Mahanambrata Brahmachari

Mahanambrata Brahmachari (25 December 1904 – 18 October 1999), born Bankim Dasgupta,

Academic and interfaith work In the early 1930s, he represented the Mahanam Sampradaya at the World Fellowship of Faiths conference in Chicago. During this period, he earned a PhD in Vaishnava Theology from the University of Chicago. While in the United States, he met Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, and encouraged him to explore his Christian heritage rather than learning Hinduism. Merton later credited Brahmachari with influencing his spiritual development.

Post-partition activities After the Partition of India in 1947, he remained in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Following violence against the Hindu community, he founded the Devasthali Samskara Samiti to support temple restoration and deity reinstallation. He oversaw these efforts in several districts including Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Sylhet. In 1975, he established the India and Bangladesh Sanatan Dharma Mahamandal to promote and protect Hindu religious and cultural interests. He was the head of Mahanam Sampradaya in both India and Bangladesh. He was a well known religious master and all his devotes worship his idol at Mahanam Angan in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Worship of Mahanambrata Brahmachari's idol at Mahanam Angan, Kolkata on Guru Purnima.