Rammohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda. This trend gradually led to a widespread perception, both in India and in the West, of modern Hinduism as being equivalent to Advaita Vedanta, a conception of the divine as devoid of form and individuality that was hailed by its proponents as the "perennial philosophy" and "the mother of religions". As a result, the other schools of Hinduism, including bhakti, were gradually relegated in the minds of the Bengali Hindu middle-class to obscurity, and often seen as a "reactionary and fossilized jumble of empty rituals and idolatrous practices." Early period (1838–1858): student Birth and childhood Kedarnath was born on 2 September 1838 in the village of Ula (presently Birnagar) in Bengal, some north of modern-day Kolkata. Both his father Ananda Chandra Dutta and mother Jagat Mohini Devi hailed from affluent kayastha families. From the time of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533), the paternal Datta lineage were mostly Vaishnavas and counted among their ranks Krishnananda, an associate of Nityananda Prabhu. Kedarnath's mother Jagan Mohini Devi (born Mitra) was a descendant of Rameshwar Mitra, a prominent zamindar (landowner) of the 18th century. In his autobiography Svalikhita-jivani Kedaranath refers to his father Anand Chandra Dutta as a "straightforward, clean, religious man" and describes his mother as "a sober woman possessed of many unique qualities". Kedarnath was the third of six children of Anand Chandra and Jagat Mohini, preceded by older brothers Abhaykali (died before Kedarnath's birth) and Kaliprasanna, and followed by three younger siblings: sister Hemlata and brothers Haridas and Gauridas. Homely as a baby, Kedarnath evoked particular affection of his mother who prayed for his survival. Prior to his birth, financial circumstances had forced his parents to relocate from Calcutta to Ula, where he was born and grew up in the palace of his maternal grandfather, Ishwar Chandra Mustauphi, a prosperous landowner famed for his generosity. From the age of five, Kedarnath attended the village school in Ula. Later, when an English school opened there, he showed such keen interest in the English language, attending the classes during lunch, that the headmaster of the school convinced Anand Chandra to let the boy study there. At the age of seven Kadarnath was transferred to another English school in Krishnanagar. In the following years Kedarnath's family faced a series of calamities. All three of his brothers died of cholera, soon followed by their father Anand Chandra. The financial situation of his