecuniary support was still continued to me.

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"After my father's death I opposed the advocates of idolatry with still greater boldness. Availing myself of the art of printing, now established in India, I published various works and pamphlets against their errors in the native and foreign languages. This raised such a feeling against me, that I was at last deserted by every person except two or three Scotch friends, to whom, and the nation to which they belong, I will always feel grateful.

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"The ground which I took in all controversies was, not that of opposition to Brahminism, but to a perversion of it; and I endeavoured to show that the idolatry of the Brahminism was contrary to the practice of their ancestors, and the principles of the ancient books and authorities which they profess to revere and obey. Notwithstanding the violence of the opposition and resistance to my opinions, several highly respectable persons, both among my own relations and others began to adopt the same sentiments.

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"I now felt a strong wish to visit Europe and obtain, by personal observation, a more thorough insight into its manners, customs, religion and political institutions. I refrained however, from carrying this intention into effect until the friends who coincided with my sentiments should be increased in number and strength. My expectations having been at length realised in November, 1830, I embarked for England, as the discussion of the East India Company's Charter was expected to come on, by which the treatment of the natives of India and its future government would be determined for many years to come, and an appeal to the King in Council against the abolition of the practice of burning widows was to be heard before the Privy Council; and His Majesty the Emperor of Delhi had likewise commissioned me to bring before the authorities in England certain encroachments on his rights by the East India Company. I accordingly arrived in England in April, 1831."*

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Rāma Mohana Roy was requested to give his evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Judicial and revenue systems of India. He was also examined on the condition of the native inhabitants of India. His answers, as already mentioned, were remarkable as showing his great command over the subjects in which he was thus consulted. Through his earnest attempts the appeal against the abolution of Suttee was rejected on the 11th of July, 1832. After a residence of three years in Europe Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy died at Bristol on the 27th of September, 1833.

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∗ Miss Carpenter introduced this Autobiographical sketch into her book 'Last Days in England of Raja Rama Mohana Roy' with the following remarks:— "The following letter from Rama Mohana Roy himself first appeared in the 'Athenæum' and in the Literary Gazette, from one or other of which it was copied into various papers. It was written just before he went to France. It was probably designed for some distinguished person who had desired him to give an outline of his history; and he adopted this form for the purpose. The letter may be considered as addressed to his friend Mr. Gordon of Calcutta."

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How far the Rājā's strenuous and self-sacrificing efforts against idolatry may have succeeded will engage us for a few moments. As a heated controversy was going on in the vernacular tongue on this point, we consider ourselves justified in summarising here the arguments advanced by the other side. From the time of the Riṣis, when Uṣās appeared to them as beautiful nymph of the horizon clothed in purple apparel, down to the days of the Purāṇas, the religious history of India has been one in which monotheism has constantly adopted the garb of allegory, in order to appeal more potently to popular minds; and the vast pantheon of the Hindu gods and goddesses have an emblematical significance which has been repeatedly emphasised by the writers of theological treatises. The Rājā himself admitted "there can be no doubt however, and it is my whole desire to prove, that every rite has its derivation from the allegorical adoration of the deity, but at the present day all is forgotten";* and again "many learned Brahmins are well informed of the pure mode of divine worship."†

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The position taken by his opponents was not without a rational basis; and the controversy was as interesting as it was learned. In the spiritual world, as in poetry and even in Mathematics, the symbol

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and death.

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Gods and goddesses of the Hindus.

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∗ English works of Raja Rama Mohana Roy, vol. I, page 5. † Do. do. vol. I, page 127.

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is adopted for convenience. As in the geometrical definition of a line or point the basis is taken for granted, or as in the play of Hamlet the historic facts need not be authentic, so in any subject the ground-work may always be called in question; but the stupendous facts which rest upon it are not therefore to be ignored or undervalued. The whole civilisation of the Hindus, their vast poetic literature, their architectural achievements, shrines, temples, the geography of India as revealed to them in a spiritual light—the sacred Ganges, the Godāvari, the Brahmaputra, the snow-topped Himalaya and the Vindhya hills, all are associated with religious stories and episodes, underlying which there is the Vedanta Philosophy which invests external forms with spiritual truth; and the idea of the Supreme Being permeates all that may superficially strike us as irrational. From the lays of Jayadeva, Chandi Dās and Vidyāpati to the Kirtana and the Āgamani songs of Bengal, our whole vast lore of devotional sentiment is no literary curiosity to our people;—it is a perpetual fountain of faith to the humble as well as to the enlightened. The gods and goddesses of the Purāṇas, like the Uṣās of the Riṣis, represent the attributes of one who attracts us through their familiar forms even as the sun approaches us through a thousand rays of light. This vast religious fabric was not created in a day. It has taken deep root in our soil for hundreds of years. Such gods as these could not be dismissed at a word, however great might be the power that cried to them ‘Vanish!’ Even when Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy was decrying what he called idolatry in unsparing language, there were already Europeans who were attracted by it,—nay had adopted the ‘idolatrous practices’ themselves. The facts disclosed by the extracts quoted below should be judged independently. The comments made on them are what one naturally expects from the biassed persons from whose writings they are taken.

