Theosophy

Josephine Ransom

About: 

A Theosophist of Australian origin and editor of the short-lived journal for the Britain and India Association in 1920 called Britain and India. Ransom acted as Honorary Secretary for the Britain and India Association - her Assistant Secretary was Mrs O. Stevenson Howell, and the Honorary Treasurer was E. L. Gardner.

Published works: 
Connections: 
Contributions to periodicals: 

Theosophist Magazine

Location: 

7 Southampton Street, High Holborn, London (HQ for Britain and India Association)

Tags for Making Britain: 

A. P. Sinnett

About: 

A. P. Sinnett was a prominent member of the Theosophical Society in London and India.

Published works: 

The Occult World (London: Trubner, 1881) 

Esoteric Buddhism (London: Trubner, 1883) 

The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1922) [published posthumously from mss]

Date of birth: 
18 Jan 1840
Secondary works: 

The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett and other Miscellaneous Letters, transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1925)  

The Mahatma Letters: To A. P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M & K.H. Transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923)

Archive source: 

Letters in 'Mahatma Papers Collection', Mss 45284-45289, British Library Manuscript Collection, St Pancras, London

Theosophical Society Archive, Adyar, India

Date of death: 
26 May 1921
Tags for Making Britain: 

Annie Besant

About: 

Annie Besant was a leading member of the Theosophical Society, a feminist and political activist, and a politician in India. She had a close relationship with Charles Bradlaugh, MP, a free-thinker who was often known as the 'Member for India'. Having declared herself an atheist, Annie Besant was drawn to other ideas of spiritualism and joined the Theosophical Society in 1889. She was very close to the co-founder, Madame Blavatsky, and allowed Blavatksy to live in her house in St John's Wood from 1889. In 1907, after the death of Colonel Olcott, Besant was made President of the Theosophical Society.

In 1911, Besant brought Jiddu Krishnamurti and his brother to England and acted as their guardian. She proclaimed in 1927 that Krishnamurti was the 'coming', i.e., messiah, and was devastated when he left the Theosophical Society in 1929.  

Besant also campaigned for the rights of Indians and for Indian 'home rule'. She launched the Home Rule League in 1916, modelling the Indian plight on that of Ireland. She was a member of the Fabian Society, owing to her close relationship with George Bernard Shaw. In 1917 she became the first woman president of the Indian National Congress at a session in Calcutta.

Published works: 

Why I Became a Theosophist (London: Freethought Publishing, 1889) 

An Autobiography (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893)

The Bhagavad Gita (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1895)

The Case for India [Congress Presidential Address, December 1917] (London: Home Rule for India League, 1918)

Date of birth: 
01 Oct 1847
Contributions to periodicals: 

Lucifer (edited September 1889 to 1909)

The Theosophical Review (edited 1897-1909)

Reviews: 

The Manchester Guardian, 6 August 1895 (Bhagvad-Gita)

Western Mail (Cardiff), 6 August 1895

Liverpool Mercury, 28 August 1895

For articles relating to Annie Besant, see: 'A Talk with Mrs Annie Besant', Christian World, 12 April 1894, p. 259; 'The New Messiah', The Spectator, 26 June 1926

Secondary works: 

Bright, Esther, Old Memories and Letters of Annie Besant (London: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1936)

Nethercott, Arthur, The Last Four Lives of Annie Besant (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1963)

Taylor, Anne, ‘Besant , Annie (1847-1933)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004)[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30735]

Broughton, T. L. , 'Women's Autobiography: The Self at Stake?', Prose Studies 14 (September 1991), pp. 76-94

Archive source: 

Women's Library, London Metropolitan University, London

Theosophical Society Archives, Adyar, India

Letters to Annie Besant, 1914-1926, Mss Eur C888, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Theosophical Society in England, London

College of Psychic Studies, South Kensington

City of birth: 
London
Country of birth: 
England
Date of death: 
20 Sep 1933
Location of death: 
Adyar, India

Mohini Chatterjee

About: 

Mohini Chatterjee was an Indian Theosophist, who was sent to London in 1884 with Colonel Olcott. He was a favourite among Theosophical circles in London. Mohini Chatterjee visited Dublin in 1885 and was a deep influence on W. B. Yeats. Yeats wrote a poem entitled 'Mohini Chatterjee'.

