ABSTRACT
Like Rammohun, Debendranath belonged to the educated Hindu upper classes of Calcutta. Debendranath’s father Dvarakanath had been an associate of Rammohun, and moreover, one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of his time. The Tattvabodhini Sabha lasted till 1859 when it officially merged with the Brahmo Samaj. Brahmoism, in Debendranath’s estimation, needed a foundation, a source, of religious authority, much in the way the Bible became the sole religious and scriptural authority in Protestantism. Debendranath called the book that resulted from his spiritual experience ‘Brahmo Dharma’. Acquisition of wealth is necessary for the proper maintenance of family life. Debendranath introduced important innovations in the way the Brahmo congregational worship was to be conducted. Keshub Chandra Sen, the third great initiator of Brahmoism, made a significant impact on the urban intelligentsia in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in the Bengal presidency.