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“Mr. Twining and Major Scott Waring were joined in their missionary crusade by a colleague in the person of a “Bengal officer,” Col. Stewart, generally known in India under the name of “Hindu Stewart.” He had abjured Christianity and become a worshipper of the Hindu deities. He exposed himself equally to the ridicule of his own countrymen, by going down in the morning to the Ganges, with flowers and sacrificial vessels, to perform his ablutions according to the Hindu rituals. At a subsequent period, he asked permission to accompany the army in its progress towards the capital of Nepal, that he might have an opportunity of paying his devotion at a celebrated shrine of Çiva which lay on the route . . . . . The Bengal officer exhibited the most profound respect for the Hindu religion, and entertained the most lofty conceptions of the morals and virtues of the Hindus ; and he now came forward to denounce the sacrilegious attack of the missionaries ‘on the sacred and venerable fabric of Hinduism.’ In his pamphlet called ‘The Bengal Officer's Pamphlet’ published in 1808, he says, “wherever I look around me in the vast region of Hindu mythology, I discover piety in the garb of allegory : and I see morality, at every turn blended with every fable ; and as far as I can rely on my

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European converts to Hinduism.

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Hindu Stewart.

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judgment, it appears the most complete and ample system of Moral Allegory that the world has ever produced."*

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We find from the introduction to Abridgement of Vedanta by Rājā Rāma Mohanā Roy, published in 1816, that he attacked "that system of popular idolatry on which Sir Thomas Munro, and Mr. Lushington, and Mr. Marsh had bestowed the highest eulogium three years before in the presence of the Parliament."†

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Mr. W. Ward of the Çrirāmapore Mission seemed to be particularly hostile to any who advocated the cause of Hinduism. In his work on the Hindus, he writes, "The Rev. Maurice has attempted to describe the Hindu ceremonies in the most florid colours. It might have been expected, (idolatry being in itself an act so degrading to man and so dishonourable to God) that a Christian Divine would have been shocked while writing in this manner. If Mr. Maurice thinks there is something in Hinduism to excite the most sublime ideas, let him come and join in the dance before the idol or assist the Bramhins in crying Huree bul : Huree bul!"‡

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From this Mr. Maurice himself, we quote the following interesting and sympathetic passage. "Mr. Forbes of Stanmore Hill in his elegant museum of Indian rarities numbers two of the bells that have been used in devotion by the Brahmins,

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Mr. Maurice on Hinduism.

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∗ History of the Criramapore Mission by John Clark Marshman, vol. I, pp. 354—56. † "History of the Criramapore Mission," vol. II, page 128. ‡ Introductory Remarks, Ward's 'on Hindus' vol. II page ixxv.

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as great curiosities, and one of them in particular appears to be of very high antiquity, in form very much resembling the cup of the lotus, and the tune of it was uncommonly soft and melodious. I could not avoid being deeply affected with the sound of an instrument which had been actually employed to kindle the flame of that superstition, which I have attempted to unfold. My transported thoughts travelled back to the remote period when the Brahmin religion blazed forth in all its splendour in the caverns of Elephanta: I was, for a moment, entranced and caught the ardour of enthusiasm. A tribe of venerable priests, arrayed in flowing stoles and decorated with high tiaras, seemed assembled around me, the mystic song of initiation vibrated in my ear; I breathed an air, fragrant with the richest perfumes and contemplated the deity in the fire that symbolised him." Dr. Ward quotes this passage from an article written by the Rev. Maurice in the fifth volume of "Indian Antiquities" and treats it with great contempt. But it is the last part of the article which most of all annoys him. This runs as follows.

