CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 79 of 120

Correct — A, Devendranath Tagore in 1839. Debendranath Tagore founded the body on 6 October 1839, first as the Tattvaranjini Sabha and almost immediately renamed the Tattvabodhini Sabha — the association of seekers after truth. Its purpose was to study and propagate the Vedanta of the Upanishads and to give the Brahmo position an intellectual base, and it drew in the ablest young men of Calcutta, several of them from the Derozian circle. In 1843 it began the Tattvabodhini Patrika, edited by Akshay Kumar Datta, which became the most serious Bengali periodical of its day and promoted a systematic study of India's past in the Bengali language. Debendranath had joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1843, and in 1859 the Sabha merged into it, giving the Samaj the organisation and the following that Rammohun Roy's original body had lacked after his death.

• (b)Keshab Chandra Sen in 1857 — Wrong person and wrong decade. Keshab Chandra Sen joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1857 as a young man and later led the wing that broke away in 1866 — he was five years old when the Tattvabodhini Sabha was founded.
• (c)Akshay Kumar Datta in 1850 — The most attractive wrong answer, because Akshay Kumar Datta really is central to the story — as editor of the Tattvabodhini Patrika from 1843. He edited the journal; he did not found the Sabha, and the date is eleven years late.
• (d)Dwarakanath Tagore in 1840 — Dwarkanath Tagore was Debendranath's father, a merchant prince and a supporter of Rammohun Roy. Both the name and the year are one step off the answer, which is exactly how this option is built.

The Brahmo movement passed through three phases. Rammohun Roy founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828 on a rejection of idolatry and priestly authority. After his death in 1833 the body languished until Debendranath Tagore rebuilt it, first through the Tattvabodhini Sabha of 1839 and then by joining and reorganising the Samaj itself from 1843. Keshab Chandra Sen's radicalism then split the movement in 1866 into the Adi Brahmo Samaj and the Brahmo Samaj of India.

Every wrong option here is a near miss on one axis — the right family but the wrong generation, the right circle but the wrong role, the right movement but the wrong decade — so the item rewards knowing the pairing of person and date rather than recognising a name. The pair to fix is Debendranath Tagore and 1839. Two supporting hooks make it stick: the Sabha's journal, the Tattvabodhini Patrika, began in 1843 under Akshay Kumar Datta, and the Sabha folded into the Brahmo Samaj in 1859. Debendranath, remembered as Maharshi, was also the father of Rabindranath Tagore, which is a useful way to place him in time.

• Debendranath Tagore established the Tattvabodhini Sabha on 6 October 1839; it was first called the Tattvaranjini Sabha.
• The Tattvabodhini Patrika began in 1843 with Akshay Kumar Datta as editor and promoted a systematic study of India's past in Bengali.
• Debendranath joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1843; the Sabha merged into the Samaj in 1859.
• The Brahmo Sabha itself was founded by Rammohun Roy in 1828.
• Dwarkanath Tagore was Debendranath's father and Rabindranath Tagore was his son.

• Confusing Debendranath with his father Dwarkanath or with his son Rabindranath.
• Crediting Akshay Kumar Datta with founding the Sabha because he edited its journal.
• Dating Keshab Chandra Sen's leadership to the 1830s; he joined the Samaj only in 1857.

As a founder-and-year identification, or through matching reformers to the organisations and journals associated with them.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Tattvabodhini Patrika, the journal of the Tattvabodhini Sabha, was edited by

  • (a)Akshay Kumar Datta
  • (b)Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
  • (c)Keshab Chandra Sen
  • (d)Rajnarayan Basu

  Answer(a) Akshay Kumar Datta — he edited the Patrika from its launch in 1843, making it the most serious Bengali periodical of its day.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Brahmo Sabha, the parent body of the later Brahmo Samaj, was founded in 1828 by

  • (a)Debendranath Tagore
  • (b)Rammohun Roy
  • (c)Dwarkanath Tagore
  • (d)Keshab Chandra Sen

  Answer(b) Rammohun Roy — Debendranath revived the movement a decade after Roy's death, first through the Tattvabodhini Sabha.