Arya Samaj

The Arya Samaj was founded significantly by Sarasawati in 1875 whom understood Sanskrit greatly where he was able to influence his ideas within Hinduism.  The concept "arya" elabortes as the noble human being , literally meaning charitable. Unlike the brahmo samaj, karma and samsara is significantly honored, giving charity, and reading vedically produces good karma, effectively helping remove the atman from the wheel of samsara. Subsequently, the arya Samaj was not influenced by western values such as Christianity where they instead focused on the principles of the Vedas the " vedas alone come directly from God." Hinduism must only follow the Indian way. This essentially goes against goes against Hinduisms identity as tolerant as we know today.

The arya samaj was greatly influenced by the concept of dharma- however not in the traditional way where the women would stay at home to look after the children but in the sense that all sexes are equal. They believed that each and everyone upholds their dharma to be reading the vedas or Sanskrit. however the majority of Hindus are and were illiterate , making the arya samaj somewhat difficult to become popular. The arya samaj was to bring equality to women, similar to Gandhi- they wanted child marriage to be abolished as this usually occurred to poorer girls who would marry older married women. The arya samaj aim was also to be able to allow widow re-marriages as widow women would usually end up in poverty and even be set on the sati pit. Moreover, the arya samaj desired education to be accessible for both sexes so that women had the opportunity not to be dependent and subordinated by the male.

Religious Field: Polytheism, Animal sacrifice to please GOD havan and yagna , Avatars and Incarnation of GOD, Ancestor worship (Sraddha), Pilgrimages

Dalits, Outcaste or Untouchables. They were not allowed to enter Hindu temples, homes and Brahman rituals. They were prohibited to fetch water from the village wells. Their children were not allowed to study in the village school with other children. Soon this was declared equal rights.

Religious Field: Polytheism, Animal sacrifice to please GOD havan and yagna , Avatars and Incarnation of GOD, Ancestor worship (Sraddha), Pilgrimages

Dalits, Outcaste or Untouchables. They were not allowed to enter Hindu temples, homes and Brahman rituals. They were prohibited to fetch water from the village wells. Their children were not allowed to study in the village school with other children. Soon this was declared equal rights.

Achievements

Long term:

* Has over 5million world followers world wide, significantly influence hindu politics and cultural life. neo-Vedic ritual and education in Hindu communities abroad as well as in India, and has active branches in the Caribbean, United States, Canada, United Kingdom

* Today, there are 500 higher educatuon insitututions for women throughout india.

* Declared equal rights for "untouchables" - however, there is still a constant fight for the ones whom are not twice born.

* end of child marriage- but that doesnt mean that it still occurs.

* There was a fight for the dalits/ untouchables to be equal as brahmins, as brahmins wwere seen as the highest category in the varna system. There was a completion of the shuddi ritual in order to prevent the conversions from Hinduism to Islam or Christinaity-  western influnce was consciously rejected unlike brahmo samaj or Gandhi.

* Set up vedic schools, culturally and vedically educated unlike ram roy whom wanted  western curriculum to be interconnected. However, there was a difficulty in find teachers/ gurus with the same view  e.g no to idol worship, vedcially based ideas- which is why this did not last long.

* Very traditional on the basis that the Vedas are the only true revelation.

* The arya samaj are in favour of samsara and karma, whoever these are not vedically bases, making their whole reform movement contradictory.

* The arya split into conservative and liberal, but soon became aggressive= devotees dying

* Launches a shuddhi movement to convert non Hindus back to Hinduism " back to the Vedas"

An important practice is the Havan fire ritual which a priest is not needed making it assessable and convienent.

The main holidays and celebrations is Holi,celebreating the victory of good over evil.Holi is celebrated at the end of winter and the start of spring to sow the land and hope for a good harvest. This includes a variety of colors and songs (Chautal).