English education in the Western Presidency early led to an interest in religious and social reform. As one of the results a secret society was formed in Bombay, called the Paramhana Mandali, under the
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leadership of Dadoba Pandurang. The object of the society was the encouragement of social reform, such as the abolition of caste, the introduction of the custom of widow remarriage, and the renunciation of idolatry. The intention was to have the society become public when its membership numbered 1,000, but in the meantime a spy divulged the secrets of the society, and such was the excitement resulting that the society was practically broken up. Under the influence of education and the work of Christian missionaries the religious and social ferment, however, still went on, and the soil became ripe for a theistic movement among the thoughtful. Keshav Chandra Sen paid a missionary visit to the Bombay Presidency in 1865, and soon after a branch of the Brahmo Somaj was started in Bombay. The 31st of March, 1867, is considered the anniversary day of the Bombay Somaj, which took the name of the Prarthana (" Prayer ") Somaj. -On Dec. 9, 1872, the foundation-stone of the Prarthana Somaj Mandir was laid by Pratab Chandra Muzamdar. Among the prominent men who have had a leading part in the growth of this Somaj are Atmaram Pandurang, Chintaman Namyan Bhat, Narayan Mahadev Paramanand, Waman Abaji Modak, Mahadev Govind Ranade, and at the present time Justice N. G. Chandavarkar.
Branches of the Prarthana Somaj have been formed at Ahmedabad, Puna, Ahmeduagar, Satara, and Ratnagiri. The Bombay Prarthana Somaj has a membership of 130, and carries on various philanthropic agencies, chief among which is the Orphanage at Pandharpur, and night schools for the poorer classes in Bombay. Its S-day services are conducted by the learned scholar, Dr. Gopal Krishna Bhandarkar, the Hon. N. G. Chandavarkar, and others. It supports a missionary, V. R. Shinde, who gives himself to the interests of the Somaj in Bombay and in other cities of the Presidency. The creed of the Prarthana Somaj is as follows: (1) God is the creator of the universe. He is the only true God; there is no other God beside him. He is eternal, spiritual, infinite, the store of all good, all joy, without parts, without form, one without a second, the ruler of all, all pervading, omniscient, almighty, .merciful, all holy, and the savior of sinners. (2) His worship alone leads to happiness in this world and the neat. (3) Love and reverence for him, an exclusive faith in him, praying and singing to him spiritually with these feelings, and doing the things pleasing to him constitute his true worship. (4) To worship and pray to images and other created objects is not the true mode of divine adoration.- (5) God does not incarnate himself, and there is no one book which has been directly revealed by God or is wholly infallible. (6) All men are his children; therefore they should behave toward each other as brethren. This is pleasing to God, and constitutes man's duty.
8. The Art's Soma,1: The founder of the Arya Somaj was Dayanand Saraswati (q.v.). Unwilling to live the ordinary worldly life, he left his home and after few years of instruction began to traverse India proclaiming the Vedas as the only inspired revelation from God. He denounced idolatry, and
preached reform in such social customs as seemed at variance with the direct or indirect teachings of the Vedas. In 1875 the first Arya Somaj was organized, and later many others were organized in northern India. The society has not thrived south of the Vindhya Mountains, but has found its best soil in the Punjab, the united province of Agra and Oudh, Rajputana, and Sindh, where there are reported about 700 branches. Its principles are directed against the caste system, and while its members are principally from the higher castes, many are from the lower castes. On its practical side the Somaj takes an interest in education, and maintains a college at Lahore and many schools for the teaching of the vernacular, English, and Sanskrit, and encourages female education by supporting numerous institutions. The Somaj approves early marriages, and encourages marriage of child-widows. The "Ten Principles" of the Arya Somaj are as follows: (1) God is the primary cause of all knowledge, and of everything known by its means. (2) God is all-truth, all-knowledge, allbeatitude, incorporeal, almighty, just, merciful, -begotten, infinite, unchangeable, without beginning, incomparable, the support and the Lord of all, all-pervading, omniscient, imperishable, immortal, exempt from fear, eternal, holy, and the cause of the universe. To him alone worship is due. (3) The Vedas are the books of true knowledge, and it is the paramount duty of every Arya to read them or hear them read, to teach and preach them to others. (4) One should always be ready to accept truth and renounce -truth. (5) All actions ought to be done conformably to virtue, i.e., after a thorough consideration of right and wrong. (6) The primary object of the Soma] is to do good to the world by improving the physical, spiritual and social condition of mankind. (7) All ought to be treated with love, justice, and a due regard to their merits. (8) Ignorance ought to be dispelled and knowledge diffused. (9) No one ought to be contented with his own good alone; but every one ought to regard his prosperity as included in that of others. (10) In matters which- affect the general social well-being of the whole of society, one ought to discard all differences and not allow his individuality to interfere, but in strictly personal matters every one may act with freedom.
