RAMMOHUN ROY, ram-ma-hun' rot, Hindu religious reformer : b. Burdwan district, province of Bengal, India, 1772; d. Stapleton Park, near Bristol, England, 27 Sept. 1833. He was a Brahman of strict education, hut early renounced the polytheism of Brahminic the ology. For five years he was dewan, or prin cipal native officer in the collection of the revenues, in one of the districts of East India Company's services. He afterward studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew. A careful study of the sacred writings of the Hindus had con vinced him that the prevailing religious notions of the Hindus were grounded upon a gross per version of their religion, the original records of which appeared to him to inculcate a system of pure theism. He now became anxious to reform the creed and practice of his country men, and determined to devote his talents and his fortune to this undertaking. A work of his in Persian on 'The Idolatry of All Re aroused much protest. In 1814 he went to live in Calcutta, where as early as 1818 he had united a number of intelligent Hindus in a species of monotheistic worship. He trans lated the Vedanta, a compendium of the doc trines contained in the Vedas or ancient sacred Looks of the Hindus, from the Sanskrit into the Bengali and Hindustani languages, and distrib uted the translation gratuitously. 'this he after ward 'published in English, for the purpose of proving to his European friends that the super stitious practices which deform the Hindu gion not having to do with the pure spirit of its dictates.' From the perusal of the New Testa
ment he found (he says) the doctrines of Christ more conducive to moral principles, and better adapted for the use of rational beinus, thin any other which had conic to his knowledge. In 1820 he accordingly published the 'Precepts of Jesus the Guide to Peace and Happiness,) con sisting chiefly of a selection of moral precepts from the Evangelists, and Unitarian in its char acter. On 23 Jan. 1830 he founded at Cal cutta the Brahmiya Somaj, from which was de rived the Brahamo Somaj.
Rammohun Roy, in his doctrinal views, was a Unitarian, holding, however, the pre-existence and superangelic dignity of Christ, and consid ering the doctrine of the Trinity as a species of polytheism. He believed possible a combina tion of Brahminism and Christianity. His views were at first much misunderstood in England, and it appears that even Bishop Heber regarded him as an atheist. In 1830 he went to England in the character of ambassador from the king of Delhi (who gave him the title of Rajah). Consult Carpenter, 'A Review of the Labors, Opinions and Character of Rajah Rammohun Roy' (1833) ; Fox, 'Discourse on Occasion of the Death of Rajah Rammohun Roy' (1833) ; Max Muller, 'Biographical Essays' (1883).