• Monday to Friday 1pm to 8pm
  • Sunday from 7am to 10am
  • The library remains closed on Saturday
  • Monday to Friday 1pm to 8pm
  • Sunday from 7am to 10am
  • The library remains closed on Saturday
  • Monday to Friday 1pm to 8pm
  • Sunday from 7am to 10am

Call US :- +91 91239-71500

ABOUT US

Genesis

In 1904 some Bengali literatis of eminence were among the founding fathers of the Rammohun Library & Free Reading Room (RLFRR). The proposal to establish a library as a tribute to Raja Rammohun Roy, the great harbinger of the Renaissance in Bengal, was first mooted on 27th September 1886 in a meeting chaired by Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar at the City College Hall.

This institution is claimed to be unique and noteworthy in this country, "bearing the torch of reason and knowledge which the Raja Rammohun Roy had endeavored to inculcate in the mind of his countrymen for their enlightenment and uplifting"

About Us

Rammohun Library & Free Reading Room (RL&FRR) was established in the year 1904 by some celebrities to perpetuate the memory of Raja Rammohun Roy. This institution is claimed to be unique and noteworthy in this country, “bearing the torch of reason and knowledge which the Raja Rammohun Roy had endeavoured to inculcate in the mind of his country men for their enlightenment and uplifting”.The first mention of the Library in the memory of Raja Rammohun Roy was found in 27th Sep. 1886 in a meeting chaired by Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar at the City College Hall, when a montion was forwarded to establish a memorial in the name of the great reformer. It was conceived that the best way of remembering the great man was to set up a Library. Later in the year 1893, Carl Erich Hammergren, who came to India to do research work on Rammohun Roy, conveyed his intention of helping in setting up a library in the memory of Raja Rammohun.Roy. Dr. Mohini mohun Bose of Raja bazar at the funeral of Hammergren, “made a donation of Rs. 100/- to the Rammohun Library projected by Mr. Hammargren”. The foundation of the Library was ultimately conceptualised in a meeting held on 28th December 1904 under the chairmanship of Shri Nabin Chandra Bidyaratna. In this congregation a temporary committee was formed with members like Pandit Narayan Chandra Bidyaratna ( Son of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar), J. N. Bose, poet Dwijendralal Roy, Rajendra Lal Ganguly, D. N. Pal, Deb Kumar Roy Choudhury, Basanta Kumar Nag and Sarat Chandra Majumder. The chairman of the committee was advocate Pannalal Basu. Likewise on 24th January 1905 Rammohun Library started functioning from a rented house at 101, Upper Circular Road, (presently Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road), The First Chairman was Narendranath Sen, General Secretary was Professor Promatha nath Bandyopadhyay, Sarat Ch. Majumder was the first Libraian. The ceremonial inauguration was held on 18th March 1905 near the Deaf and Dumb School. Soon due to space constraint there came a need to have an exclusive building for the Library and an appeal was made throughout India for financial help. This plea was well received and aid started pouring in from all over the country . Gobardhan Das, Damoder Das from Bombay ( Presently Mumbai) pledged to donate Rs. 5000/- through Satyendra Nath Tagore with a few conditions. These include that the Library should be accessible to anyone irrespective of caste and religion, no fees should be charged for this purpose and these conditions should be reflected in the name of the Library itself. On 9th June, 1909 the name of the Library was changed to Rammohun Library & Free Reading Room and on 15th August that year the Library was registered under Act 21 of 1860. During the meeting of the Executive Council of the library near and reformed rules was framed and the library became an institute. The main intention was quoted as below. ~ To perpetuate the memory of Raja Rammohun Roy. ~ To stimulate the intellectual and moral culture among the people by affording facilities for the study of healthy literature in different branches and to promote social interactin among the literary Men and other like-mended institutions by providing common meeting place for the interchange of ideas. ~ To organise and allow meetings for the discussion of subjects of literary, scientific and social interest and, ~ To do all such other things as are incidental and conducive to the attainment of the above objects or any of them. Another thing which was decided in the meeting was that the library or the institute should not be used for any religious ceremony. Soon the Library was shifted to the new premises at 22/1, Cornawallis Street during October 1910. In 1911 an appeal was made to the then Calcutta Corporation (Presently Kolkata Municipal Corporation) (vide letter No. A/s 34 dt. 6th April 1911) asking for a plot of land for construction of the Institute’s own building which was accepted and a land at the junction of the then Upper Circular Road (presently Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road) and Sukia street, Measuring about 6 Kattah of land was handed over to the governing body on perpetual lease and on condition that the land should be returned to the authority when the Institute ceased to exist. Much later, during 1930 the lease amount was revised to Re.1 yearly.On 11th May 1912 the foundation stone was laid by Maharajadhiraj Bahadur Bijoy Chand Mahtab of Barddhaman and under the supervision of architect Sir Rajendra Nath Mukherjee, Martin Company agreed to consturct the building without any financial profit. Some eminent persons were given donation to erect newly constructed building. In the Lord Carmichael (2,500/-) Maharaja of Barddhaman Sri Bijay Chand Mahtab (Rs. 2000/-), Raja of Bamrar Sri Tribhuban Deo (Rs. 1,000/-) Raja Resheecase Law (Rs. 1,000/-), Sri Prafulla nath Tagore (Rs. 2,000/-) Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das (Rs. 500/-) Sri Prithivi Nath Deo (Rs. 1,000/-) Maharaja Manindra Chandra Nandy (Rs. 1,000/-) and others. The inauguration of the new buildings was held on 9th December 1913 by Lord Carmichael. The initial Structure of a hall in the ground floor for conducting various meetings and the main Library was on the frist floor on the peripheral balconies with spaces for books and a reading area. In the year 1972 during the 200th year birth -Centenary of Raja Rammohun Roy ,Professor Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay laid the stone for construction of another floor of the Library. During 1986 - 87 large scale renovation was conducted by the members to give the building its present shape. On 6th October 1988 the construction work of the 2nd & 3rd floor started with the function. Dr. Ashin Dasgupta,Director National Library, enthused the library members for this attempt. On 23rd April 1989 Library shifted to 2nd floor after completing the construction of the 2nd floor prior to this the Library was in the balconies of the 1st floor. It is due to this that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Heritage Conservation Committee has recommended this structure as a Grade I building in its list of Heritage Sturcture in the city of Kolkata, with classified usage type as Institutional building. Source graded List of Heritage Building, Grade - 1, grade II-Grade IIB Premises as25.02.2009.Published by Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Collection of the Library

