/Rammohan R o y 1 s_J7 associating himself so much as he does with
1. See K. Nag and D. Burman (eds.) The English Works of Raja Rammohun R o y , 5 parts, ( C a l c u t t a 1945-4b).
2. It was strongly suspected that Rammohan Roy had a Muslim wife whom he had secretly married and out of this
marriage he had a son and a daughter. The son was no other than Rajaram Roy who accompanied him to England
while the daughter was married to a Muslim of_a respectable family of Hugly,^Sushil Kumar Gupta, Unabingsa Satabdite Bangalar Nabajagaran 1801-1860 (Calcutta 19$^) p .54.
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Mussulmans, not with this or that Mussulman, as a personal friend, hut being continually surrounded by them, and
suspected to partake meals with them.
And yet in Rammohan Hinduism perhaps found its ablest champion. Having made a study of other religions he could prove with consummate skill and logic that since every religion had the same end, namely, the moral upliftment of mankind, each stood in need of reinterpretation and re-
2
assessment in the changing circumstances of the time, T r o Therefore, he thought, there was no reason for him to give up Hinduism and accept Christianity or any other religion. He would accept the universal moral teachings and values of
4 every religion but without its dogma, ritual and superstition* 1. Fulham Papers 1813-26• See Appendix II,
2* Rammohan Roy had not only studied the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit £ he had read the Quran in Arabic and the Bible in Hebrew and Creek. It was believed that he knew as many as
ten languages - Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, Hebrew, Creek, Latin, English and French - "most of which he could write and speak fluently". Anglo-India, iii, 257* 3* Rammohanfs rejection of idolatry had led many Christians
to fondly believe that he was on his way to acceptance of Christianity. See The Friend of India (Quarterly Series) 1820, i, 1, 136*
4. It was reported that when Rammohan Roy was introduced to Bishop Middleton, the first Lord.Bishop of Calcutta, the
latter believing that Rammohan had become a Christian, congratulated him on "embracing the purer faith". To this Rammohan is said to have made the characteristic replys
"My Lord, you are under a mistake - I have not laid down one superstition to take up another". The India Gazette 8 October 1829. This remark, if correctly reported, would perhaps indicate the influence of the Philosophical
Radicals whose chief exponents in Calcutta were James Silk Buckingham, editor of the Calcutta Journal, and James
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Thus, for instance, Rammohan believed in the moral precepts of Jesus Christ but not in his divinity. In fact, he had published in 1820 a tract in English, Bengali and Sanskrit called The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and
Happiness, which contained selections from the teachings of the Bible. This publication involved Rammohan in a long and bitter controversy with the orthodox Christians particularly the Serampur missionaries whose feelings were scandalized by this interpretation of Christianity by a 1heathen1. The
controversy was largely carried on in the press for several years. Throughout this period Rammohan ably defended his position. His views on Christianity corresponded largely to those of the Unitarians and, in fact, Rammohan Roy was able to convert a Baptist missionary; William Adam, with whom he was collaborating in preparing a Bengali translation
1
of the Gospels, to Unitarian Christianity, In fact, Rammuhan Roy went so far as to help Adam in establishing the Calcutta Unitarian Committee in 1821, of which he along with his friends, Dwarkanath Tagore and Prasanna Kumar
Tagore, and also his eldest son, Radhaprasad Roy, became 2
members. During the next few years Rammohan was closely associated with the Unitarians even attending their prayer
1. Adam*s conversion took place in 1821, See S.D. Collet, op.cit, 68.
1
meetings. A "Unitarian Press" was established in Calcutta 2
at his own expense and he and his friends liberally con- tributed to the Unitarian Mission in Calcutta.
Rammohan Roy, however, had not ceased to be a Hindu at least in the sense in which he understood that religion. In fact, from 1821, he had started publishing a periodical
journal in English and Bengali called The Brahmanical Magazine or The Missionary and the Brahman chiefly with a view to defend Hinduism from the attacks of the mission -
aries. ^ During this period Rammohan1 s religious position was indeed very peculiar. Disowned by the orthodox Hindus and not accepted by the Christians, he stood at the cross roads. Finally, by 1828, his religious views had taken seme definite
shape when in August that yoar, he established the Brabmo Sabha (later Brahmo Sana j ) or Society of God* Although this
1. Many Unitarians had come to believe that Rammohan had become a Unitarian Christian, and this belief persisted even after his death, See Rev. J. Scott Porter, A Sermon occasioned by the Lamented Death of Rajah Rammohun Roy preached oh Sunday November 10th 1833" in the Meeting House of the First Presbyterian Congregation, Belfast
(Belfast T J 3 3 ) T2-4T. --- --- 2. Ibid., 75*
3. Ibid., 92. A monthly journal edited by Adam,called The Unitarian Repository and Christian Miscellany was also published from Calcutta largely with the support of Rammohan Roy. This journal lasted for about a year, 1823-24.
4. Between 1821 and 1823 Rammohan had published altogether four numbers of 'The Brahmanical Magazine or the Mission
ary and the Bratimun Being a"Vindication of the Hindoo Religion Against the Attacks of dhristian Missionaries".