India, in 1828 by Raja Rammohun ROY (1772–
1833), a Bengali Brahmin. Roy was a central fig-
ure in the “Indian Renaissance” and the “Bengali
Renaissance,” which introduced an emphasis on
rationality, women’s rights, and the uplift of lower
castes.
The society aimed to reform Hinduism by
banishing caste, idolatry, and other features it con-
sidered debased in favor of reinstituting what it
considered were the traditional elements of truth,
spirituality, and the unity of religion. Influenced
by Christian missionaries and Western ideas that
entered India during British colonialism, the soci-
ety was firmly theistic, appealing to the worship of
one God, omniscient and omnipotent. Distinctly
Hindu, the society believes that all truth is from
God and that the prophets of all religions are to
be respected. Raja Rammohun Roy, Devendranath
Tagore (1817–1905), and Keshub Chunder Sen
(1838–84) were influential in creating the creed
and practice of the society.
After Roy’s death the society declined, but it
was revived by Devendranath Tagore, father of the
famous Indian poet Rabindranath TAGORE. Tagore
was opposed to Christian missions, but he did
not accept the infallibility of the Hindu scriptures.
Under Tagore, the society became an active Hindu
missionary organization, attracting educated Hindus
in a number of cosmopolitan centers in Bengal and
other states. Under Sen, the society became more
universal in outlook by drawing on world scrip-
tures. While Sen was leader a number of schisms
emerged; as a result, the Brahmo Samaj movement
began to include several different organizations.
Today the movement continues to uphold
the Brahmo teachings of faith in a personal God,
congregational worship, and condemnation of
idol worship and widow burning. The society
operates the Brahmo Balika Shikshalaya, a school
for girls in Calcutta (Kolkata), which has stressed
the emancipation of women since its founding in
- The school began a Montessori Section in
1930, the first Montessori school in India. The
society sponsors the Raja Rammohun Roy Memo-
rial Museum in Calcutta. Although very small
today, the society provided a rational critique of
traditional ritualistic observances that became
part of the secularized democratic culture in
Indian society. The society retains its affiliation
with Unitarianism in Western countries.
See also UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES.Further reading: Piyus Kanti Das, Raja Rammohun Roy
and Brahmoism (Calcutta: Author, 1970); David Kopf,
The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian
Mind (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1979); Spencer Lavan, Unitarians and India: A Study in
Encounter and Response (Chicago, Ill.: Exploration Press,
1991); Sivanath Sastri, History of the Brahmo Samaj, 2d
ed. (Calcutta: Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, 1993); Keshub
Chunder Sen, The New Samhita: The Brahmo Samaj
(Bombay: Navabidhan Chittabinodini Trust, 1980).Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 700 B.C.E.)
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is a classical UPA-
NISHAD connected to the White YAJUR VEDA. It is
probably the oldest of the classical Upanishads
and retains much material on ancient Vedic ritual,
which the later classical Upanishads ignore.
The work opens with a meditation on the
ashva medha, or HORSE SACRIFICE, seeing the horse
itself as universal reality in all its particulars. This
is a feature that is well established in the earlier
BRAHMANA literature, which focused on the deeper
meaning of ritual.
The Upanishad contains a cosmogony of the
Ultimate Self or AT M A N as it differentiates into
worldly reality. It also preserves several ancient
dialogues about the nature of the universe, the
atman, and the BRAHMAN. Particularly, it contains
the disquisitions or answers of the famous sage
YAJNAVALKYA to these questions.
In the course of this Upanishad, the doctrine
of the two forms of brahman, the formed and the
formless, is outlined (Bri. 2.3. 1–6). This doctrine is
repeated in later Upanishads and is a central issue
in the thought of later VEDANTA. BrihadaranyakaBrihadaranyaka Upanishad 93 J