In late 1885, Mohini Chatterjee was involved in scandal with female Theosophists. Letters from H. P. Blavatsky to the Sinnetts reveal her impression that European ladies were intent on seducing the Indian. The case came to public attention when one of the women, in response to Blavatsky's criticisms, intended to publicize letters written to her by Mohini Chatterjee. A truce between the woman and Blavatksy was arranged by 1887. 

Although he lost touch with Yeats and George Russell (AE) upon his return to India, they believed he was a lawyer in Bombay at the turn of the century. According to Harbans Rai Bachchan, the last heard of Mohini Chatterjee was that he was a blind old man, living in London with his daughter, in the early 1930s.

Published works: 

History as a Science (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1927)

Theories in Comparative Mythology and Questions and Answers (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1935)

Contributions to periodicals: 

Transactions of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society. See June 1884, January 1885, December 1995 and June 1886.

Dublin University Review (May 1886)

Reviews: 

See poem 'Mohini Chatterjee' by William Butler Yeats.

Dublin University Review, August 1885, p. 66 (for anticipated arrival of Mohini Chatterjee to Dublin)

W. B. Yeats, 'The Way of Wisdom', The Speaker, 14 April 1900, pp. 40-1

Secondary works: 

Bachchan, Harbans Rai, W. B. Yeats and Occultism: A Study of his Works in Relation to Indian Lore, the Cabbala, Swedenborg, Boehme and Theosophy (London: Books from India Ltd, 1976)

Sri, P. S., 'Yeats and Mohini Chatterjee' in Warwick Gould (ed.) Yeats Annual No. 11 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 61-76

The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett and other Miscellaneous Letters, transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London T. Fisher Unwin, 1925)

The Mahatma Letters: To A. P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M & K. H., transcribed, compiled and with an introduction by A. T. Barker (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1923)

Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Mohini Chatterji

Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1884-

Tags for Making Britain: 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

About: 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Kanthiawar, India, to father Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi and his fourth wife Putlibai. In 1882 he married Kasturbai Makanji, with whom he had five children. Gandhi enrolled at Samaldas College, Bhaunagar, in 1887 but left after one term. However, he was encouraged to go to London to study law and he left for London on 4 September 1888.

Arriving on 29 September 1888, Gandhi immediately went to the Victoria Hotel before relocating briefly to the suburb of Richmond and eventually settling in a room in West Kensington for a year. At first, he tried to become an 'English gentleman' but after a few months realized that he had to cut his expenditures and gave up most of his new habits. Besides his law studies he passed the University of London matriculation examination in June 1890. Gandhi did not participate in the newly established British Committee of the Indian National Congress but did attend meetings of the London Indian Society. He also attended meetings of the Anjuman-e-Islam (after 1903 called the Pan-Islamic Society), the National Indian Association, and the Northbrook Indian Society. He passed his Roman law examination in March 1890 and passed the Bar finals in January 1891. Before leaving for London, Gandhi had promised his mother not to eat meat. He found it difficult at first but soon discovered vegetarian restaurants and joined the London Vegetarian Society. He often wrote for their journal the Vegetarian and became a member of the Executive Committee on 19 September 1890. Gandhi had also come into contact with the Theosophical Society in 1889, and was introduced to Annie Besant before he left London on 12 June 1891.

He lived in India until 1893 when he left for South Africa to practice law. It was here he raised his family, established himself as a lawyer and then a political activist fighting the discrimination of Asians in Africa. By 1906, he had emerged as the spokesman of Indians in Natal and Transvaal and in October that year he was once again in London to speak on behalf of the Indian community. In London he met with Lord Elgin to discuss the rights of Indians in South Africa, but upon his return in December 1906, Gandhi was disappointed. Imperial politics brought Gandhi to London again in July 1909. However, what concerned Gandhi the most this time was the status of highly educated Indians. In August, he visited Louth with his friend Pranjivan Mehta; later in August he visited George Allen in the Cotswolds, and on 7 November he spoke to the Indian students at Cambridge.  On his voyage back to South Africa, he wrote his powerful book Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule, in which he wrote about his increasing discontent with the West, the power of non-violence and the vision of self-rule.

