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British city remembers Raja Rammohun Roy
A service of commemoration was held in Bristol to celebrate life of Roy who died there in 1833.
An annual service of commemoration was held in the British city of Bristol to celebrate the life of Raja Rammohun Roy who died there during a visit Sep 27, 1833.
The event was organised at Arnos Vale Cemetery, the place where Roy was buried in a tomb which is a Grade II listed monument.
The tomb is covered by a chhattri, or umbrella style canopy, which has become a prominent symbol of the cemetery. The chhattri was designed by William Prinsep and built with sponsorship from Dwarakanath Tagore.
Roy was initially buried in the grounds of Beech House, but 10 years after his death, his friend Tagore had him re-interred in Arnos Vale.
The service was attended by the Lord Mayor Simon Cook, together with a representative from the Indian high commission and other guests. Flowers and wreaths were laid and prayers offered, besides readings and hymns.
The commemoration service is an annual event at the cemetery, which was bought by the council after compulsory purchase order proceedings. A trust has been set up by the council to manage a five-million-pound restoration programme for the neglected cemetery.
A statue of Rammohun Roy given by the Indian government to the city in memory of his life stands on the College Green.
The statue, built by the famous Kolkata-based sculptor Niranjan Pradhan, was installed in 1997 on the 50th anniversary of India's independence during LM Singhvi's tenure as the Indian high commissioner.
The statue was inspired by Roy's portrait done by Henry P. Briggs. The statue is 8.5 feet high, made of bronze and weighs approximately 900 kg. It cost 13,000 pounds.
Roy visited England in 1831 after his writings about the first three gospels stirred a great deal of interest among scholars and religious writers.
One of his friends was Lant Carpenter, a Unitarian minister in Lewins Mead, Bristol, who invited him to visit the city. Ten days after his arrival, he fell ill and died a week later from meningitis.
