- Swami Dayanand Saraswati was born in 1824 in present-day Gujarat and lived till 1883.
- He dedicated his entire life to social reform, spiritual revival, and national awakening.
- In 1875, he established Arya Samaj with the aim to restore the original teachings of Vedas, remove social evils (like Child marriage and enforced widowhood) and promote rational thinking and equality.
- He believed that education should be holistic and value-based. His idea was to create enlightened citizens rooted in knowledge as well as morality.
- He also visualised a unique form of governance – decentralised polity — a vast commonwealth where the village would be the basic unit of administration. This shows his forward-looking thinking on grassroots democracy.
- His most important literary work is Satyarth Prakash, where he explained his social and religious ideas.
- Spiritually, he propounded the Vedic concept of Traitavada, which speaks of three eternal realities: Ishwara (God), Jiva (soul) and Prakriti (nature).
