Prabuddha Bharata

" Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India" is an English-language monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, in continuous publication since July 1896. It carries articles and translations by monks, scholars, and writers on various religious and cultural themes. It is edited from Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Uttarakhand, by a monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and published and printed in Kolkata.

History

"Prabuddha Bharata" was founded in 1896 by P. Aiyasami, B. R. Rajam Iyer, G. G. Narasimha Charya, and B. V. Kamesvara Iyer, in Madras (now Chennai), at the behest of Swami Vivekananda, with whom the founders had been closely associated before the swami went to America in 1893. The swami suggested the journal’s name, and gave encouragement to the founders through his letters to them. The editor, B. R. Rajam Iyer, was only twenty-four years old. The journal saw two full years of publication from Madras, from July 1896 to June 1898. The death of the editor on 13 May 1898 from Bright’s disease brought the journal’s publication to an unexpected halt.

By that time, Swami Vivekananda had returned to India and was visiting Almora. He asked Captain J. H. Sevier, one of his English disciples who was accompanying him, to take up the management of the journal; Sevier agreed and offered to meet the preliminary costs associated with reviving it. The "Prabuddha Bharata" resumed publication in August 1898 from Almora. Swami Swarupananda, one of Vivekananda’s monastic disciples, became the new editor. The press was shifted to the newly founded Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, in March 1899.

Swami Swarupananda died in Nainital in 1906. Swami Virajananda, who in 1958 would become the president of the Ramakrishna Order, succeeded him as editor. Among later editors were Swamis Yatiswarananda (1922–24), Ashokananda (1927–30), Gambhirananda (1942–44), and Vandanananda (1950–54). The printing of the journal was shifted from Mayavati to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1924.

Editors of "Prabuddha Bharata"

The journal has assigned different titles to its editor over the course of its history. After being shifted to the Advaita Ashrama, the first three editors were also presidents of the ashrama. Thereafter, the editor and president were different persons. From 1959, the president was also called the editor, and the actual editor called the joint editor. From September 1993, the ashrama president has been called the managing editor, and the editor has again been called the editor.

References

# "Prabuddha Bharata", Vol. 100 No.1 (January 1995).
# "The Story of Ramakrishna Mission" (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2006), 798–811

External links

* [http://www.advaitaashrama.org Advaita Ashrama] , publisher of "Prabuddha Bharata"
* [http://www.eng.vedanta.ru/prabuddha_bharata.php Vedanta website] from Russia with articles from "Prabuddha Bharata"
* [http://www.vivekananda.net/NotNewButLongForgotten.html Cover] of March 1897 issue of "Prabuddha Bharata"