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20 Dayanada and Arya
Samaj
Dayananda wished every man to have the
opportunity to acquire as much knowledge as would
enable him to raise himself in the social scale as high
as he was able. Above all he would not tolerate the
abominable injustice of the existence of the
untouchables, and nobody has been a more ardent
champion of their outraged rights. They were
admitted to the Arya Samaj on the basis of equality;
for the Aryas are not a caste.
The Aryas are all
men of superior principles; and the 'Dasyus'
are they who lead a life of wickedness and
sin.
Dayananda was no less generous and no less
bold in his crusade to improve the condition of
women a deplorable one in India. He revolted
against the abuses from which they suffered recalling
that in the heroic age they occupied in the home
and in society a position atleast equal to men. They
ought to have equal education according to him,
and supreme control in marriage,' for men and
women, and though he regarded marriage as
'In marriage the minimum age was to be sixteen for
girls
and
twenty-five for boys.
Dayananda
was resolutely
opposed to infant-marriage.