The library started functioning in a rented room with 783 English books and 591Bengali and Sanskrit Books. The total books were over 1374. In the year 1905 the books of Vidyasagar’s library were added. Raja Resheecase Law gifted 38 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica. Ramesh Chandra Dutta gifted his History of Civilization and Letters to Curzon.Sister Nivedita gifted her books Web of Indian life, Kishan Chand Mitra gave his "Memoirs of Dwarka Nath Tagore" Satyendra nath Tagor gifted his "Hindu Music" and Annie Besant gave her "Death and After". Gifted Books form the library of Fort William College was received. Library is having now with 64,184 books as on, 31.03.2010, it is also enriched with 10080 rare books and 50 manuscripts,2 punthis, volumes of old periodicals and journals of Asiatic Society, Modern Review Prabasi, Basumati, Desh from 1st Edition. The Library has also little magazine section. There are 1048 little magazines in the library. There is a Hindi section in the Library, with 328 books. The Library has issued 6111 books to the users in the year 2009 - 2010. Total No of registered members are 995 as on 31-03-2010 and total No of new members enrolled in 2009 - 2010 and 71. The library has children section, there are 76 members as on 31-03-2010 with new 5 members were enrolled. Due to lack of staff not possible to enlighten them with books.The Library cannot nurture the children in a proper manner so as to grow up their eagerness.

Archives of the library

i) Maintenance of portrait of Raja Rammohun Roy, Maharshi Debendra nath Tagore, Ramananda Chattopadhyaya, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Rishi Aurobinda, Poet Dwijendra lal Ray, Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Two statues are there (a) Death musk of Raja Rammohun Roy and a statue of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy. Coins of East India Company 1818.Documents of I.P.T.A from inception to modern. Document of court proceeding of Krishna nagar court regarding indigo Commission on 1860 . Beside the things there are Raja Rammohun Roy‘s Personally used material are kept in the museum. ii) Maintenance of museum with use of state of art technology to the integrate surroundings.

Archives of the library

The renowned social worker Sri Sashipada Banerjee gifted the Library in a glass Case a cluster of hairs, sacred thread, a letter in original handwriting of Raja Rammohun Roy. The Library also possesses the death - musk of the Raja Rammohun Roy and the table which he used to write his books and discourses. The library got this table through Prof. Kshitish Prasad Chattopadhyay. On 30th November, 1914, Sri Prafulla Nath Tagore presented the Library a life size oil painting of Raja Rammohun Roy. This is a replica of the oil painting painted by the famous British artist R.A. Briggs, R.A. kept in the Bristol Museum. This oil painting was kept long nder the supervision of Sri Bhunath Mukherjee, R.A.0nce the oil painting had to be handed over to the authorities of the Victoria Memorial Hall for needful restoration. This oil painting was painted by the artist Surendra Nath Das under the guidance of the famous artist Jaminiprakas Ganguly. In 1918, Sri Prafulla Nath Tagore also presented the library a life size oil painting of Maharshi Debendra Nath Tagore, father of Gurudeb Rabindra Nath Tagore and disciple of Raja Rammohun Roy. This painting was painted by famous Bengali artist J.P.Ganguly. In this painting it will be found that the Maharshi is explaining the principles of Vedas and Upanishads. In the Archives we have also kept the “bricks” which were used by the Martin Burn Co. in the year 1912 to construct the present buildings. We have also an “addresse” given by Sir P.C. Roy during his 80th years birth anniversary, reception was given by Rammohun Library. We have also got a rare photograph of Gurudeb Rabindra Nath Tagore with close associates and the members of the library at the main gate of the Rammohun Hall after according reception to the poet for receving Nobel Prize. We have also a bust of Sir P.C.Roy and three portraits painted by Shri Bhunath Mukherjee, one of Gurudeb Rabindra Nath Tagore and the others of Prof. Charu Chandra Bhattacharya and of Sri Aurobinda. We have also received a life size portrait of Ramananda Chatterjee, the famous editor of modern-review and one of our members given by his grand - daughter. Attempts are being made to collect the portraits of the past presidents and secretaries for keeping in this Archive. Besides, a Constitution of Spain which was dedicated to Raja Rammohun Roy by Spanial in the year 1814 after Industrial revolution in Spain. That book is kept in the Archive.

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