RAMMOHUN ROY, rii-ini'lairrn roi (177°_ 1833). A Hindu raja, scholar, and theist, the founder of the Brahmo-somaj (q.v.). lie was burn at Bardwan, Bengal, of a high-easte Brah man family. He received a good native ednoo tion, acquired some knowledge of Persian, and at Patna and Benares studied Sanskrit works on Hindu law, literature. and religion. His re ligions views aroused the antagonism of his family and of his community, and in his two or three years' residence in Tibet he also gave offense by his denial that the Lama was the creator and preserver of the world. Becoming convinced that the English sway was beneficial to India. he applied himself to the study of the Emdish For five years he held the nflice of revenue collector in the District of Rangpur. He published various works in Persian. Arabic. and Sanskrit, their object being the uprooting of idolatry, and he was instrumental in procuring the abolition of suttee (q.v.). Becoming convinced
of the excellence of the moral theories of Christianity, he published The Precepts of Jesus, the Gaide to Peace and Happiness (1820). a work of Unitarian tendencies. In 1830 was opened the first building in the Brahmo-Somaj or Theistic Church of India, which he had in augurated and endowed. Shortly afterwards, as representative of the titular King of Delhi, who had created him a raja. he visited England. He was deluged with invitations to social, political, and ecclesiastical meetings, and in his anxiety to see everything and to please all, overtaxed his strength and died of brain fever at Bristol, where he is buried. Consult. Carpenter, The Lost Days of Raja. Rammohnn Roy in England, with Bio graphical Sketch (London, 18(i6).