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.
