Dayananda Sarasvati

Dayananda Sarasvati

 orig. Mula Sankara

(born 1824, Tankara, Gujarat, India—died Oct. 30, 1883, Ajmer, Rajputana) Hindu ascetic and social reformer. A Brahman, he rejected what he considered idol worship at age 14 after seeing mice swarm over an image of Shiva, attracted by offerings placed before it. His religious quest led him to Yoga, and, to escape an arranged marriage, he joined the ascetic Sarasvati order. He spent 15 years traveling in search of religious truth, and in 1863 he began preaching his vision of reinstating a purified Vedic religion. He debated orthodox Hindu scholars and Christian missionaries and in 1875 founded Arya Samaj. He opposed child marriage and the ban on remarriage by widows, and he opened Vedic study to all castes.

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Sarasvati, Dayananda 

Born 1824, in Tankara, Gujarat; died Oct. 30, 1883, in Ajmer. Indian religious reformer and enlightener. Gujarati by nationality.

Sarasvati believed the renewal of Indian society could be achieved through religious and social reforms. He attacked caste restrictions and child marriages and advocated the spread of education and equal rights for men and women. He saw the reform of Hinduism as a return to the religion of the ancient Aryans, as reflected in the sacred Vedas. In order to disseminate his teachings, Sarasvati founded the Arya Samaj society in 1875. He founded a college in Lahore, where the teaching of modern disciplines of the humanities and natural sciences was combined with classical Indian learning. Without openly attacking the British colonial authorities, Sarasvati declared that foreign rule could not ensure the well-being of the people.