Page:A History of the Brahmo Samaj.djvu/24

 THE HISTORY OF THE BRAHMO SAMAJ RAJA RAM MOHUN ROY

The phrase "Brahmo Samaj" literally means the society of the worshippers of the One True God, "Brahmo" means one who worships Brahma, or the Supreme Spirit of the universe, and "Samaj" means a community of men. The Brahmo Samaj, therefore, represents a body of men who are struggling, In India, to establish the worship of the Supreme Being in spirit as opposed to the prevailing idolatry of the land. The movement was started on the 20th of August, 1828, by Raja Ram Mohun Roy and his friends by opening a place for public worship on the Chitpore Road in Calcutta, and was duly and publicly inaugurated in January, 1830, by the consecration of the first house of prayer, now known as the Adi Brahmo Samaj.

It was the first of its kind in the history of the country. Amongst the myriads of temples scattered over the land, which bore testimony to the great piety of the Hindu race, there was none that was dedicated to such a purpose. To