Page:The Autobiography of Maharshi Devendranath Tagore.djvu/76

 28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

The most important reform that was introduced after my father returned from the Hills was the Anushthân Paddhati, or the Brâhmic Ritual, intended to regulate the observance of the domestic rites and ceremonies obtaining among our people at the present day. For many years the Brahma Dharma, in spite of the enthusiasm of its first adherents, had continued to be little more than a cold intellectual creed ; its effect on practical life was almost nil. The Brâhmic Covenant, binding every Brâhma to renounce worship through idolatrous symbols, was, in the majority of cases, honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Many a Brâhma had thus to live a life of unfaithfulness, being forced to conform to social observances which his conscience did not approve of. One exception to this was the performance by the Maharshi of his father's Shraddha on monotheistic principles as related above. The second was the performance of the wedding ceremony of his daughter Sukumari, my second sister, without any idolatrous rites in 1861, after his return from Simla. This innovation may justly be said to have ushered a new era into the history of the Brâhma-Samaj. Our relatives were greatly embittered at this fresh instance of nonconformity; the legality of the modified ceremonial was, moreover, not altogether free from doubt. But in the face of these discouragements the reformed marriage was celebrated, amidst great