| Religion. | Numbers. |
|---|---|
| Brahmanic Hindu | 207,050,557 |
| Arya Somaj | 92,419 |
| Brahma Somaj | 4,050 |
| Sikh | 2,195,339 |
| Jain | 1,334,148 |
| Buddhist | 9,476,759 |
| Parsi | 94,190 |
| Mohammedan | 62,455,077 |
| Christian | 2,928,241 |
| Jew | 18,228 |
| Animist | 3,584,148 |
| Minor Religions or Unclassified | 129,900 |
| ____________ | |
| Total Population | 294,351,056 |
| Europeans | 169,677 |
| Eurasians | 89,251 |
| Natives | 2,664,313 |
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Bibliography: On the subject of populations and castes, as well as of religion, an essential is the General Report of the Cons" of India, 1901, London, 1904. Consult further: E. W. Hopkins, Mutual Relations of the Four Casks, Leipsic. 1881; H. H. Risley , Tribes and Casks of Bengal, 4 vols., Calcutta, 1891; I. F. Hewitt, The Ruling Rao" of Prehistoric Tribes in India. Westminster, 1894; Bhattacharya, Hindu Cad -a and Sects, Calcutta, 1898; W. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudk 4 vols., Calcutta, 1898; P,. SBnart, Lea Castes dans 1'Inde, Paris, 1898; B. Hagen, Anthropologischer Atlas oataaiatischer Völker, 2 parts, Wiesbaden, 1898; T. W. Webber, The Foreste of Upper India and Their Inhabitants, London, 1902.
On the history of India consult: J. T. Wheeler, Hist. of India from as Earliest Ages, 4 vols. in 5, London, 1867-1881; P. Anderson, The English in Western India, Bombay, 1858; H. M. Elliot, Hist. of India as Told by its owns Historians, 8 vols., London, 1887-77; J. T. Wheeler, India undder British Rule, London, 1888; H. G. Keene, The Fall of the Mophul Empire of Hindustan, ib. 1887; W. W. Hunter. The Indian Empire, its Peoples, Hist., and Products, ib., 1893; idem, A Brief Hist. of Indian Peoples, ib. 1893; J. C. Marabman, Abridgment of the History of India, Edinburgh, 1893; L. J. Trotter; Hist. of India, ib., 1899; W. St. Clair, India, its Hist., Darkness and Dawn, ib., 1901; C. H. Forbes Lindsay, India Past and Present, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1903; Stanley Lane-Poole, Medieval India under Mohammedan Rule, New York, 1903; A. V. W. Jackson, ed., Hist. of India, 9 vols., ib., 1907; V. A. Smith, Early Hist. of India from 600 B.C. to she Mohammedan Conquest, Oxford, 1908; L. D. Barnett, The Heart of India; Sketches in the Siet. of Hindu Religion and Morale, New York, 1908; J. Jones, India: its Life and Thought, ib., 1908. For the early traditions of Englishmen in India consult the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. B. Thorpe in Rolls Series, 2 vols., London, or ed. C. Plummer, 2 vols., Oxford, 1892-99; William of Malmesbury, De geatis ponti*um Anylorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, in Robe Series, London, 1870; idem, De gedia regurn Anglorum, ed. W. Stubbs, in Rolls Series, 2 vols., London, 1887-89.
