Vedic Authority and Icon Worship: Svāmī Dayānanda, Svāmī Karapātrī and the Samājī-Sanātanī Debate

In my research, I investigate how the notion of orthodoxy within Hindu traditions evolved, faced challenges, and was redefined in colonial and post-colonial India. Central to this inquiry is a significant yet overlooked debate between two influential groups: the Ārya Samājīs and the Sanātana Dharmīs. The Ārya Samāja emerged in the 19th century as a reform movement that contested established norms—including the Hindu textual canon, the caste system, and the practice of mūrtipūjā, or icon worship. Conversely, Sanātana Dharma groups upheld traditional beliefs and resisted these changes. My primary focus is the debate over icon worship in the writings of Svāmī Dayānanda (1824–1883), the founder of the Ārya Samāja, and Svāmī Karapātrī (1907–1982), who, nearly a century later, acted as a spokesperson for Sanātana Dharma and opposed Svāmī Dayānanda’s views, the ideological foundation of the Ārya Samāja.