One can, perhaps, find antecedents of Radhakrishnan’s hermeneutic in the writings of Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905), an early leader of the Western influenced Hindu reform movement Brahmo Samaj, who held that the teachings of the Vedas may be affirmed through one’s own experience. However, Tagore, like his predecessor Rammohun Roy (1772–1833), was intimately acquainted with Western thought in general, and Christian critiques of Hinduism in particu - lar. His exegetical writings, and his work for the Brahmo Samaj, were directed toward the ‘purification’ of Hinduism so as to stay the growing influence of Christian missionaries and their converts. In the end there is simply no evidence of an indigenous Indian counterpart to the rhetoric of experience prior to the colo - nial period (Halbfass, 1988).