Information and Broadcasting Minister paid his tributes to Swami Dayanand Saraswati on his birth anniversary.

Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883)

• Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a philosopher, social leader and founder of the Arya Samaj, a reform movement of the Vedic dharma.
• He was the first to give the call for Swaraj as “India for Indians” in 1876, a call later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak.
• Denouncing the idolatry and ritualistic worship, he worked towards reviving Vedic ideologies.
• Subsequently, the philosopher and then President, S. Radhakrishnan called him one of the “makers of Modern India”, as did Sri Aurobindo.

Try this PYQ:

Q.Which among the following event happened earliest?

(a) Swami Dayanand established Arya Samaj

(b) Dinabandhu Mitra wrote Neeldarpan

(c) Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay wrote Anandmath

(d) Satyendranath Tagore became the first India to succeed in the Indian Civil Services Examination

His influence

• Those who were influenced by and followed him included Madam Cama, Shyamji Krishna Varma, Kishan Singh, Bhagat Singh, VD Savarkar, Bhai Parmanand, Lala Hardayal, Madan Lal Dhingra, Ram Prasad Bismil, MG Ranade, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, , Lala Lajpat Rai etc.

Philosophy

• He was ascetic from boyhood and a scholar.
• He believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas.
• He advocated the doctrine of Karma and Reincarnation.
• He emphasized the Vedic ideals of Brahmacharya, including celibacy and devotion to God.

His contribution

• Among Dayananda’s contributions were his promoting of the equal rights for women, such as the right to education and reading of Indian scriptures.
• He wrote his commentary on the Vedas from Vedic Sanskrit in Sanskrit as well as in Hindi.

Get an IAS/IPS ranker as your 1: 1 personal mentor for UPSC 2024

Attend Now