DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9550#0011
INTRODUCTION. V
It was the period of a great revolution. When Ram
Mohun Roy was born, all the old kingdoms were tumb-
ling down, and new ones were being reared in their stead.
In Bengal the tyrannical Serajuddoula had been over-
thrown, and the rule of a race of foreigners from beyond
the ocean had been set up. Throughout the whole
country there was disorder and confusion. The old
state of things was passing away, giving place to the
new, the only question being, whether this would be for
the better or for the worse.
In the religious world also there was much excitement.
The Saktas or the worshippers of the goddess Sakti,
and the Vaishnabas, mostly followers of Chaitanya, were
both strong, and were contending with each other for
supremacy in the land. It was at this time also that
the Tantrik worship flourished in Bengal, with all its
midnight horrors and corruptions, as well as with that
profound though rather gloomy devotion so well
-exemplified in the case of Ram Prosad Sen, Raja
Ramkanta and other great men, many of whom
were contemporaries of the father of Ram Mohun
Roy. Nor was Vaishnabism weak. With all the
corruptions that had polluted the sacred religion of
Chaitanya, there was still some religious fervour left,
which enabled it to keep its hold upon the people. The
strife between the Vaishnabas and the Saktas was bitter,
and Ram Mohun Roy lived in the very midst of it; for
his own family was one of the foremost Vaishnaba fami-
lies of Bengal, while his maternal grand-father was the
acknowledged spiritual head of the Saktas of that part
of the country, and stories are told of quarrels between
the two familes on account of their religious differences,
>
It was the period of a great revolution. When Ram
Mohun Roy was born, all the old kingdoms were tumb-
ling down, and new ones were being reared in their stead.
In Bengal the tyrannical Serajuddoula had been over-
thrown, and the rule of a race of foreigners from beyond
the ocean had been set up. Throughout the whole
country there was disorder and confusion. The old
state of things was passing away, giving place to the
new, the only question being, whether this would be for
the better or for the worse.
In the religious world also there was much excitement.
The Saktas or the worshippers of the goddess Sakti,
and the Vaishnabas, mostly followers of Chaitanya, were
both strong, and were contending with each other for
supremacy in the land. It was at this time also that
the Tantrik worship flourished in Bengal, with all its
midnight horrors and corruptions, as well as with that
profound though rather gloomy devotion so well
-exemplified in the case of Ram Prosad Sen, Raja
Ramkanta and other great men, many of whom
were contemporaries of the father of Ram Mohun
Roy. Nor was Vaishnabism weak. With all the
corruptions that had polluted the sacred religion of
Chaitanya, there was still some religious fervour left,
which enabled it to keep its hold upon the people. The
strife between the Vaishnabas and the Saktas was bitter,
and Ram Mohun Roy lived in the very midst of it; for
his own family was one of the foremost Vaishnaba fami-
lies of Bengal, while his maternal grand-father was the
acknowledged spiritual head of the Saktas of that part
of the country, and stories are told of quarrels between
the two familes on account of their religious differences,
>