Raja Ram Mohan Roy

“ Hinduism both in its social and religious aspects had fallen on evil days. Sunk in apathy and fast bound by tradition, it was left to Ram Mohan Roy and his little band of followers to prepare the way for its Renaissance. By his ceaseless labours in the cause of education, his successful advocacy of the abolition of Sati, his endeavours to purify the Hindu faith, and by his wonderful bringing together of East and West in the last three years of his life, he has left an undying claim upon the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen. Ram Mohan Roy was born on May the 22nd. ”

“ Let each man enquire and gain all the knowledge that he could, then judge for himself.
Ram Mohan was as fearless in supporting Government against the prejudices of his fellow-countrymen as he was in pointing out to the authorities any injustice that they committed or failed to remedy. ”

“ He was the son of a small landowner, and in his early life acquired a knowledge of Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit, besides his own vernacular, Bengali. At the age of sixteen he first assailed idolatry in his Bengali work, entitled The Idolatrous Religious System of the Hindus. This gave offence to his orthodox father, and Ram Mohan left home and spent some years in travel. At the age of twenty-two he began his study of the English language, and he also acquired a knowledge of other modern and ancient European languages. ”

“ AMONG the famous men of Bengal in the nineteenth century no name deserves a more honoured place than that of Ram Mohan Roy. At once the pioneer of the great Renaissance that was slowly dawning in Bengal and the first representative of India to the British people, he opened up to his fellow countrymen new paths of progress and reform. ”

“ Ram Mohan carried out his campaign with characteristic thoroughness. Having suffered so severely from persecution himself, he was utterly opposed to coercion in any form. He would avoid, if possible, even compelling people to do what was right, if by any means they could be brought to do what was right by persuasion and a greater diffusion of knowledge. He therefore first endeavoured by every means in his power to bring home to this fellow-countrymen the real hideousness of the practice. ”

“ Impressed with the perversions and corruptions of popular Hinduism, Ram Mohan Roy investigated the Hindu Shastras, the Koran and the Bible, repudiated the polytheistic worship of the Shastras as false, and inculcated the reformed principles of monotheism as found in the ancient Upanishads of the Vedas. In 1816 he established a society, consisting only of Hindus, in which texts from the Vedas were recited and theistic hymns chanted. This, however, soon died out through the opposition it received from the Hindu community. In 1830 he organized the society known as the Brahma Samaj. ”

“ The bitterness aroused against Ram Mohan in certain quarters was very great. Freedom of thought and freedom of speech were then in their infancy, and Hinduism, which had so long exacted unquestioning and blind obedience, mustered all the forces at its command against the reformer. Though still clinging to all that was best in Hinduism and observing all outward performances necessary to retain his caste, he had too effectively attacked the abuses that had become a part of it, to escape the hatred of the orthodox. The storm of opposition he aroused would have overwhelmed a weaker man. ”

“ While believing no less than Ram Mohan Roy, whom he personally consulted on the subject, in the advantages of persuasion over force, he was unwilling to wait indefinitely for a reform that he considered urgently needed. Statistics still showed that, however much had been hoped from a gradual spread of education and a quiet insistence on the part of local officials, the practice was not yet sensibly on the decline. The gradual enlightenment of the people would take years, perhaps generations, and hundreds of innocent human lives would meanwhile be wantonly sacrificed. ”

“ The founder of the sect, Rām Mohan Roy, a Brāhman, was born in 1772 and died in England in 1833. He was sent to school at Patna, where under the influence of Muhammadan teachers he learnt to despise the extravagant stories of the Purānas. At the age of sixteen he composed a tract against idolatry, which stirred up such a feeling of animosity against him that he had to leave his home. He betook himself first to Benares, where he received instruction in the Vedas from the Brāhmans. ”

“ She now demanded the fulfilment of these before she would consent to smile upon him, and the consent won, she required him, first, to appoint Bharata Yuva-Raja; and, second, to exile Rama for fourteen years to the terrible forest of Dandaka.
The promise of a Hindu, once given, cannot be revoked. In spite of the grief of the old Raja, of Kausalya, his old wife, and of all the people, who were at the point of revolt at the sudden disgrace of their favorite prince, the terrible news was announced to Rama, and he declared himself ready to go, to save his father from dishonor. ”

“ That silent influence began to tell many years ago, even at a time when no missionaries were allowed within the territory of the old East India Company. Its first representative was Ram Mohun Roy, born just one hundred years ago, in 1772, who died at Bristol in 1833, the founder of the Brahma-Samâj. A man so highly cultivated and so highly religious as he was, could not but feel humiliated at the spectacle which the popular religion of his country presented to his English friends. ”

“ The rajah was so pleased with the bearing of Ram Singh that he ordered the wazir to give the young man to him in exchange for one of his own servants. So Ram Singh became the rajah’s attendant; and as the days went by the king became more and more delighted with the youth because, mindful of the old guru’s third counsel, he was always honest and spoke the truth. He grew in favour rapidly, until at last the rajah made him his treasurer, and thus he reached a high place in the court and had wealth and power in his hands. Unluckily the rajah had a brother who was a very bad man ”

“ But no one can do the things the king tells him to do; so all the Rajas and Rajas' sons who have tried have been put to death. You will be killed too, if you try. Do go away." But the prince would not listen to anything she said.
The king sent for the prince to the old woman's house, and his servants brought the Raja's son to the king's court-house to the king. There the king gave him eighty pounds of mustard seed, and told him to crush all the oil out of it that day, and bring it next morning to him to the court-house. ”

“ If earnest and zealous men are needed to keep the question continually before the public, have you not amongst you many with the fervour of Dewan Bahadur Raghunatha Rao? If far-seeing statesmanlike views are required, have you not men endowed with the wide political sagacity of the venerable Raja Sir T. Madhava Rau? ”

