Answer: The Arya Samaj was founded in 1875 as a monotheistic Hindu reform movement that promotes (till day) values and practices based on the Vedas. The samaj was founded by Swami Dayanand Saraswati.  

Arya Samaj was revivalist in form though not in content: 

• Result of Western Influence: The Christian missionary activities in India were heavily promoted in India. This had a negative impact on the indigenous culture and thereby organizations like Arya Samaj were born to resist such impacts.
• For instance, Swami Vivekananda once stated that Christian missionary education makes an Indian a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless.
• British supported the missionary activities vehemently. For instance, Charter Act (1813) made provisions to grant permission to the activities of missionaries.  
• Forward/Liberal Thinking: Though Arya Samaj was considered as being revivalist, they promoted liberal and forward thinking.
• For instance, Arya Samaj fixed the minimum marriageable age at twenty-five years for boys and sixteen years for girls. Inter-caste marriages, equal status for women and widow remarriages were also encouraged.
• Dayananda Anglo-Vedic (D.A.V.) schools were established which sought to emphasize the importance of Western education along with traditional education. 

• Vedic Supremacy: Arya Samaj clearly understood that Dayananda’s slogan of ‘Back to the Vedas’ was a call for a revival of Vedic learning and Vedic purity of religion and not a revival of Vedic times. 

Contributions of Swami Dayananda Saraswati in maintaining the sanctity of religion: 

• One True Religion: Dayananda’s views were published in his famous work, Satyarth Prakash (The True Exposition). His vision of India included a classless and casteless society, a united India (religiously, socially and nationally), and an India free from foreign rule, with Aryan religion being the common religion of all.  
• Vedas as Infallible: He took inspiration from the Vedas and considered them to be ‘India’s Rock of Ages’, the infallible and the true original seed of Hinduism. He gave the slogan “Back to the Vedas”.  
• Individual Interpretation of Vedas: Along with his emphasis on Vedic authority, he stressed the significance of individual interpretation of the scriptures and said that every person has the right of access to God.  
• Attacked Orthodoxy: Dayananda launched a frontal attack on Hindu orthodoxy, caste rigidities, untouchability, idolatry, polytheism, belief in magic, charms and animal sacrifices, taboo on sea voyages, feeding the dead through shraddhas, etc.  
• True to Chaturvarna System: Dayananda subscribed to the Vedic notion of chaturvarna system in which a person was not born in any caste but was identified as a Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra according to the occupation the person followed. 

• Attacked Prevailing Beliefs: Dayananda strongly criticized the escapist Hindu belief in maya (illusion). Instead, he advocated that God, soul and matter (prakriti) were distinct and eternal entities and every individual had to work out his own salvation in the light of the eternal principles governing human conduct.  
• Against Theory of Karma: He attacked the theory of Karma and instead held the world to be a battlefield where every individual has to work out his salvation by right deeds, and that human beings are not puppets controlled by fate.  

Though some elements of Arya Samaj were criticized for activities such as Shuddhi movement, believing in only one true religion (negating other faiths), at times resorting to controversial past believes and notions but they also fought for maintaining religious identity of India, removing the individual from trap of religious pomp, superstition, and social evils.