Question

information about
brahmasamaj

Answer 1

The first phase of its history is intimately linked up with the career of its founder Rammohun Roy (1772 - 1833). The Brahmo Samaj which was launched into its eventful career on August 20, 1828, gave a concrete expression to Rammohun's concept of universal worship. Tarachand Chakravarti one of the leaders of the "Young Bengal" group was appointed the secretary of the organisation. Weekly service was held originally, every Saturday evening; later it was transferred to Wednesday, a practice which has been retained to this day at the Brahmamandir of Tagore's Shantiniketan. It consisted of three successive parts, viz. recitation of the Vedas by Telugu Brahmins in the closed apartment exclusively before the Brahmin members of the congregation, reading and exposition of the Upanishads for the general audience, and singing of religious hymns. This would correspond exactly to the reading of the Bible, the sermon and the hymns of Christian worship, and on this point Rammohun's previous Unitarian contacts had certainly been of considerable help by providing him with a model of congregational worship which was alien to the spirit of Hinduism. The parallelism however was confined exclusively to the outward form. The contents of Rammohun's universal worship were thoroughly Hindu in character. The reading of the vedas exclusively before the Brahmin participant does not apparently accord well with the universal and non-sectarian ideals of the new church as set forth in its Trust Deed. But the only custodian of Vedic rituals in Calcutta at that moment was the orthodox Telegu Brahmin community and its members could not be persuaded to recite the Vedas before Brahmins and non-Brahmins alike. That Rammohun and his fellow-organizers of the congregation had no objection to the reading of the sruti texts before the general audience, becomes clear from their arranging to have the Upanishads read and explained before the entire body of worshippers which besides non-Brahmins, sometimes even included Christians and Muslims. This task was entrusted to learned Bengali Brahmin pandits like Ramchandra Vidyavagis, Utsabananda Vidyavagis, Iswarchandra Nyayarata and others, were free from prejudices unlike their orthodox Telugu counterparts.

Answer 2

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.