Invitation to World Religions

134  CHAPTER 4  Hinduism

purity of the authentic Hinduism embodied in the Vedas and Upanishads. They sought to transform Hinduism from within. One of these reformers was Ram Mohan Roy (1774–1833), a member of a wealthy Bengali brah- min community who in 1828 established the Brahmo Samaj (Community of Brahman Wor- shipers) as a neo-Hindu religious organization open to all, regardless of religious orientation. Roy be- lieved that British rule offered India considerable opportunities for progress, and he devoted his life to religious, social, and educational reform. He was particularly concerned with issues involving the protection of women, such as child marriage, po- lygamy, dowry, and the practice of sati, an upper- caste practice in which a widow immolated herself on her husband’s funeral pyre. This ritual suicide was believed to bring great honor to the family and to raise the status of the dead widow to that of a goddess. Roy campaigned for the abolition of sati, arguing that there was no scriptural basis in the Vedas for this practice. Finally, in 1829, sati was made illegal in Bengal. Roy was among the first members of the Indian upper classes to visit Europe, traveling there in 1830 to ensure that the British would not overturn the sati law. He died in 1833 and was buried in Bristol. Another influential reformer was Dayananda Saraswati (1824–1883). Having become a wan- dering monk early in life, Dayananda studied under a blind sage who urged him to campaign for a return to what he considered the pure and

original Vedic religion. Following his advice, Dayananda rejected the epics and Puranas as departures from the purity of the Vedas and spoke out against all as- pects of temple tradition, image worship, and pilgrimage. In 1875, he founded the Arya Samaj (the Noble Community) as a “Vedic” religious organization whose social reform platform condemned child marriage and untouchability while promoting the equality of women. Dayananda rejected social hierarchies based on jati ; rather, he believed, caste status should be based on one’s character, which the organization would determine in a public examination. Although Day- ananda Saraswati, like Ram Mohan Roy, favored a return to Vedic religion, his Arya Samaj distinguished itself from Roy’s Brahmo Samaj in its encouragement Illinois. The statue hon- ors Vivekananda as “the first man to bring Hindu religion and the practice of yoga to America.” PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Temple volunteers unveil a statue of Swami Vivekananda at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, Saturday, July 11, 1998, in Lemont,