Arya Samaj traces its origin to the vision and leadership of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who sought to re-center Hindu life around what he understood as the pristine wisdom of the Vedas. The movement took institutional form when it was established in Bombay (now Mumbai) on 10 April 1875. This moment marks not only the founding of an organization, but also the crystallization of a reformist current within Hinduism that looked back to ancient revelation as a guide for ethical and social renewal.

The year 1875 thus stands as a symbolic threshold: on one side, inherited customs and practices; on the other, a conscious effort to purify religious life in light of Vedic teachings. By rooting itself in Bombay at that time, Arya Samaj emerged within a dynamic urban milieu where traditional faith and modern currents of thought were already in active dialogue. Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s founding of the Samaj may be seen as an attempt to harness that energy toward disciplined spiritual practice and social upliftment, grounded in what he regarded as the original, authoritative sources of Hindu wisdom.