Dayananda Saraswati and Arya Samaj

The Arya Samaj Movement, revivalist in form though not in content, was the result of a reaction to Western influences. Its founder, Dayananda Saraswati or Mulshankar (1824-1883) was born in the old Morvi state in Gujarat in a brahmin family. He wandered as an ascetic for fifteen years (1845-60) in search of truth. The first Arya Samaj unit was formally set up by him at Bombay in 1875 and later the headquarters of the Samaj were established at Lahore.

Dayananda’s views were published in his famous work,

Satyarth Prakash (The True Exposition). His vision of India

included a classless and casteless society, a united India (religiously, socially and nationally), and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all. He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be ‘India’s Rock of Ages’, the infallible and the true original seed of Hinduism. He gave the slogan “Back to the Vedas”.

Dayananda’s slogan of ‘Back to the Vedas’ was a call for a revival of Vedic learning and Vedic purity of religion and not a revival of Vedic times. He accepted modernity and displayed a patriotic attitude to national problems.

Dayananda had received education on Vedanta from a blind teacher named Swami Virajananda in Mathura. Along with his emphasis on Vedic authority, he stressed the significance of individual interpretation of the scriptures and said that every person has the right of access to God. He criticised later Hindu scriptures such as the Puranas and the ignorant priests for perverting Hinduism.

Dayananda strongly criticised the escapist Hindu belief in maya (illusion) as the running theme of all physical existence and the aim of human life as a struggle to attain moksha (salvation) through escape from this evil world to seek union with God. Instead, he advocated that God, soul and matter (prakriti) were distinct and eternal entities and every individual had to work out his own salvation in the light of the eternal principles governing human conduct. Thus he attacked the prevalent popular belief that every individual contributed and got back from the society according the principles of niyati (destiny). Dayananda believed in the theory of karma and reincarnation. But he also said the good deeds should be primarily for the good of others and not for self.

Dayananda launched a frontal attack on Hindu orthodoxy, caste rigidities, untouchability, idolatry, polytheism, belief in magic, charms and animal sacrifices, taboo on sea voyages, feeding the dead through shraddhas, etc.

Dayananda subscribed to the Vedic notion of chaturvarna system in which a person was identified as a brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya or shudra not by birth but according to the occupation and merit of the person.

The Arya Samaj fixed the minimum marriageable age at twenty-five years for boys and sixteen years for girls. Swami Dayananda once lamented the Hindu race as “the children of children”.