Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s3.3

c11.s3.3

A celebration on the occasion of the second anniversary of the proclamation of constitutional government in Portugal was organized in Calcutta Town Hall in August 1822. The event was reported in two newspapers — *Bengal Hurkaru* and the *Calcutta Journal*. Raja Rammohun Roy attended this event.²⁵ Speakers referred to struggles for liberty in other places. Roy hosted similar celebrations in Calcutta Town Hall for the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Revolutions between CE 1820-23.²⁶ He learned Vedānta and Upaniṣads from good *paṇḍits* like Mrityunjaya Vidyalankar Bhattacharya (1762–1814) who was well known for his all-round scholarship of Śāstras. Mrityunjaya Vidyalankar however became one of the staunch opponents of Roy and it is believed that he had authored the *Vedāntacandrikā* — a text in refutation of Roy’s propositions on Hinduism and Upaniṣadic philosophy.²⁷