Context: 

The Prime Minister recently inaugurated the year-long celebrations commemorating the 200th birth anniversary of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati.

                                                            Image Source: India Today

About Dayanand Saraswati:

• Dayananda Sarasvati, original name Mula Sankara, (born 1824, Tankara, Gujarat, India—died October 30, 1883, Ajmer, Rajputana), was a Hindu ascetic and social reformer.
• He founded the Arya Samaj in 1875 – a Hindu reform movement advocating a return to the temporal and spiritual authority of the Vedas.
• He became a disciple of Swami Virajananda.

• Contributions:

• • Social Reforms: He opposed child marriage, advocated the remarriage of widows, opened Vedic study to members of all castes, and founded many educational and charitable institutions. 

• • Nationalism: The Arya Samaj also contributed greatly to the reawakening of a spirit of Indian nationalism in pre-Independence days.

• • Religion: 

• • • He through Arya Samaj opposed idol worship, animal sacrifice, basing caste upon birth rather than upon merit, untouchability, and temple offerings.

• • • He upheld the infallibility of the Vedas, the doctrines of karma (the accumulated effect of past deeds) and samsara (the process of death and rebirth), the sanctity of the cow, the importance of the samskaras (individual sacraments).                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                        News Source: PIB

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