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"She (the Hindu religion) wears the similitude of a beautiful and radiant cherub from heaven, bearing on his persuasive lips the accents of pardon and peace, and on his silken wings benefaction and blessing."*

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Dr. Ward also finds faults with Mr. Halhed of the Civil Service, the first writer on Bengali grammar, because he "seems to prefer Hinduism to

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Pro-Hindu tendencies of Halhed and Jones.

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∗ Ward's 'on the Hindus,' vol. II. Introduction. Page IXXVI.

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Christianity; ” and condemns even Sir William Jones for his pro-Hindu tendencies. The great scholar was, according to the critic, “accustomed to study the Çāstras with the image of a Hindu god placed on his table.”

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The Hindus were never known to possess any proselytising zeal; yet the poetry and devotion which pervaded the allegorical mode of their worship could not fail to commend itself to many an enlightened European who would openly avow his partiality for it. These foreign admirers of our religion were Rāja Rāma Mohana’s contemporaries—a circumstance which shows that the Hindu religion in Bengal had not yet sunk into utter grossness as it was represented to have done by its reformers; for, in that case it could not have counted its votaries among the Europeans who lived in the country. Almost a century has pssed since Rāma Mohana Roy breathed his last. The incense still burns in the Hindu temples at the time of the Ārati or evening service: the village potters still prepare clay images of the gods. The auspicious sound of the evening conch still resounds beyond the temples across our fields and lawns. The sacred books Bhāgvata, Chandi and other Purāṇas, still find hundreds of listeners, whose love is far more ennobling than if the works had possessed a merely literary interest and how dreary would be the Hindu home without these things! To me it appears that if the allegorical forms of our religion were all swept away, the whole Hindu civilisation, intervening between the period of the Vedas and that of Rāma Kṛiṣṇa Paramahaṃsa’s sayings, would be overthrown, and the spiritual soul of India, thousands of years old, would have to be born anew, as a child of to-day, losing the benefit of the rich heritage transmitted by our forefathers through the ages of the past.

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But has the Rājā's mission failed in its attempt to lead our society to a realisation of the truth that symbols are not to be mistaken for realities and that the deity is not to be confounded with them? Every right thinking man must emphatically say 'no' to this enquiry. The enlightened Hindu youth of the present day has reverted to the Vedanta Philosophy; and the movements of the revivalists, though often displaying ridiculous niceties in their metaphysical interpretations, have constantly aimed at taking a rational and sensible view of matters. The modern Hindu is not the Hindu of the old school. In the general awakening of the intellect and in the widening of the search after spiritual truth which followed Rājā Rama Mohana Roy's advent, the Hindus have not neglected to make their position secure by studying the Çāstras in a new light; it has been a point of their constant efforts to interpret rationally what a great number of people of the preceding generations did blindly.

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The Rājā has therefore been directly instrumental in helping the cause of monotheism by founding the Brahmo Samāja, and indirectly by giving a stimulus to Hindu Society, which in its anxiety to defend itself against the Rationalists, soon came forward to propound myths about the gods in accordance with monthiestic principles, for which, however, it had ample authority in its scriptures. Like all great men the Rājā came to minis-

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The success of the Rājā's mission.

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ter to a real need of society. It may be that the enlightened people of Bengal would without him have been drawn more irrevocably to Christianity, being dissatisfied with the existing state of their religion. The spirit of the Rājā not only dominates the Brahmo Samāja of to-day, but his influence is distinctly traceable in the general awakening of the Hindu mind to a consciousness of new ideals in the spiritual world.

