Arya Samaj


Arya Samaj:

see Saraswati, DayanandaSaraswati, Dayananda
, 1824–83, Indian religious reformer, founder of the Arya Samaj movement. He was a Brahman from Gujarat who became the major spokesman for the 19th-century Hindu revival that placed exclusive authority in the Vedas.
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Arya Samaj

 

(in Hindi, Society of the Aryans), a religious, reformist, and educational society in India, which originated in 1875 and was basically composed of members of the petit bourgeois intelligentsia. Its founder was Dayananda Sara-svati. The Arya Samaj called for the independence of India and the rebirth of its national culture. It fought against the caste system and espoused the advancement of enlightenment and the enactment of religious and customary social reforms. The activity of Arya Samaj prepared the ground for the awakening of national consciousness and the development of the national liberation movement. In 1891 the society had about 40,000 members. In contemporary India it exists as a small religious group.

L. I. IUREVICH