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Monthly Repository.

No. CLXIX.

JANUARY, 1820.

Vol. XV.

An Account of the Life and Writings of RAMMOHUN Roy, a learned Brahmin, and of the New Sect in India, of which he is the Founder.

[We have already introduced the Hindoo Reformer to our readers, XIII. 299 and 512, and XIV. 561-569. We now lay before them a further account of this interesting man, translated from a French pamphlet, lately sent to us from Paris, by the Abbe Gregoire, formerly Bishop of Blois. This pamphlet has been since inserted in the Chronique Religieuse. The biographical part of the article is a communication to the Abbé from Bengal, drawn up in French by M. d'Acosta, an Asiatic well versed in the languages, history and antiquities of India, and the present Editor of The Times, at Calcutta: the concluding remarks upon Rammohun Roy's system and writings are by the Abbé himself. Our translation is literal, which we premise, as a matter of justice to ourselves, should any of the statements appear questionable. We have reason to believe that the Monthly Repository is read in India, and we, therefore, take this opportunity of requesting communications from our readers in that part of the world on this subject, or any other within the province of our work. ED.]

AMMOHUN ROY BANOUD

bably the nature of those works, and the intimacy which he formed at an early age with Mahometans whom he seems to have esteemed, contributed both to shake his faith in the Brahminical religion, and to lead him to the design and the means of examining other religious systems. It is not credible that his masters intended to give such latitude to his mind; for although there are in India many intelligent and well-informed Mahometans, yet there is not one of them who, with respect to religion, is otherwise than intolerant. At nineteen or twenty years of age, Rammohun Roy was not a believer in any one of the three religions which came under his observation; that is to say, the Mahometan, the Christian, or the Hindoo. At that time he knew very little of the English tongue, and that little he had taught himself. The awe with which his father inspired him prevented the open acknowledgment of his scepticism; but from some indirect reproaches which he received, he imagines that he had fallen under his suspicion; the father, however, was too sincerely a Hindoo to conceive the extent or the cause of his son's incredulity, and he undoubtedly attributed the young man's apparent irregularities

RAMA is the son of Ram Hant merely to the thoughtlessness of youth.

Roy, and the grandson of Roy Bry Binad. The latter resided at Mourshedabad; he filled some important offices under the Moguls, but was illused by those despots towards the end of his life, which circumstance led his son, Ram Hant Roy, to take up his abode in the district of Bordouan, where he rented land of the English government. Rammohun Roy was born in Bordouan about the year 1780. He there beneath his father's roof received the elements of education, and also acquired the Persian language; he was afterwards sent to Patna to learn the Arabic, and lastly to Calcutta to obtain a knowledge of the Sanscrit. His masters at Patna gave him Arabic translations of some of the writings of Aristotle and of Euclid to study. Pro

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We may here remark, that the education which he gave to his son was, for the country in which he lived, of a very superior kind. Brought up himself in the midst of a Mussulman court, he was inclined to give the young man those qualifications that would recommend him to the ancient conquerors of India, rather than to the more recent, in whose language even he did not have him instructed: the Sanscrit, which he caused him to learn, could be intended only to support his Brahminical rank.

Ram Hant Roy died about the year 1804 or 1805, after having divided his property, two years before this period, among his three sons, in order to prevent all disputes on the subject. The eldest son died shortly after; Rammohun Roy then became the elder, and in

a short time the only survivor. From this period, he appears to have conceived his plans of reform; he thought it expedient to quit Bordouan, where he had resided but little, and removed to Mourshedabad; he there published, in Persian, with an Arabic preface, a work, entitled Against the Idolatry of all Religions. No one undertook to refute this book; but the host of enemies which it raised up against the author, among the Mahometans and Hindoos, obliged him to retire to Calcutta in the year 1814. This step points out the limit of British influence in India; for though all the places hitherto inhabited by him were equally under the authority of the English government, they were not equally influenced by English manners. At Calcutta, Rammohun Roy applied himself more seriously to the study of the English tongue, both by reading and conversation. He learnt a little Latin of an English schoolmaster, named Pritchard; and a German, of the name of Makay, a man of a philosophic turn of mind, instructed him in the mathematics. He purchased a garden, with a house constructed in the European mode, in the Circular-Road, at the eastern extremity of the town.

