A: The Brahmo Samaj is the social order (Samaj = “community”) of the Brahmo religion.

Q: Who founded the Brahmo Samaj ?

A: The Brahmo Samaj was founded at Lahore in 1861 by Navin Chandra Roy to propagate the Brahmo religion.

Q: Who founded the Brahmo religion ?

A: The Brahmo religion was founded in 1849 at Calcutta by Debendranath Tagore with the publication of “Brahmo Dharma“.

Q: Excuse me, but I thought Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj ?

A: Not really. Ram Mohan Roy started the Brahma Sabha (Association of Brahmins) along with Dwarkanath Tagore in 1828. The objectives of this association were to publicize the true Vedanta which had been corrupted by Buddhist and Brahmanical influences. The Sabha met every Wednesday at Kamal Basu’s house in Chitpur and later moved to their own premises at Chitpur Road in 1830 (purchased by the munificence Dwarkanath Tagore) . After the death of Ram Mohan Roy in 1833, the Sabha became moribund

Q: But, were these Chitpur premises of 1830 not the Adi Brahmo Samaj ?

A: It is correct that the present Adi Brahmo Samaj premises are situated at the same 1830 location. However, the Adi Brahmo Samaj is only the name given by the common people to the Calcutta Bahmo Samaj when Keshub Chunder Sen and a few of his sympathisers were expelled from it.

Q:  So,  if the Calcutta Brahmo Samaj is the same as Adi Brahmo Samaj, when was it founded ?

A:  The Calcutta Brahmo Samaj was so named in 1863, when after a cyclone the Chitpur Road premises were affected and Brahma Sabha (previously amalgamated with Tattwabodhini Sabha)  was shifted to the Jorasako Thakur bari.