Between 1909 and 1914, Gandhi received several invitations to return to India, but before doing so he visited London again in August 1914, two days after the outbreak of the First World War. The purpose of his trip was to visit his friend and mentor G. K. Gokhale but he had already left for Paris. With Gokhale gone, Gandhi met the poetess Sarojini Naidu instead. On 8 August, a reception was held for him at the Hotel Cecil. In attendance were, among others, Charlotte Despard, Albert Cartwright, Bhupendranath Basu, Sacchidanand Sinha, Lala Lajpat Rai, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Amir Ali and J. M. Parikh. While in London he established the Indian Volunteer Corps before he left on 19 December 1914.

From 1919 Gandhi became highly politically active in India. It was his belief in satyagraha that made him the leader of the nationalist movement against the Raj. By 1931 he had become integral to Indian national life and the sole representative of the Indian National Congress at the second Round Table Conference (Gandhi was in prison during the first Conference in 1930). He arrived in September 1931 and gave his first speech at the Conference on 15 September. The Second Round Table Conference failed to yield independence for India, and Gandhi left London on 5 December 1931. Back in India Gandhi continued to promote satyagraha and led the Quit India Movement in 1942. On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was walking through the grounds of Birla House, New Delhi, when he was shot at point blank range by Nathuram Godse.

Published works: 

Hind Swaraj (1909)

Discourses on the 'Gita' (1926)

An Autobiography, or, the Story of My Experiments with Truth, trans. from the original in Gujarati by Mahadev Desai (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1927)

Satyagraha in South Africa ... Translated ... By Valji Govindji Desai (Madras: S. Ganesan, 1928)

The Constructive Programme (1941)

(with Krishna Kripalani) All Men are Brothers: Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as Told in His Own Words (Paris; Unesco, 1969)

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, 90 vols (New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt of India, 1958-84)

Date of birth: 
02 Oct 1869
Connections: 

H. O. Ally, B. R. Ambedkar, C. F. Andrews, Annie Besant, Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sir Henry Cotton, Charlotte Despard, G. K. Gokhale, Sir William W. Hunter, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Aga Khan, Shyamaji Krishnavarma, George Lansbury, T. T. Mazmudar, Dr Pranjivan Mehta, Sarojini Naidu, Dadabhai Naoroji, Mansukhlal H. Nazar, Jawaharlal Nehru, Josiah Oldfield, V. D. Savarkar, Dalpatram Shukla, Rabindranath Tagore, E. J. Thompson, Sir William Wedderburn, Marquess of Zetland.

Contributions to periodicals: 

Indian Opinion

Secondary works: 

There are more than two thousand critical works on Gandhi. Below is a small selection of those: 

Arnold, David, Gandhi (Harlow: Longman, 2001) 

Bakshi, S. R., Gandhi and Concept of Swaraj (New Delhi: Criterion Publications, 1988)

Brown, Judith M., Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 1915-1922 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1972)

Brown, Judith M., Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: The Mahatma in Indian Politics, 1928-34 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1977)

Brown, Judith M., Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)

Brown, Judith M., 'Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand [Mahatma Gandhi] (1869–1948)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33318]

Chandra, Bipan, Essays on Indian Nationalism (New Delhi: Har-Anand Publications, 1993) 

Chatterjee, Margaret, Gandhi's Religious Thought (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1983)

Chakrabarti, Atulananda, Gandhi and Birla (Calcutta: General Printers and Publishers, 1955)

Dhar, Niranjan, Aurobindo, Gandhi and Roy: A Yogi, a Mahatman and a Rationalist (India: Minerva, 1986)