“ On hearing these words Shree Krishnù Chund was delighted, and said, “Raja! you have formed a good wish, by this gods, men, saints and sages will all be gratified; this will be agreeable to all, and it is not at all difficult for you to do this; because your four brothers, Urjoon, Bheem, Nukool and Suhdeo are very renowned and powerful; there is not any one in the world now who can oppose them; first send them forth to conquer, and bring under subjection the Rajas of the ten quarters of the world, and after that perform the sacrifice at your ease.” ”

“ Raja Rammohan Roy, the brave man who made a voyage to Britain in defiance of caste, the champion of the widow who had often been virtually obliged to lay herself on her dead husband's pyre, the strenuous advocate of English education for Indians, the supporter of the claim of Indians to a larger employment in the public service, has not yet received from New India the recognition and honour which he deserves. ”

“ Dudheech having had his body licked by a cow extracted his thigh bone and gave it to the gods, who made it into a thunderbolt, and Dudheech having sacrificed his life, obtained paradise. Such are instances of men of boundless liberality, whose fame the world celebrates.”
Raja! having thus spoken, Shree Krishnù Chund Jee, said to Joorasindhoo, “O great king! you equal in the present age the just and liberal Rajas, who flourished formerly in other ages, and now satisfy our expectations in the same way, that formerly they fulfilled the desires of those who solicited them. ”

“ However, we arrived safely, on the 10th of July,
at the capital of the Raja of Dinajpur, who wished to oppose
our passage."
This was the Raja Ram Nath, whom Orme describes as "a Raja, who with much timidity, was a good man."
"We made it in spite of him, threatening to attack him
if he showed any further intention of opposing us. I do not
know what would have happened if he had had a little firmness,
for we learned afterwards that he had always in his
service a body of 5000 infantry and cavalry. ”

“ Then, briefly telling the soldier that he had done well, the rajah drew Ram Singh to one side, and in a few minutes learned from him how, in attending to the guru’s counsel, he had delayed to do the king’s message.
In the end the rajah found from some papers the proofs of his dead brother’s treachery; and Ram Singh established his innocence and integrity. He continued to serve the rajah for many years with unswerving fidelity; and married a maiden of his own rank in life, with whom he lived happily; dying at last honoured and loved by all men. Sons were born to him ”

“ Is not he the man to fight stoutly whenever an enemy makes his appearance? That is the reason that I give him all the weapons I can find, which are excellent, that he may bulwark us all. Besides, is he not our raja's champion, and consequently our own champion?"
In a short time the bandahara Paduca Raja fell sick, for he was now an old man, and all his family who were at the distance of one or two days' journey assembled, and all his grand-children and great-grand-children, and he announced unto them his will. ”

“ From this condition it is that none of the Malay rajas ever expose their Malay subjects to disgrace or shame; they never bind them, nor hang them, nor give them opprobrious language; for whenever a raja exposes his subjects to disgrace, it is the certain token of the destruction of his country: hence also it is, that none of the Malay race ever engage in rebellion, or turn their faces from their own rajas, even though their conduct be bad, and their proceedings tyrannical. ”

“ No more beautiful place could be imagined. Flowers of every kind, delicious fruits, and on every side the most pleasing prospects, together with perfect love, made their hermitage a paradise on earth. Here the exiles led an idyllic existence until sought out by Bharata, who, learning from his mother on his return home the ruin she had wrought in the Raj, had indignantly spurned her, and hastened to Dandaka. The old Raja had died from grief soon after the departure of the exiles, and Bharata now demanded that Rama should return to Ayodhya and become Raja, as was his right, as eldest son. ”

“ They placed the whole together in front of the throne, And the Chief, the favored of wakeful Fortune, Surveyed all that the Raja had painstakingly collected, And then commanded that it should be sent to his treasury. Then the Ambassador presented, written on silk, The letter which the Raja had addressed to Nushirvan; And a chessboard, wrought with such exceeding labor, That the pains bestowed upon it might have emptied a treasury. And the Indian delivered a message from the Raja: "So long as the heavens revolve, may thou be established in thy place! ”

“ He came on his elephant, attended by his brother-in-law and another person employed in his service chiefly as a legal adviser, on account of his supposed knowledge of the Regulations. The Raja is an active, intelligent man, and manages and looks minutely into all his own affairs. ”

“ Two other wives of the rajah, having received lesser portions of the divine beverage, gave birth to three sons (Bharata, Lakshmana, and Satrughna) , and the news that four heirs had arrived in the palace caused great rejoicings in the realm.
These four princes grew up in the most promising fashion, Rama in particular developing every virtue, and showing even in childhood marked ability as an archer. Such was his proficiency in athletic sports that a hermit besought him, at sixteen, to rid his forest of the demons which were making life miserable for him and his kin. ”

“ When you consider the matter philosophically there is nothing per se ridiculous in a Raja. Take a hypothetical case: picture to yourself a Raja who does not get drunk without some good reason, who is not ostentatiously unfaithful to his five-and-twenty queens and his five-and-twenty grand duchesses, who does not festoon his thorax and abdomen with curious cutlery and jewels, who does not paint his face with red ochre, and who sometimes takes a sidelong glance at his affairs, and there is no reason why you should not think of such a one as an Indian king. India is not very fastidious ”

“ O great king! if any one else were to conquer the ten quarters of the world, he would not find so many Rajas collected together; it is therefore most advisable that you go to Hustinapoor; and, uniting and consulting with the Panduvùs, do what is necessary to be done.” O great king! Oodho Jee after this again said, “Raja Joorasindhoo is very liberal, and a great respecter and worshipper of the cow and brahmin; every one who asks him for any thing receives it; no beggar ever returns disappointed from his presence ”