Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati Jayanti

A Hindu religious leader Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati founded the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement of the Vedic tradition. Arya Samaj is an Indian religious movement that promotes values and practices based on the infallibility of the Vedas.

Swami Dayanand’s (12 February 1824 – 30 October 1883) greatest asset was his mastery over the Sanskrit language and the Vedas. He felt that the founder of Arya Samajmyriad’s social and religious evils which had crept into the Hindu society over the centuries was due to the lack of true knowledge of the Vedas. Therefore, he challenged Hindu society on the issues of idolatry and women’s education.

According to Hindu Calendar, it falls on the tenth day of Krishna Paksha, in the month of Falgun (tithi Falguna Krishna Dashami) i.e. it falls on 5th March 2024 and not on 12 February 1824.

Arya Samaj

Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s creations, the Arya Samaj in 1875, Its main aim was to propagate the true knowledge of the Vedas and discard all evils that had crept into the Hindu society later in its name. He opposed untouchability. He was similarly opposed to polytheism, avataravada, and ritualism. His slogan was ‘go back to the Vedas’ whose authority he accepted.

He unequivocally condemns practices of different religions and communities that are noted to be prevalent, such as idol worship, animal sacrifice, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the castes, child marriages, meat-eating, and discrimination against women on the grounds that all these lacked Hinduism of that time. The Arya Samaj discourages dogma and symbolism and encourages skepticism in beliefs that run contrary to common sense and logic. Swami Dayananda Saraswati advocated the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation.

He emphasized the Vedic ideals of brahmacharya and devotion to God. Among Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s contributions is his promotion of equal rights for women, such as the right to education and reading of Indian scriptures, and his intuitive commentary on the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit in Sanskrit as well as Hindi so that the common man might be able to read them. Swami Dayananda Saraswati was the first to give the word of Swadeshi long before Mahatma Gandhi.

Dayanand Saraswati is noted to have thoroughly studied religions other than Hinduism, such as Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Sikhism, and others. Swami Dayanand Saraswati positively made a revolution in the socio-political fabric not only of the Indians but of the whole of mankind.

For the first time in the history of India, the Vedas were printed in India under his patronage. Personally, his most important work was Satyartha Prakasha (The Light of Truth). In 1883, Swami Dayanand left his body after an eventful life. His followers started a Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) School and College in Lahore (now in Pakistan) in 1886. This DAV movement has carried forward his work since then and now has over 750 institutions under one umbrella.

As a result of the works of these two pioneers and other equally well-known personalities and organizations like Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Radhakanta Deb, the Theosophical Society, and the Arya Samaj, a large number of people in eastern and north-eastern India were substantially awakened and many of the social evils were banned with the help of the Britishers.