Gandhi, Mahatma, and Iyer, Raghavan, The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986-87)

Gupta, Manmath Nath, Gandhi and His Times (New Delhi: Lipi Prakashan, 1982)

Herman, Arthur, Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (New York: Bantam Books, 2008)

Hunt, James D., Gandhi in London (New Delhi: Promilla, 1978)

Krishnan, Asha, Ambedkar and Gandhi: Emancipators of Untouchables in Modern India (Mumbai: Himalaya Publishing House, 1997)

Majeed, Javed, Autobiography, Travel and Postnational Identity: Gandhi, Nehru and Iqbal (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

Malhotra, S. L., From Civil Disobedience to Quit India: Gandhi and the Freedom Movement in Punjab and Haryana, 1932-1942 (Chandigarh: Punjab University Publication Bureau, 1979)

Mathur, D. B., Gandhi, Congress and Apartheid (Jaipur: Aalekh Publishers, 1986)

Mehrotra, S. R., Gandhi and the British Commonwealth (New Delhi: Indian Council of World Affairs, 1961)

Nanda, Bal Ram, Gandhi and His Critics (Delhi; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)

Nehru, Jawaharlal, Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography. With Musings on Recent Events in India, Etc. [with Plates, Including Portraits.] (London: John Lane: London, 1936)

Parekh, Bhikhu C., Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi's Political Discourse (New Delhi; London: Sage, 1989)

Parekh, Bhikhu C., Gandhi's Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989)

Patil, V. T., Gandhi, Nehru and the Quit India Movement (Delhi: B. R. Pub. Corp., 1984)

Ramakrishnan, Padma, Gandhi and Indian Independence (New Delhi: Blaze Publishers and Distributors, 1994)

Roberts, Elizabeth, Gandhi, Nehru and Modern India (London: Methuen, 1974)

Sharma, Shri Ram, Gandhi: The Man and the Mahatma (Chandigarh: Rajan, 1985)

Singh, G. B., Gandhi: Behind the Mask of Divinity (Lahore: Vanguard Books, 2005)

Swan, Maureen, Gandhi: The South African Experience (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985)

Tidrick, Kathryn, Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life (London: I. B. Taurus, 2006)

Wadhwa, Madhuri, Gandhi Between Tradition and Modernity (New Delhi: Deep and Deep Publications, 1991)

Zakaria, Rafiq, Gandhi and the Break-Up of India (Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1999)

Archive source: 

Gandhi National Museum and Library, New Delhi, India

Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmadabad, India

Home Department Mss, Government of India, National Archives of India, New Delhi

Nehru and Indian National Congress Mss, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi

Current affairs footage and documentaries, National Film and Television Archive, British Film Institute, London

News and documentary footage, Film and Video Archive, Imperial War Museum, London

Oral history interview and recorded talk, Sound Archive, Imperial War Museum, London

City of birth: 
Porbandar
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Mahatma Gandhi

Locations

Store Street
London, WC1E 7PL
United Kingdom
51° 31' 10.9056" N, 0° 7' 54.8688" W
60 Talbot Road
Bayswater, London, W2 5LJ
United Kingdom
51° 31' 2.208" N, 0° 11' 49.0848" W
20 Barons Court Road
West Kensington, London, W14 9DU
United Kingdom
51° 29' 23.3556" N, 0° 12' 30.4308" W
Date of death: 
30 Jan 1948
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
29 Sep 1888
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1888-91, 1906, 1909, 1914, 1931

Location: 

20 Baron's Court Road, West Kensington

Store Street, London

Tavistock Street, London

52 St. Stephen's Gardens, Bayswater, London

88 Knightsbridge

60 Talbot Road, Bayswater, London

16 Trebobir Road, West Kensington, London

Emily Lutyens

About: 

Lady Emily Lutyens was the wife of the architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens and the mother of five children including Mary Lutyens. She joined the Theosophical Society in 1910 through the introduction of French friends, the Mallets. Drawn by the charisma of Annie Besant, Lutyens was on hand to welcome her back from a trip to India in 1911 with Krishnamurti and Nityananda. Emily Lutyens' two eldest children became friends with Krishnamurti and Nityananda and she saw a great deal of the two boys, taking on a mothering role which developed into an obsessive devotion to Krishnamurti as spiritual leader.