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This great man approached his countrymen through the vehicle of his mother tongue. Before Rāma Mohana the prose literature that existed was of very minor importance. The Europeans had already set themselves to the task of compiling Bengali Grammar and vocabularies. They had begun to translate the Gospel, and those placed at the head of the judicial administration had found it expedient to translate the Laws and Regulations into the vernacular. There was a general activity in Bengal among an enlightened though limited circle of men to contribute to our prose literature—an activity which as I have said in a foregoing chapter, was largely due to the energetic efforts of missionaries in bringing home to the people the truths of the Bible, as also to their sincere desire to promote the condition of our countrymen by a diffusion of western education. Rāma Mohana Roy is generally known as the father of the Bengali prose; but we have seen that some of the earliest writings in Bengali, composed in the 10th century A.D, were in prose. Small and even large treatises were written in simple Bengali prose before the advent of the Europeans. The assertion of "fatherhood" therefore can not be countenanced. Even before any book had been published in Bengali prose except the Regulations and Vocabularies, Rām Basu's *Pratapaditya Charita* came out in the year 1800. It has been urged by many people that Rāma Mohana Roy in his sixteenth year (1790 A.D.) wrote a book in Bengali prose "against idolatry of all religions." True, he wrote a pamphlet bearing that name, but it was written in Persian with an Arabic preface. The Vedanta Sutra was his first work in Bengali, and this appeared in 1815. In the Vedanta Sutra he himself refers to a translation of Bhāṣāparichchheda in Bengali prose as having already existed before he began to write in Bengali.* We have mentioned several translations of the above work on Logic, while dealing with the old Bengali literature. If one reads the translations of the Bhāṣāparichchheda, the latest of which was written nearly a century before Rāma Mohana Roy's Vedanta Sutra, one will be struck with the similarity of language in the above treatises with the style of Rāma Mohana Roy. The missionaries had taken up Bengali, in right earnest, and they had required no impetus from the Rājā in adopting the vernacular prose as the medium through which to approach the people of Bengal.

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But all these considerations hardly detract from the glory which attaches to the name of Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy for his furtherance of the cause of Bengali prose. The literary works by Europeans in Bengali were mostly translations, and whatever credit and reverence may be due to these authors for undertaking a task which required them to overcome the difficulties of a foreign tongue and master its idioms, their works, judged from the standpoint of pure merit, have, we are constrained to observe, no great attraction. They scarcely rise above the level of school-books. They were pioneers in the field of their labours, so we need not underrate their laudable efforts; but except awakening the Hindu mind to a sense of its own duty in literature and diverting it into practical channels, their productions have not served any essential or permanent purpose. These works will, in time to come, be looked upon merely as literary curiosities, to be preserved on the shelf amongst old and rare books.

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∗ Raja Rama Mohana Roy's Bengali works, P. 267.

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Their Bengali imitators set themselves mostly to the task of compiling and translating English works, which, though extremely necessary at that early period of the diffusion of western education, possess no remarkable merit or permanent interest. The whole of this period in the history of our literature, inspite of its great activity diverted to useful purposes, strikes us as singularly barren of originality; and the greatest productions then worked out, though they required years of patient and indefatigable industry, are no land-marks in the history of our progress; and our minds, while full of admiration for the noble band of writers, involuntarily turn to the old literature for the gratification of those desires which true and original composition can alone fulfil. There was much in the prose writings of this age to interest the intellect but little, to give pleasure or satisfaction to the soul.

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Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy rose on the horizon of our letters at this stage, and all lesser lights grew dim at his advent. The whole aspect of our literature became changed. He wrote the following books in Bengali:—

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The Bengali works of the Rājā.

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¹ Vedānta Sutra. Quarto size, 114 pages, 1815 A.D.

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² Vedānta Sutra, 15 pages, 1815.

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³ Talavakāra Upaniṣad, 11 pages, 1816.
4. Īçopaniṣad, 24 pages, 1816.

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⁵ Sahamaraṇa Viṣaya (on the Suttee), part I, 33 pages, and part II, 12 pages 1819.

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⁶ Do. Part III, 21 pages, 1829.

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⁷ Pathya Pradāna, 139 pages, 1823.

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⁸ Brahmanistha Grihasther Lakṣaṇa, 5 pages, 1826.

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⁹ Kayasther Sahita Madyapāna Viṣayaka Vichāra, 4 pages, 1826.

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¹⁰ Vajra Suchi, 6 pages, 1830.

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¹¹ Anusthāna, 13 pages, 1829.

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¹² Suvrahmaṇya Çastrir Sahita Vichāra, 5 pages.

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¹³ Prārthanā Patra, 3 pages.
14. Ātmānātma Viveka, 17 pages.

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¹⁵ Brahmaṇa Sevādhi, 38 pages, 1721.

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¹⁶ Pādri O Çisya Samvāda, 4 pages.

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¹⁷ Brahma Sangita, 116 songs.

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¹⁸ Brahmopāsanā, 3 pages.

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¹⁹ Gāyatrir Artha, 7 pages, 1818.

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²⁰ Kathopanisad, 34 pages, 1817.

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²¹ Mundakopanisad, 9 pages.

