Under the head of Temperance, a monthly journal called “Madh na Garah,” (i. e. Wine or Poison?), was published and was maintained for some time. Under the head of Charity, doctors and medicinewere provided for some malaria-stricken districts. This part of the good work also mine soon to an end. Under the head of Cheap Literature the first pice paper called “Sulabh Samachar” or Cheap News was started and maintained for some years. Under the last head, Night Schools for the Industrial Edu­cation of the labouring classes were opened and maintained for a short time.

Unfortunately the work of the Indian Reform Association, which was mainly carried on by Mr. Sen’s missionaries did not show signs of steady progress, and had to be given up within a few years. The second thing that engaged Mr. Sen’s attention after his return from England was the passing of the Act III of 1872. The necessity of a new law for the protection of the reformed marriages was begining to be felt from the year 1867 so to say. Since the foundation of the Brahma Samaj of India, the number of reformed marriages began to multiply, and the attention of the leaders was drawn to the questionable validity of these marriages and steps were early taken in 1868 to appoint a committee to consult legal opinion on the subject. The question was again taken up after Mr. Sen’s return. Both medical and legal opinions were secured. A petition was sent up to Government, which led to the framing of a bill, which after a prolonged controversy was passed in March 1872 as the Act III of that year.

Besides the work mentioned under the Indian Re­form Association, the Sangat Sabha and the old Brahma School were also revived, and a Brahma Students’ boarding house, called the Brahma Niketan, was founded and kept up for some years.In the year 1872, a novel institution called the Bharat Ashram, which formed in fact a family board­ing-house, was started, where Mr. Sen, his mission­aries, and a number of leading Brahmas resided with their families for the purpose of combined spiritual exercises and the development of such virtues as method, order and domestic economy. This Ashram also in the course of a few years came to an end.

From the year 1876, Mr. Sen began to manifest peculiar devotional and ascetic tendencies. He purchased a garden within a few miles of Calcutta and named it Sadhan Kanan or the Garden of Devotional Exercise, retired there with a number of his friends, began to cook his own food, wear a mendicant’s dress and in other ways practised great austerities. This occasioned some dissension amongst his followers, and alienated some of his old friends. Whilst these ascetic practices were going on, the church was internally tom into two rival factions, one consisting of Mr. Sen and his imme­diate followers, and the other consisting of a number of younger men, who wanted to introduce constitutional modes of Church Government. They secretly disliked Mr. Sen’s ascetic practices, agitated for placing the Brahma Mandir in the hands of trustees, and tried to organise a Pratinidhi Sabha or Representative Assembly to take care of the external affairs of the Church. They started a monthly journal called Sama-Darshi or the Liberal for discussion of the above ques­tions. Their party was known as the Sama- Darshi Party at the time. This journal freely ventilated all points of theological difference with Mr. Sen and his friends. Adverse criticisms were passed on the Sama-Darshi Party in the pages of the Sunday Mirror, Mr. Sen’s Organ, thereby clearly indicating the angle of divergence that had arisen in the Church.

In 1864, Keshav Chunder Sen visited Madras and Bombay, and his visit was instrumental in rousing public interest in the cause, and as a consequence the Ved Samaj of Madras was established in that year, and the Prarthana Samaj of Bombay came into existence in 1867. The Ved Samaj after under­going many reverses of fortune was finally trans­formed into the Southern India Brahma Samaj, and exists even now under that name.

Devendranath so far sympathised with the young­er party, that he placed the whole Samaj under their charge as it were. One of them was placed in charge of £he Tatva Bodhini Patrika, the monthly Bengali journal of the Samaj. Others became the office bearers and members of the Committee. Thing went on like this till the year 1864 in which year, at the earliest request of the younger members of the Sangat, who objected to having assistant ministers, who kept caste and conformed to idolatry at home, Devendranath dismissed the old thread-bearing assistant ministers, and appointed in their place two younger men from the Sangat party, who had formallygiven up caste and idolatory. That gare great offence to the older party and further alienated them from the Samaj, adding fire to fuel as it were. At about this time the younger men celebrated an intermarriage amongst themselves. That served as the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It was felt that the two parties could no more pull on toget­her. Just at this crisis, there happened the great cyclone of 1864 causing damage to the Samaj Chapel, and necessitating the removal of the weekly service to the house of Devendranath. Whilst there, one day when the newly appointed assistant ministers with Keshav Chander Sen came prepared to officiate in the pulpit, they found to their surprise the pulpit already occupied by the old thread-bearing ministers. Necessarily this caused wide-spread discontent among the younger party, who made a representation to Devendranath, who in reply said that as the service was temporarily being held in his house, he might make temporary arrangements he considered best. The younger men were not satisfied at this reply and they practically seceded from the service of the Samaj from that time.