Lutyens, a strict vegetarian, was involved in the production of the Theosophical journal Herald of the Star, and was English representative of the Order of the Star in the East. Her devotion to Krishnamurti led Lutyens to follow him around the world, to Europe, India, Australia and the US. In 1916 Lutyens established an all-India Home Rule movement, holding meetings in her London drawing room. Meanwhile, her husband, Edwin Lutyens, was appointed to New Delhi to plan the new capital city, including the Viceroy's House. He also prepared the plans for a Theosophical Society building in Tavistock Square in 1911, which was requisitioned by the Government in 1920 and became the British Medical Association Headquarters. In 1930, Emily Lutyens followed Krishnamurti in resigning from Theosophy.

Published works: 

A Blessed Girl (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953) 

Candles in the Sun (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

Date of birth: 
26 Dec 1874
Contributions to periodicals: 

Herald of the Star

Secondary works: 

Lutyens, Mary, Edwin Lutyens (London: John Murray, 1980) 

Percy, Clayre and Jane Ridley (eds), The Letters of Edwin Lutyens to his Wife Emily (London: Collins, 1985)

Ridley, Jane, The Architect and his Wife: A Life of Edwin Lutyens (London: Chatto & Windus, 2002)

Ridley, Jane, ‘Lutyens , Lady Emily (1874–1964)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50654]

Archive source: 

Letters to her husband, Royal Institute of British Architects Archive, Victoria & Albert Archive (Drawings Collection), London

City of birth: 
Paris
Country of birth: 
France
Date of death: 
03 Jan 1964
Location of death: 
London, England
Tags for Making Britain: 

Jiddu Nityananda

About: 

Nityananda (Nitya) was the younger brother of Krishnamurti, the Theosophist leader. He was 'discovered' along with his brother by C. W. Leadbeater in 1910 and brought to England in 1911 by Annie Besant for his education.

Nityananda passed the London Matriculation after WW1 and began to read for the Bar. He suffered from tuberculosis and died in 1925. Mary Lutyens, the daughter of Edwin and Emily, recalls her infatuation and crush on Nitya as a young girl.

Date of birth: 
01 Jan 1898
Connections: 

George Arundale (tutor), Harold Baillie-Weaver, Annie Besant, Esther Bright, Muriel de La Warr, C. R. Jinarajadasa (tutor), Jiddu Krishnamurti, C. W. Leadbeater, Edwin Lutyens, Emily Lutyens, Mary Lutyens, Rajagopal.

Precise DOB unknown: 
Y
Secondary works: 

Bright, Esther, Old Memories and Letters of Annie Besant (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1936)

Lutyens, Mary, To Be Young: Some Chapters of Autobiography (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959)

Lutyens, Emily, Candles in the Sun (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

City of birth: 
Madanapalle
Country of birth: 
India
Other names: 

Nitya

Nitya Krishnamurti

Nityananda

Location

82 Drayton Gardens
South Kensington, London, SW10 9RT
United Kingdom
51° 29' 23.694" N, 0° 10' 56.4168" W
Date of death: 
01 Jan 1925
Precise date of death unknown: 
Y
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Mar 1911
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

Intermittently from 1911 until his death in 1925.

Location: 

On first arrival, lived with Annie Besant and the Brights at 82 Drayton Gardens, South Kensington.

Moved around a lot in London, staying at the homes of various Theosophists including Countess De La Warr's home, Old Lodge, in Ashdown Forest; a flat belonging to Muriel De La Warr at Robert Street, Adelphi; and the house of Mary Dodge on West Side Common.

Tags for Making Britain: 

Jiddu Krishnamurti

About: 

Jiddu Krishnamurti was 'discovered' by C. W. Leadbeater near Madras in 1910 and taken under the wing of Annie Besant and the Theosophical Society, along with his younger brother, Nityananda. Besant and Leadbeater undertook to educate the two boys, and were involved in a protracted legal battle with their father, Naraniah, over custody. Besant took the boys to England in 1911 where they were met by a crowd of Theosophists at Charing Cross.