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²² Māndukyopanisad, 26 pages, 1819.

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²³ Gosvāmir Sahita Vichāra, 30 pages, 1818.

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24. Kavitkārer Sahita Vichāra, 35 pages, 1821.
25. Bhaṭṭācharyyer Sahita Vichāra, 80 pages, 1817.
26. Gauḍiya Vyākaraṇa, 80 pages, 1833.
27. Samvāda Kaumudī, 20 pages.

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The English works of Rājā Rāma Mohana Roy have been edited by Jogendra Chandra Ghose, M.A., B.L., and published by Ҫrikantha Roy of Calcutta in three volumes.

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The Bengali works of the Rājā referred to above, were collected and published by Rājā Nārāyaṇa Vasu and Ānanda Chandra Tarkavāgiça in 1873. The collection contains over 800 pages (quarto size). Most of his Bengali treatises are short; but the vast learning which he displays in each of these productions, together with the closeness of argument and sincere and ardent desire for truth, lends them an importance second to none in our literature. His interpretation of the Vedānta, chiefly based on the commentary of Ҫankarāchāryyā, gives in lucid Bengali prose what would be impossible for any other person of his age to have done in the vernacular. The intricacies of one of the most abstruse subjects that ever engaged the human intellect,—the difficulties of a language whose prose was not yet properly formed, were all overcome, and the truths of the great Philosophy were brought within the easy reach of every man of ordinary intelligence in a masterly way. The Rājā, like a Riṣi, realised the truths of the Vedanta and expressed them from his own soul through his vernacular writings. We repeat that it would have been impossible for any other man of his age, however learned, to have reduced such great and abstruse truths to pristine simplicity in a language which as yet was so inadequate to the purpose as our own. It was possible for the Rājā to do so only because he was a himself a seer of these truths like the great sages—the Riṣis of the past.

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His controversies similarly display his great powers, his logical acumen, and his vast classical erudition. He gives precedence to reason in every step of his arguments; and it is the light of his own soul that he brings forward, in order to dispel the darkness of superstition and ignorance that prevails all round. Nowhere does he make his motive prominent. He brings forward a whole array of texts from Sanskrit, Hebrew, Persian and Arabic in favour of what he advocates, so that while arguing with a Maulvi he seems to be himself a Maulvi, with a missionary, he appears to be a Christian, and before a Bhaṭṭāchāryya he comes in the garb of the Brahmin that he was. While holding a controversy with a Mahomedan, the Rājā quotes from the Korān, with a Hindu from the Ṣāstras, and with a Christian from the Bible. He does not decry even the most obvious evils on his own authority, but he brings his whole learning to bear upon each topic; and the quotations he makes are of an overwhelming nature and display his minute knowledge of the different theological systems of the world. This power of keeping his personal opinions in the back ground and advancing them merely on the authority admitted by his antagonists, required a colossal range of studies which in his age only Rāma Mohana Roy possessed. This accounts for his unique position and his great ascendency over his rivals in discussion. Another noteworthy feature in his writings is the entire absence of any outburst of feeling. It might have been supposed that a man who so deeply felt the wrongs that prevailed all around, would denounce them in the fiery language of an ardent enthusiast in the cause of reformation. But his great intellectuality and deep conviction made him proceed quietly in controversy, like a doctor in the process of a serious surgical operation; occasions, however serious, did not disturb his temper. This superior control over himself is to be traced distinctly in all his writings. What was said of some of his English works by his English reviewer in the Monthly Repository for September, 1833, applies equally to his Bengali writings also. "The method and coolness with which the Rājā arranges and states his facts, in contrast with the rousing nature of those facts, are as remarkable as anything in the whole affair; and the courtesy with which he accounts, where he can, for the rise and growth of abuses, will not impede, but hasten the rectification of those abuses. The Rājā appreciates too well the nature and operation of free institutions, not to have felt many a throb of indignation, many a pang of grief, when witnessing the oppressed condition of the ryots of his country, and the various kinds and degrees of guilt among his countrymen, which have been originated by British misgovernment: but when the cause can be best served by a plain statement of facts, he can adduce them with all the calmness of a mere observer. That which it makes our spirits sink to read, he states unaccompanied by reproach or entreaty. Suggestions on which we should stake our lives, and which we should be apt to thrust in the face of friend and foe, he offers in their due connection, and with a moderation most likely to ensure them a hearing.”

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Cites (29)