After having made up his mind, Devendranath remained firm. As the sole surviving trustee of the Samaj, he withdrew all the powers he had conceded to the younger men, dismissed ^them from their offices removed the Patrika from their management, and reinstalled men of the older party in their places. After this, two more years' were spent in fruitless negotiations. The young men wanted to have the use of chapel for a Service of their own on another    
day of the week, which prayer was not granted. Driven from the spiritual ministration of the Samaj, Mr. Sen tried to organise a Brahma Pratinidhi Sabha or Brahma Representative Assembly, and to place the department of mission-work under their charge. Deprived of the control of the Patrika, he started a monthly Bengali journal ’called Dharma- Tatwa, which became the organ of his party, and which has subsequently become a fortnightly journal. Spurred on by the internal conflict, the missionaries of the younger party entered upon their mission-work with great zeal and extended their influence far and wide. But step after step happened, which further widened the breach. Mr. Sen’s celebrated lectures on Jesus Christ and Great Men, which caused wide­spread sensation, were vehemently assailed in the pages of the Patrika by the older party, and almost every act of the younger men was subjected to severe criticism. Things went on like this till in Nov. 1866, the younger men formally seceded from the Calcutta Brahma Samaj which thereafter assumed the name of Adi Brahma Samaj, and formed a Samaj of their own, whicb they called the Brahma Samaj of India. This was the first Schism.

Whilst the male members of the Samaj were chiefty engaged in starting and maintaining these institutions, the female members were not altogether idle. From the earliest times, they combined for the purposes of self-improvement, and the propaga­tion of our principles among the feminine portion of the community. They first started a society called the Banga Mahila Samaj, under which they weekly assembled to have joint prayers, and also started a small circulating library with the object of promot­ing culture amongst themselves. The Banga Mahila Samaj in course of time gave place to another institution, chiefly confined to ladies, which holds its weekly meetings even now for the purpose of joint prayers, the reading of papers and discussions.’  Some ladies connected with this institution have started a Widows Home, where a number of Hindu widows have found shelter. A ladies’ workshop has also been recently started in the neighbourhood of the Sadharan Brahma Samaj Mandir, where Brahmaladies assemble during mid day for four days in the week to learn such arts as needle-work, sewing, knitting, embroidery etc.

Another institution recently started and maintain­ed by the Samaj is the Brahma Boys’ Boarding School, which has its location in Calcutta. It is intended for the children of the members of the Samaj living in the country.
It is also worthy of mention in this place that some members of the Samaj headed by Mr. Sasipad Banerjee of Barra-Nagur, have chiefly concerned themselves for many years past with the moral and spiritual welfare of the working-classes connected with the mills of that place. Chiefly through the exertion of Mr. Banerjee, a workmen’s institute has been built to which he has made over his private library. In connection with this Institute, periodical lectures are delivered to the working people and every encouragement is given to the spread of culture amongst them. The above, though a brief and running report will give some idea of the work done by the Sadharan Brahma Samaj during the years of its existence.
 

The Brahma Samaj of India.
Afte he Schism, the Brahmo Samaj of India devoted all its energies to the work of propagation. As a mark of the catholicity of its principles, a book was published containing texts from all religious Scriptues, and tracts and books came out in quick succession, illustrative of its principles. Since the Schism, the two parties assumed two definite characters. The Adi Samaj stuck to the traditions of Old Hinduism and gave itself out as a reforming body of Hindus, whereas the Brahma Samaj of India professed broad and catholic views and began to cultivate special communion with the spirit of Christ and Christianity. They made the Christian Scriptures a subject of earnest study, discussed the life and teachings of Jesus in their private meetings, and some of them went so far as to observe the Christmas in Some way. The propagandistic activity of the missionaries of the Brahma Samaj of India multiplied the number of Samajes in all direc­tions, and drew large numbers into their fold. In the beginning of the year 1868, they laid the founda­tion of their Mandir, an event which was further signalised by a new departure in the spiritual life of community. Up to that time, the preachers were known as more theological than devotional. Many of them had a contempt for the devotional practices of the Bhakti School of Chaitanya, but from the day of the second Schism, unfettered by the influence of the older members, Mr. Sen’s party side by side with the cultivation of the Christian spirit, had com­menced studying Chaitanya’s Bhakti school of thought and had introduced into their devotional exercises the custom of singing Bhakti Hymns, known as Sankirtan. The Introduction of the Sankirtan practice caused great development of emotional fervour, which was manifested this year in a street procession introduced by Mr. Sen for the first time. On the day of the founda­tion of the Brahma Mandir, the procession started from Mr., Sen’s house, singing a characteristic Sankirtan, in whioh the leading principles of the New Faith were proclaimed in rapturous language. The procession was immensely effective, and has since been adhered to by both the liberal sections of the Samaj on the occasions of their anniversaries.

The constructions of the Mandir was finished with great haste, and publicly consecrated in August 1869. In 1870, Mr. Sen went to England and carried the New Tidings there. After his return, he devoted his attention to two things. He first established the Indian Reform Association, which was sub-divided in­to five departments, viz., Education, Temperance, Charity, Cheap Literature, and Industrial Education of the Masses. Under each of these five heads, active sub-committees were appointed to carry on the work.

Under the head of Education, an adult Ladies School was founded where many of Mr. Sen’s mis­sionaries became the teachers, and the wives and grown-up daughters of the Brahmas became the pupils. This institution in course of time obtained Government aid and did its good work for some years, after which it became effete and ceased to exist. Under this head, a higher class Anglo-Sanscrit School, which subsequently became the Albert College, was also started and maintained for some years, after which it was made over to Mr. Sen’s brother, Krista Behari Sen.