Rammohun Roy found means to recommend his religious opinions to a dozen of his countrymen, all distinguished for their rank and opulence; and with their aid he has founded a sect, which may comprise a thousand disciples. To conciliate the Europeans, he has not only given the appellation Unitarian to this sect, but likewise declares, that his morality is no other than that of the gospel. The members of the sect unite every Sunday at the dwelling of Rammohun Roy, where they eat, drink, and sing hymns in Sanscrit and Bengalee to the honour of the only true God. Rammohun Roy is the most respectable individual amongst them; the only one, perhaps, who is really so: the rest are little known, with the exception of one named Kamo, a man of great wealth, and excessively fond of spirituous liquors. We may easily imagine, that the Hindoos, from their attachment to the Vedas, earnestly set themselves against innovation: Rammohun Roy has been attacked in various ways; but his intelligence, his firmness, his knowledge, joined to the affluence he enjoys,

have prevented his losing caste, a species of excommunication, that his countrymen would gladly have subjected him to; which would be a dreadful punishment, since it would deprive him of the society even of his wife and his only son. To the causes enumerated for his exemption from this punishment, we should add the entertainment he gives daily (actuated by prudence, equal to his ardour for reform) to a certain number of Brahmins, who are thereby led to take a personal interest in the defence of him; for if they had once eaten at his table, they would be all involved in the excommunication deserved by him. This proves how impotent, under certain circumstances, those institutions become which are not founded on nature and reason; and how their contrivances may be turned against themselves. If this be true respecting the Hindoo system, which of all the ancient institutions has preserved most of its primitive harshness, how much more is it applicable to all the others!

Whatever be the abstract merit of Rammohun Roy, there is, probably, throughout India no Brahmin who is less a Brahmin and less a Hindoo than he; and thousands of dupes who have suffered the loss of their caste have been less offenders against the peculiarities of their religion than he.

Rammohun Roy, considering that youth is the period most adapted to the reception of novelties, either good or bad, has established a school at his own expense, where fifty children are taught Sanscrit, English and Geography. How slender soever these attempts at reform may appear, they will, probably, more or less rapidly attain their object; aided as they are by European influence, and, above all, by the art of printing. It is against the division of his countrymen into castes that Rammohun Roy's correcting hand is turned, and in that the strength of his judgment is evinced. The distinction of castes may be regarded as the cement of the polytheism and the other errors prevalent in India: let that distinction disappear, and all the Hindoo superstitions will crumble beneath the touch of human reason. is the division into castes, carried to a frightful excess, which consolidates the Hindoo system, by incorporating it with the daily habits of domestic life.

It

In fact, European institutions themselves are not altogether exempt from the influence of this vicious principle: legitimacy, taken as an absolute rule; hereditary nobility, and the privileges of the first-born, are the same thing; or rather, are remnants of it, which cannot without difficulty be destroyed. Rammohun Roy, adapting his measures to the place and the times in which he lives, as well as the sort of men he is attempting to enlighten, does not oppose the institution of castes by abstract reasonings, (for they would be useless,) but by the authority of the Vedant, which he is careful not to bring into disrepute, and of which he professes to be but the commentator. The discretion which regulates his conduct prevents any action revolting to the prejudices of his fellow-sectaries, or capable of affording an excuse for his exclusion. He has, nevertheless, risen above many littlenesses: he scruples not to seat himself with an European who is eating; sometimes he even invites Europeans to his house, and treats them according to their own taste. Far, however, from wishing to lose his Brahminical dignity, it is upon that he founds his enterprise; asserting that it is his duty, as a Brahmin, to instruct his countrymen in the sense and in the real commands of their sacred books. His efforts are directed towards the destruction of that prejudice which prevents the different castes from eating together. He considers that this amelioration is the most essential, and will effect every other, even the political amelioration of his country-and this is an object to which he is not indifferent. Every six months he publishes a little tract, in Bengalee and in English, developing his system of theism; and he is always ready to answer the pamphlets published at Calcutta or Madras in opposition to him. He takes pleasure in this controversy; but although far from deficient in philosophy, or in knowledge, he distinguishes himself more by his logical mode of reasoning than by his general views. He appears to feel the advantage which it gives him with the Methodists, some of whom are endeavouring to convert him. He seems to have prepared himself for his polemical career from the logic of the Arabians, which he regards as superior to every other; he asserts likewise, that he has found nothing in

European books equal to the scholastic philosophy of the Hindoos.