The literature on the religions is quite fully given under Brahmanism; Buddhism; Hinduism; Jainism; Sikhs, Sikhism.
For the history of Christianity in India, consult the literature under Missions; Carey, William; Duff, Alexander; and Marshman, Joshua. Useful adjuncts are: J. Hough, History of Christianity in India from the Commencement of the Christian Era, 5 vols., London, 1839-1880; B. Gogerly, The Pioneer,; a Narrative of Facts connected with Early Missions in Bengal, ib., 1871; George Smith, A Short History of Christian Missions, ib., 1884; idem, The Conversion of India, ib., 1893; M. A. Sherring, Hist. of Protestant Missions in India, ed. E. Storrow, ib., 1884: Hist. of Christianity in India, Madras, 1895; L. R. Lovett, Primer of Modern Mission,, London, 1894; idem, Hist. of London Missionary Society, 2 vols., ib., 1899; J. M. Thoburn. India and ,Southern Asia, Cincinnati, 1907; Mrs. M. B. Fuller, Wrongs of Indian Womanhood, ib. 1900; Mrs. M. M. Clark, A Corner in India, Philadelphia, 1907 (on the Nags Hills); J. Chamberlin, The Kingdom in India; its Progress and its Promise, New York, 1908; J. Richter, Hist. of Missions in India, ib., 1908; the histories of the various missionary agencies with their reports, and H. O. Dwight, H. A. Tupper, and E. M. Blue, The Encyclopedia of Missions, ib._ 1904.
For the history of theistic societies consult as sources: Indian Mirror, Calcutta, 1881-80; Sunday Mirror, ib.,
Numbers. 463 1, 221, 37,8748155,455
78,907
53,931
1,809
1,202,189
18,980
248,741
322,586
22,899
108,292
4801880-82; The Liberal and the New Dispensation, ib. 1881 sqq.; Theistic Annual, ib.. 1872 sqq.; Theistic Quarterly Review, ib., 1879. Consult also: The Adi Brahma samaj, its Views and Principles, Calcutta, 1871; Mary Carpenter, Last Days in England of Ramohun ROY. London. 1888; B. Chunder Son, Brahmo 3omah ib., 1870; J. Hesse, Dar Brahma Samaj . . . in Bailer M4aaiona-Mapazin, 1878, pp. 385 &19.~ Sivanath Shaetri, The New Dion and the Sadharan Brahma Samaj, Madras, 1881; Sen, xeehav Chandra, Brahmo Somaj. Calcutta. 883; Rsmaohandrs Vaeu, Brahmoism, New York, 1844; F. Mss MNler, in Biographical Essays, London, 1884 (gives accounts of recent religious movements); T E. Slater, Keahab Chundra San and the Bmmha Samaj. Madras. 1884, P. C. Moaoomdar, Life and Teachings of Chunder San, Calcutta, 1887; H. Baynes, Evolution of Religious Thought in India. London, 1889 (a full account); L. J. Frohmeyer, Nauera Raformbestrebun9an in Hindutemua, m Basler Mw aaona-Mapaxin, 1888, pp. 129 sqq.; The Offering of DevendranaUt Tapora, travel. by M. M. Chatterji, Lahore, 1889; Rsmmohun Roy, English Works, 2 vols., London, 1888; Navskanta Chattopadhyaya, Life and Character of Ram Mohun Roy, Daces, 1890; C. N. Aitchison, The Brahmo Sommj, in Church Missionary Inteld%genar,1893, pp. 181 sqq.; Pancha Mafia Yajna Vidhi, travel. by Arjsn Singh, Lahore, 1898; Bawa ChhsWjin Singly The Teachings of the Arya Samaj, Lahore, 1903; Dayanand Saraewsti, Vedic Religion. ib. 1903; Hem Chandra Sukea. The Religion of As Brahmo Samaj, Calcutta, 1908; the literature under Dayanand Saraswati; Rammohan Roy; Sen, Keshav Chandra; and Tagore, Devendranath.
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