(1824–1883) Nineteenth-century reformist
ascetic and founder of the Arya Samaj, a
reformist Hindu organization. The late
nineteenth century was an era of
sweeping social, economic, and
religious change in northern India, and
the Arya Samaj was an authentically
Hindu response to these forces.
Dayanand’s mission for the Arya Samaj
was to reform and revitalize Hinduism
by purging it of the “false practices” that
had gradually crept in. Swami
Dayanand’s fundamental assumption
was that ultimate religious authority lay
only in the ancient scriptures called the
Vedas, and that any contemporary
religious practices not found in the
Vedas were mistaken, odious, and
deserved to be abandoned. This stance
allowed him to attack many of the
“social evils” plaguing nineteenthcentury Hinduism, such as child
marriages, sati (the rite in which a
widow would be burned on her
husband’s funeral pyre), “idolatrous”
image worship, untouchability, a ban
on widow remarriage, and the unequal
status of women. In claiming that such
practices were “corrupt,” Dayanand had
found not only a viable strategy for
reform, but a way to undercut the claims
of Christian missionaries, who pointed
to such evils as evidence that Hindu religion was inferior to Christianity.
Unlike its predecessor, the Brahmo
Samaj, which was heavily influenced by
Christianity, the Arya Samaj was a Hindu
response drawing from purely Hindu
sources. Dayanand belonged to the first
generation of Hindus aiming to reassert
the greatness of Hinduism as opposed
to the Christian missionary challenge,
and much of his writing is militantly
anti-Christian. One sign of his crusading
spirit is his support for the ceremony of
purification (shuddhi), through which
Hindus who had become members of
other religious communities were received
back into the Hindu community.
Although the Arya Samaj claimed that
they were simply getting back to the
Veda, the ultimate aim was not to
reclaim that long-gone era, but to
develop a form of Hindu religious life
more compatible with “modern” times.
Thus, even though Dayanand was “traditionalist” in his emphasis on the
Vedas, he was radical in insisting that
the Vedas should be accessible to all
people, including groups such as
women and the shudras, or the lowest
social group, both of whom had traditionally been forbidden to read or even
hear it. During his ministry Dayanand
spoke throughout India, attacking any
and all religions not rooted in the Vedas,
including contemporary Hinduism. His
eloquence, charisma, and commitment
brought him considerable success, but
also many enemies, and he was eventually assassinated by poisoning. For further information see Dayanand
Saraswati, Autobiography of Swami
Dayanand Saraswati, K. C. Yadav (ed.),
1978; Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya (trans.),
Light of Truth, 1960; and Arvind Sharma,
“Swami Dayananda Sarasvati,” in
Robert D. Baird (ed.), Religion in Modern
India, 1998.
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Dayanand Saraswati