Ram Mohan Roy was an Indian reformer who was one of the founders of the Brahmo Sabha, the precursor of the Brahmo Samaj, a social-religious reform movement in the Indian subcontinent. He was given the title of Raja by Akbar II, the Mughal emperor. 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 is considered to be the "Father of the Bengal Renaissance" by many historians.
Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk and philosopher. He was a chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Influenced by Western esotericism, he was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian darsanas of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world, and is credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century. He was a major force in the contemporary Hindu reform movements in India, and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is perhaps best known for his speech which began with the words "Sisters and brothers of America ...," in which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Contemporary groups, collectively termed Hindu reform movements, reform Hinduism, Neo-Hinduism, or Hindu revivalism, strive to introduce regeneration and reform to Hinduism, both in a religious or spiritual and in a societal sense. The movements started appearing during the Bengali Renaissance.
Brahmo Samaj is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It is practised today mainly as the Adi Dharm after its eclipse in Bengal consequent to the exit of the Tattwabodini Sabha from its ranks in 1839. The first Brahmo Samaj was founded in 1861 at Lahore by Pandit Nobin Chandra Roy.
Keshub Chandra Sen was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought. Born a Hindu in the Bengal Presidency of British India, he became a member of the Brahmo Samaj in 1857 but established his own breakaway "Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj" in 1866 while the Brahmo Samaj remained under the leadership of Debendranath Tagore. In 1878 his followers abandoned him after the underage child marriage of his daughter which exposed his campaign against child marriage as hollow. Later in his life he came under the influence of Ramakrishna and founded a syncretic "New Dispensation" inspired by Christianity, and Vaishnavbhakti, and Hindu practices.
Prasanna Kumar Roy was an educationist and the first Indian principal of Presidency College, Kolkata.
Pandit Sitanath Tattwabhushan was the official theologian and philosopher of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. His hymns still form the basis of Brahmo rites and liturgies.
The Sadharan Brahmo Samaj is a division of Brahmoism formed as a result of schisms in the Brahmo Samaj in 1866 and 1878 respectively.
Deba Prasad Mitra, son of Jyotirindraprasad Mitra (1869–1918), was a renowned clinical pathologist and religious and social worker connected with the Brahmo Samaj. His life and work were greatly inspired and stimulated by the lives of his grandfather Braja Sundar Mitra (1820–1875), the founder of the East Bengal Brahmo Samaj at Dhaka and an inaugurator of the New Age in Dhaka and Eastern Bengal as a whole, and also his mother's grandfather Sib Chandra Deb (1811–1890), a pupil of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio at the Hindu College, the Founder-Secretary of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, Kolkata, and pioneer of the modernization of his native village Konnagar, a few kilometers from Kolkata. Devaprasad's father Jyotirindraprasad was a qualified advocate and practiced law for some time, but when he found that one had to resort to falsehood for success in the legal profession, he gave it up and joined the service of the estate of the Tripura Native State at Comilla.
Brahmoism is a religious movement which originated from the mid-19th century Bengali Renaissance, the nascent Indian independence movement. Adherents, known as Brahmos, are mainly of Indian or Bangladeshi origin or nationality.
The modern religious philosophy of Brahmoism is based in part on the foundations of reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy's humanitarian philosophy, as exemplified by the Trust Deed of Brahmo Sabha, known to Brahmos as the 1830 Brahmo Trust Deed.
Adi Dharm refers to the religion of Adi Brahmo Samaj the first development of Brahmoism and includes those Sadharan Brahmo Samajists who were reintegrated into Brahmoism after the second schism of 1878 at the instance of Hemendranath Tagore. This was the first organised casteless movement in British India and reverberated from its heart of Bengal to Assam, Bombay State, Punjab and Madras, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.
Ananda Mohan Bose was an Indian politician, academician, social reformer, and lawyer during the British Raj. He co-founded the Indian National Association, one of the earliest Indian political organizations, and later became a senior leader of the Indian National Congress. In 1874, he became the first Indian Wrangler of the Cambridge University. He was also a prominent religious leader of Brahmoism and with Sivanath Sastri a leading light of Adi Dharm.
The Brahmo Conference Organisation (Sammilan) was founded on 27 January 1881 at Mymensingh Bangladesh to maintain communication between Adi Dharm and Sadharan Brahmo Samaj after the 2nd schism of Brahmoism in 1878. The stated objectives for founding the organisation included
The Tattwabodhinī Sabhā was a group founded in Calcutta on 6 October 1839 as a splinter group of the Brahmo Samaj, reformers of Hinduism and Indian Society. The founding member was Debendranath Tagore, previously of the Brahmo Samaj, eldest son of influential entrepreneur Dwarkanath Tagore, and eventually father to renowned polymath Rabindranath Tagore. In 1859, the Tattwabodhinī Sabhā were dissolved back into the Brāhmo Samāj by Debendranath Tagore.
Bijoy Krishna Goswami was a prominent Hindu social reformer and religious figure in India during the British period.
Bhadrotsav is another important festival of the Brahmos. The 6th of Bhadra 1234 B.E. or 20 August 1828 was the date when the doors of the first Brahmo Samaj were opened by Raja Rammohun Roy with his friend Tarachand Chakravarty as its first secretary. The Samaj initially functioned from a rented house belonging to Feranghee Kamal Bose and accommodated the first theistic congregation. To commemorate this historic event - Brahmos all over the world celebrate Bhadrotsav with divine service or prayers accompanied by devotional songs or Brahmasangeet.
Below is a timeline of Adi Dharm or Adi Brahmo Samaj.
Rao Sahib Ayyathan Gopalan, popularly known as Darsarji and Darsar Sahib (doctor), was an Indian physician, writer, philanthropist, social reformer, and renaissance leader of Kerala. He is the founder of the Sugunavardhini movement(1900) and Depressed classes mission(1909) and also the leader and propagandist of Brahmo Samaj in Kerala. He denounced idol worship and fought to end those social practices in Kerala that he thought were unethical. Among his followers were Brahmananda Swami Sivayogi, Vaghbatananda, and Brahmavadhi P. Kunhiraman. Gopalan titled P. Kunhiraman as "Brahmavadhi" and Sivayogi as "Brahmananda Swami".
