He argued that Hindu society had drifted from its own oldest scripture. Going back to it, he said, would dissolve caste, idolatry, and child marriage in one stroke. The movement he founded still runs hundreds of schools today.
✊ Must Know
1. Dayananda and the Return to the Vedas
- Story The Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement, founded by Swami Dayananda Saraswati, born in 1824 in Tankara, in present-day Gujarat.
- Founding He founded the Arya Samaj on 10 April 1875, in Bombay. The same year, he published his major work, Satyarth Prakash, later revised in 1882.
- Why Dayananda argued that the four Vedas were the true, infallible word of God. He held that later Hindu practices contradicting the Vedas were later corruptions, not original teaching.
2. A Reform Agenda for Hindu Society
- Result In 1877, the Arya Samaj’s headquarters moved to Lahore. There, Dayananda finalised the movement’s Ten Principles, still its doctrinal core today.
- Reform Agenda The Arya Samaj rejected idol worship, caste-based discrimination, and untouchability. It also opposed child marriage, and promoted both widow remarriage and women’s education.
- Mechanism The Samaj ran a Shuddhi, or purification, movement, which formally reconverted Hindus who had converted to other religions.
- Result These positions put it at odds with orthodox Hindu leaders as well as Christian missionaries.
📘 Good to Know
3. Poison, and a Lasting Institutional Legacy
- Story In 1883, Dayananda fell ill after being poisoned while staying at the Jodhpur royal palace. He was moved to Ajmer for treatment and died there on 30 October 1883.
- Death Anniversary His death fell on Diwali, still marked as a significant day by Arya Samaj members.
- Result In 1886, followers founded the first Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) school in Lahore, in his memory. The DAV network has since grown to over 800 schools.
- Result In 1902, his disciple Swami Shraddhanand founded Gurukul Kangri near Haridwar, reviving the ancient gurukula system.
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4. Legacy Today
- Takeaway The Arya Samaj is widely seen as one of the most influential Hindu reform movements of the 19th century.
- Result Its rejection of caste and idol worship made it controversial among orthodox Hindus at the time. Its assertive Vedic nationalism also shaped early Indian nationalist thought.
- Global Following The movement remains active worldwide today, with an estimated following of around 10 million.
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