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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2018}}
Pandit '''Sitanath Tattwabhushan''' was the official theologian and philosopher of the [[Sadharan Brahmo Samaj]].<ref name=Anusthanic_Brahmos>[http://brahmo.org/brahmo-anusthanic-ananusthanics.html Anusthanic Brahmos] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725102130/http://brahmo.org/brahmo-anusthanic-ananusthanics.html |date=2011-07-25 }}</ref><ref name=History>[http://www.thebrahmosamaj.net/history/chronology.html History of the Brahmo Samaj]</ref> His hymns still form the basis of Brahmo rites and liturgies.<ref name=History/><ref name=Liturgy>[http://www.thebrahmosamaj.net/liturgy/annaprasana.html Liturgy of the Brahmo Samaj]</ref>

==Early life==
He was born ''Sitanath Dutta'', in a village in [[Sylhet]] in 1856.<ref name=Brahmoism>[http://brahmosamaj.blogspot.com/2009/05/sitanath-tattwabhushan-dutta.html Brahmo Samaj: Truths of Brahmoism]</ref> He arrived in Calcutta for higher education in 1871. Although he initially joined [[Keshub Chunder Sen]]'s Brahmo Niketan where he developed an interest in the philosophy of religion. However following the closure of that institute, he joined [[Alexander Duff (missionary)|Alexander Duff]]'s [[Scottish Church College|General Assembly's Institution]] in 1875.<ref name=reform>''Reformist Modernism'' in ''The Brahmo Samaj and the shaping of the modern Indian mind''. By David Kopf, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979. page 80-83</ref> In 1879, he joined [[Anandamohan Bose]]'s City School as a teacher. Late in 1883, he joined the [[Sadharan Brahmo Samaj]]'s institute of theology as its secretary, and was associated with its activities for twelve years. During this period he explored comparative discourses on Brahmo theology and religion.<ref name=reform/>

He was elected president of the [[Sadharan Brahmo Samaj]] in 1926.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kopf|first=David|title=The Brahmo Samaj and the Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind|year=1979|publisher=Archives Publishers|location=New Delhi|page=358|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUcY_IRKDHQC&q=sitanath%20tattvabhushan&pg=PA358|isbn=9780691031255}}</ref>

==Religious positions==
Following his extensive readings, and intellectual exchanges with his peers, he developed the view that the failure of Brahmoism to draw converts lay in its being less philosophic, and being more grounded on dogma, based on divine inspiration and unverifiable assertions. To counter this, he put forward the need for developing a faith based on philosophy.<ref name=reform/> In his written works, he developed a theological system of Brahmoism. This was based not on natural intuition or spontaneity, but on the metaphysics of theism and self-knowledge, based on the [[Upanishads]] and the [[Vedanta]].<ref name=reform/> By emphasizing the primacy of ethical development as instrumental to the formation of consciousness, his thoughts presaged those of [[Vivekananda]].

==Controversies==
He attacked [[Vaishnava]] religion as he felt that natural or spontaneous religion based on the traditions of [[bhakti]] did not help in the development of critical rational faculties, and paradoxically served to keep the masses illiterate, and uncritical.<ref name=reform/>

His critical appraisal of Brahmo followers (primarily the followers of Keshub Chunder Sen's New Dispensation) as spiritual deviants, and his emphasis on logical empiricism earned him detractors both with the Brahmo Samaj (particularly the followers of Keshub Chunder Sen), and in the wider Hindu society, who criticized his efforts as effete [[scholasticism]].<ref name=reform/>

==Family==
[[Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhyaya]], best known as the biographer of [[Rabindranath Tagore]], had married his daughter Sudhamoyee. She was one of the earlier period students of [[Santiniketan]]. She was founder of the Bolpur Balika Vidyalaya and was its headmistress for many years.<ref>Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, {{in lang|bn}}, p304, {{ISBN|81-85626-65-0}}</ref>

==Works==
*''Brahmo Jijnasa (Inquiry into the Philosophical Basis of Theism)'', 1888.
*''Philosophy of Brahmoism'', 1909.
*''Manual of Brahmic Prayer and Devotions'', 1921.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Bengal Renaissance}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tattwabhusana, Sitanath}}
[[Category:Scholars from Kolkata]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Brahmos]]
[[Category:Scottish Church College alumni]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta alumni]]
[[Category:Indian theologians]]
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindus]]
[[Category:19th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians]]

Sitanath Tattwabhushan - Revision history

imported>Marcocapelle: removed Category:Contemporary Indian philosophers; added Category:20th-century Indian philosophers using HotCat