Morobhatt Dandekar [a] was a Hindu pandit and apologist from Bombay, British India. In response to Christian missionary activities, he wrote the Marathi language Hindu apologetic work Shri Hindu Dharma Sthapana (1831) and published the monthly magazine Upadesha Chandrika (1844).
| Author | Morobhatt Dandekar |
|---|---|
| Original title | श्री हिन्दू धर्म स्थापना |
| Language | Marathi |
| Subject | Criticism of Christianity, Hindu apologetics |
| Genre | non-fiction |
Publication date | 1831 |
| Publication place | British India |
In February 1831, Dandekar debated with Christian missionary John Wilson for six successive evenings, each man aiming to defend his religion. Dandekar's 1831 Marathi language text Shri Hindu Dharma Sthapana [b] summarizes his objections to Christianity. [1]
In the book, Dandekar responds to several Christian criticisms of Hinduism. For example, he argues:
If you ask why Rama, Krishna, and other incarnations, accomplished the salvation of men in this or that particular manner, we ask you in return why God sent his Son into the world, and why, for the salvation of men, he brought him into a state so reproachful and so appalling. What! Had he no other way of saving the world?
According to Dandekar, the people who see something objectionable in Hinduism must have committed sins in their former births, which explains their "unhappy circumstance". [8]
Balshastri Jambhekar, in the 13 April 1832 issue of The Bombay Durpun , described the work as "the first instance of a Brahmin coming forward publicly to vindicate the Hindu Religion, and entering the field of public discussion by publishing a work in defence of it." [4]
An English translation of the text appears in Wilson's An Exposure of the Hindu Religion, along with Wilson's response to these objections. [1] Narayan Rao of Satara responded to Wilson's text in a pamphlet edited by Dandekar, and Wilson repsonded to it with A Second Exposure of the Hindu Religion (1834). [5]
In 1843, Narayan Sheshadri, a Deshastha Brahmin educated in a mission school, adopted Christianity, leading to a controversy in Bombay. [3] In response, Morobhat Dandekar published the Marathi monthly magazine Upadesha Chandrika [c] , which featured anti-Christianity religious polemic. [11] [12] The publication ran for one year, during 1844; the 12th issue – dated December 1844 – was published in January 1845. [4]