Swami Dayananda

The Arya Samaj, the second great Hindu reform movement, was founded by Swami Dayananda in 1875. He was a sannyasin (renouncer) and a great scholar who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and rebirth, and emphasised the ideals of brahmacarya (chastity) and sanyasa (renunciation).

Far from borrowing concepts from other religions, as Ram Mohan Roy had done, Swami Dayananda was fiercely critical of Islam and Christianity. He was against what he considered to be the corruption of the pure faith of his own country. Nevertheless, the principles of the Arya Samaj do seem to show the influence of Evangelical Christianity, at least to the extent that the Samaj sought to reassert Hinduism by accepting some of the typical criticisms of its practices made by Christian and Islamic proseletisers. Unlike many other reform movements within Hinduism, the Arya Samaj's appeal was addressed not to the educated few but to the Indian nation as a whole.

The Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry, animal sacrifices, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages, on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. It aimed to be a universal "church" based on the authority of the Vedas.