We may easily imagine that a man who has raised himself so much above the level of his countrymen by his intellectual attainments, cannot exactly resemble them in his conduct. He not only refrains from their superstitious practices, (which is not saying much in his favour, since he might do so from various causes not highly laudable,) but, what is much more important, all his conversation, his actions and manners evince a powerful sentiment of individual dignity; whilst, in general, meanness and feebleness of mind are characteristic of the Hindoo. Influenced, like those around him, with the spirit of order, economy and knowledge of the value of money, acquired by their mercantile education, Rammohun Roy does not view the augmentation of property as the most important object: his fortune consists of the wealth he received from his ancestors: he does not give his mind to any kind of commercial speculation. He would consider that mode of life beneath his station and the duties of a Brahmin. He derives no pecuniary advantage from his works; and, in all probability, desirous as he may be of power and distinction, he would not accept of the Government any place that should be merely lucrative; to solicit one of any description he would not condescend. It is not likely, however, that the Government will make trial of his inclination: it would not suit the policy of the present masters of his country to give encouragement to a subject whose soul is so lofty, and whose ingenuous conversation often shews, in a strain half serious and half jesting, all that he wishes to be able to do for his country. He cultivates a friendly connexion with many Europeans, distinguished by their rank or their merit; he appears not to seek connexions of any other kind. Within the last year or two he has been less in society than formerly.

Rammohun Roy, as has already been shewn, is not yet forty years old; he is tall and robust; his regular features and habitually grave countenance assume a most pleasing appearance when he is animated. He appears to have a slight disposition to melancholy, The whole of his conversation and manners shew, at first sight, that he is:

above mediocrity. He frequently talks of going into Europe, but apparently considers it desirable first to mollify so far the prejudices of his countrymen, that he may not by that voyage, which is regarded as unlawful, expose himself to excommunication. It is very doubtful whether he will succeed in this attempt; the hope, however, which he cherishes, is a decided proof of the character of his mind. It may here be remarked, that almost every man who has done more in this world than come into life, exist a time, and die, has proposed to himself some object of this nature; not chimerical, yet distant and difficult of attainment, which may continually impel him to exertion, support him through his arduous career with the ennobling conviction of not living in vain, and invigorate him, and charm away the pain of occasional disappointments, with the certainty of leaving at least some worthy object of pursuit for a future generation.

It is singular that this philosophic Indian, who, as has been shewn in this little sketch, has enlarged views respecting the amelioration of the men of his country, has not the least idea of improving the females; of whom he avoids even the mention. We must suppose that this sort of prejudice, inspired by the Shasters, though general amongst the Hindoos, has been perpetuated in so enlightened a mind only by the circumstances of Rammohun Roy's domestic life: it is known that every member of his family verifies the proverb, by opposing with the greatest vehemence all his projects of reform. None of them, not even his wife, would accompany him to Calcutta; in consequence of which, he rarely visits them in Bordouan, where they reside. They have disputed with him even the superintendence of the education of his nephews; and his fanatical mother shews as much ardour in her incessant opposition to him, as he displays in his attempts to destroy the idolatry of the Hindoos.

Calcutta, Nov. 8, 1818.

Amongst the works sent over from Bengal is an English translation, printed in December 1818, of a conference, originally written in Bungla, against the custom of burning widows alive on the funeral pile of their husbands. In the countries in which that detestable

usage obtains, an extensive circulation has been given to this little anonymous tract, whose author is undoubtedly Rammohun Roy. His name is in the title-page of the other writings about to be mentioned, published in Bengalee and Hindoostanee, and then in English: in all of them his object is to combat the polytheism of his countrymen from their sacred books; to convince them of the unity of God, and to detach them from idolatry, and from the prejudices of the castes.

The first of these is entitled "Translation of the Ishopanishad, one of the Chapters of the Yajur Veda; which proves the Unity and Incomprehensibility of God, &c. By Rammohun Roy. 8vo. Calcutta. 1816." There is a long and well-written preface to this tract. The author puts under requisition the sacred books which contain the doctrines, the history, and the literature of the Hindoos, the Veds, and all the writings of the most celebrated authors, the Puranas, the Tuntras, and the Shasters; and, by a great variety of quotations, proves that they have all admitted the unity of God. Some of these works, indeed, appear to contradict themselves, by speaking of many gods and goddesses; but this is reconciled by their declaring frequently that homage paid to material beings is allowable only for persons incapable of elevating their minds to the idea of a supreme, invisible Being; that this mode of worship, gross as it is, may form a bridle to vicious desires, but that idolatry should be despised by all whose understanding is more cultivated.

Many well-informed Brahmins are convinced of the absurdity of polytheism; but its rites and festivals being a source of wealth to them, a means of turning the credulity, the weakness and the patience of the Hindoos to their own profit, they desire not to put an end to superstition; on the contrary, they encourage it, and keep the people from the knowledge of the truth. Their adherents also feel satisfaction in the idea that the divine nature dwells in living men, whom they transform into gods; yet that they resemble other men in their birth, outward appearance and passions. This false notion, pleasing to the senses, is destructive of the principles of morality. A Hindoo who makes or purchases an

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