s
and Chinese were publicly read, in order to mark and to proclaim to
the world the catholicity of spirit in which it was formed. [258]
Keshub by his writings and public lectures kept himself prominently
before the Indian world, enlisting the sympathies of the Viceroy
(Sir John Lawrence) by his tendencies towards Christianity.

6. The Civil Marriage Act.

By this time several marriages had been performed according to the
revised ritual of the Brahmic Church, which had given great offence
to orthodox Hindus and exposed the participators in these novel rites
to much obloquy. The legality of marriages thus contracted had even
been questioned. To avoid this difficulty Keshub induced Government
in 1872 to pass the Native Marriage Act, introducing for the first
time the institution of civil marriage into Hindu society. The Act
prescribed a form of marriage to be celebrated before the Registrar
for persons who did not profess either the Hindu, the Muhammadan,
the Parsi, the Sikh, the Jaina or the Buddhist religion, and who
were neither Christians nor Jews; and fixed the minimum age for a
bridegroom at eighteen and for a bride at fourteen. Only six years
later, however, Keshub Chandar Sen committed the fatal mistake of
ignoring the law which he had himself been instrumental in passing:
he permitted the marriage of his daughter, below the age of fourteen,
to the young Maharaja of Kuch Bihar, who was not then sixteen years
of age. [259] This event led to a public censure of Keshub Chandar
Sen by his community and the secession of a section of the members,
who formed the Sadharan or Universal Brahmo Samaj. The creed of this
body consisted in the belief in an infinite Creator, the immortality of
the soul, the duty and necessity of the spiritual worship of God, and
disbelief in any infallible book or man as a means of salvation. [260]

7. Keshub Chandar's relapse into mysticism.

From about this period, or a little before, Keshub Chandar Sen appears
to have attempted to make a wider appeal to Indians by developing the
emotional side of his religion. And he gradually relapsed from a pure
unitarian theism into what was practically Hindu pantheism and the
mysticism of the Yogis. At the same time he came to consider himself
an inspired prophet, and proclaimed himself as such. The following
instances of his extravagant conduct are given by Professor Oman. [261]

"In 1873 he brought forward the doctrine of Adesh or specia