Having come to England to be educated, Krishnamurti was looked after by a number of Theosophists, including Emily Lutyens who developed a deep 'devotion' for him. The two brothers shared a love of fashion and motorcycles. They were tutored at various stages by C. Jinarajadasa and George Arundale. Krishnamurti failed all his exams for London University in 1919 (for the third time) and was then sent to Paris to study languages in January 1920 and returned to India in 1921. He then took on a more involved role in the Theosophical Society.

Leadbeater had proclaimed Krishnamurti to be head of the Order of the Star in the East in 1911 to prepare for the 'coming' of the incarnation of Lord Maitreya. Various publications were produced in Krishnamurti's name regarding Theosophical teachings, although the role of Krishnamurti in writing these is in dispute (i.e. At the Feet of the Master (1910) and the journal, Herald of the Star). Although Annie Besant proclaimed that the 'coming' had taken place in 1927, Krishnamurti dissolved the Order of the Star in 1929 and drew away from the Theosophical ideology (resigning from the Society in 1930), lecturing on his own brand of philosophy. He spent most of his time in Ojai, California, and died there in 1986.

Date of birth: 
11 May 1895
Connections: 

George Arundale, Gertrude Baillie-Weaver, Harold Baillie-Weaver, Annie Besant, Esther Bright, Lady De La Warr, Charlotte Despard, Mary Dodge, Aldous Huxley, C Jinarajadasa, C. W. Leadbeater, Edwin Lutyens, Emily Lutyens, Mary Lutyens, Ratansji Moraji, Jiddu Nityananda, Rajagopal, Rama Rao.

Secondary works: 

Blau, Evelyne, Krishnamurti: 100 Years (New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1995)

Bright, Esther, Old Memories and Letters of Annie Besant (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1936)

Jayakar, Pupul, J. Krishnamurti: A Biography (1986)

Lutyens, Emily, Candles in the Sun (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

Lutyens, Mary, To Be Young: Some Chapters of Autobiography (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1959)

Lutyens, Mary, Krishnamurti, 3 vols. (1975–88)

Archive source: 

Theosophical Society Archive, Adyar, Chennai, India

Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Ojai, California

Krishnamurti Centre, Brockwood Park, Hampshire

City of birth: 
Madanapalle
Country of birth: 
India

Location

82 Drayton Gardens
London, SW10 9RT
United Kingdom
51° 29' 23.694" N, 0° 10' 56.4168" W
Date of death: 
17 Feb 1986
Location of death: 
Ojai, California, USA
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Mar 1911
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y

Currupumullage Jinarajadasa

About: 

C. Jinarajadasa was born of Buddhist parents in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1875. He was 'discovered' by Theosophist C. W. Leadbeater in 1889, who believed that Jinarajadasa was the reincarnation of his recently deceased younger brother, and brought him to England.

Jinarajadasa, known as 'Raja' to friends, graduated in 1900 from St John's College, Cambridge, where he coxed the college eight. He married the English feminist Dorothy Graham in 1916.

Jinarajadasa travelled the world lecturing on behalf of the Theosophical Society. He became President of the Theosophical Society in 1945, resigned in 1952, and died in the USA in 1953.

Published works: 

The Meeting of the East and the West (Madras, 1921)

Seven Veils over Consciousness (Adyar, 1952)

Date of birth: 
16 Dec 1875
Secondary works: 

Bright, Esther, Old Memories and Letters of Annie Besant (London: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1936)

Lutyens, Emily, Candles in The Sun (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)

Country of birth: 
Ceylon
Current name country of birth: 
Sri Lanka

Location

St John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP
United Kingdom
52° 10' 21.3528" N, 0° 6' 40.3992" E
Date of death: 
18 Jun 1953
Location of death: 
USA
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1889
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Tags for Making Britain: 

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