RAM MOHAN RAY.
It can be safely asserted without any fear of contradiction that no Indian was born in the past one hundred years with the same range of power as Ram Mohan Ray. He was born in 1774 in the district of Hughli and his father was a high official under the Nawab of Murshidabad. In those days Persian and Arabic scholarship was the object of desire by all Indians and Ram Mohan was given a training in these languages in his early years. He spent for this purpose three years at Patna, but his thirst for knowledge was insatiable. He went thence to Benares, where he studied Sanskrit. His acquaintance with the Vedas was formed at this time—an acquaintance which was destined to ripen into the promulgation of the tenets of Brahmoism. He began to study Vedantism with eagerness and the pure Monotheism of the Upanishads came home to him with a conviction never to be upset—a Monotheism sullied by the myths of the Puranas of the late ages. He conceived the idea of preaching this Monotheism of their forefathers to his countrymen again, but this caused some friction with his father, in consequence of which he left his home. For four years he wandered from place to place and in course of his travels he visited the land of Tibet. In 1803 he lost his father and he came back home and accepted service under the East Indian Company. At this time he was seized with a violent desire to learn English, of which he soon became a master. In 1814 he came to Calcutta and built a palace for himself which still exists. The idea of preaching Monotheism was never practically absent from his mind. He established a society for the purpose and a press to print tracts against idolatry. He studied the Bible and learnt Hebrew and Greek to study it more effectually in the original. He published his views about pure Monotheism in Bengali and English. The arguments were unanswerable. He plainly pointed out the mistake of the idolater, of Christian Missionaries and of Mahomedan Maulavis. He might in a certain sense be
