BRAHMA SAMAJ, "the Union of God" (the term samdj connoting, like "church" an organism, not a mere association), a religious reform society inaugurated by Ram Mohan Rai in Cal cutta, about 1800. Study of the Hindu scriptures, of Islam, Bud dhism in Tibet and the Bible having shown him the perversions of the popular creeds, Ram Mohan embraced the monotheism of the Upanishads, rejecting the polytheism of the Shdstras, and in 1816 he drew a congregation of Hindus which recited Vedic and theistic hymns, but made no headway with that community at large. He then joined a Unitarian committee, but it collapsed, and in 1828 he founded the Brahma Samaj. The trust deed of the building dedicated in 183o declared it to be a place of meeting for all de scriptions of men for the worship of the Eternal under no sec tarian name. No graven image or icon, and no sacrifices were to be tolerated in it. No object of worship venerated by other sects was to be reviled ; but all prayer, hymns and discourses promoting charity, virtue and toleration were to be admissible. Nevertheless, at this stage the new faith was based on the Vedas. Ram Mohan was, moreover, a keen social reformer and did much to bring about Bentinck's statutory abolition of Sati in 1829. Soon after, how ever, he left India and his death at Bristol in 1833 left the Samaj to languish till 1841.
In that year Babu Debendra Nth Tagore, of a well-known Cal cutta family, founder of the Tattvabodhini ("Truth-learning") Sabha ("Society"), joined forces with the Brahma Samaj, gave it a printing-press, and in 1843 started the Tattvabodhini Patrika, a monthly "journal" which attained to great influence as an exposi tor of theism. About 185o, however, Debendra and most of his followers denied the infallibility of the Vedas, and redefined its cre-d as faith based on Nature and intuition, though religious truth contained in any book was to be respected, man's beliefs being evolutionary. The Samaj acknowledged the One Supreme God, en dowed with personality, moral attributes and intelligence, without incarnations; the immortality and progress of the soul were incul cated ; pilgrimages, ceremonial and penances were declared vain and caste distinctions worthless. Stress was laid on moral right eousness. For many years no social reforms were advocated, but in 1865 Babu Keshab Chandar Sen demanded the disuse of the Brahmanical thread by leaders in devotion. This led to schism, and thenceforth we find two branches : The Adi or "original" Samaj, small in numbers, which have never increased, and the Bharatvarshiya Brahma Samaj, the Samaj "of India," which set to work on several schemes of reform. But in 1878 Keshab's ac tion in countenancing the marriage of his daughter at an early age to the young ruler of Kuch Bihar, despite his own teaching, led to a great secession from the latter branch and the founding of the Sadharan Samaj or "catholic" union, which professes a broad theism. Keshab's reply was the organization of the "new dispensa tion" (Nava Bidhana), which went far beyond the older branches in its eclecticism.
See J. N. Farquhar, in Hastings' E. R. E. ii. (art. BRAHMA SAMAJ), Edinburgh (1908).