ox Hinduism. [241]
He maintained that the Vedas gave no countenance to idolatry, but
inculcated monotheism, and that their contents could be reconciled
with all the results of modern science, which indeed he held to be
indicated in them. The Arya Samaj was founded in Lahore in 1877,
and during the remainder of his life Dayanand travelled over northern
India continually preaching and disputing with the advocates of other
religions, and founding branches of his sect. In 1883 he died at Ajmer,
according to the story of his followers, from the effects of poison
administered to him at the instigation of a prostitute against whose
profession he had been lecturing. [242]

2. His methods and the scientific interpretation of the Vedas.

Dayanand's attempt to found a sect which, while not going entirely
outside Hinduism, should prove acceptable to educated Hindus desiring
a purer faith, appears to have been distinctly successful. The leaders
of the Brahmo Samaj were men of higher intelligence and ability than
he, and after scrupulously fair and impartial inquiry were led to
deny the infallibility of the Vedas, while they also declined to
recognise caste. But by so doing they rendered it impossible for a
man to become a Brahmo and remain a Hindu, and their movement has
made little headway. By retaining the tenet of the divine authority
of the Vedas, Dayanand made it possible for educated Hindus to join
his sect without absolutely cutting themselves adrift from their old
faith. But Dayanand's contention that the Vedas should be figuratively
interpreted, and are so found to foreshadow the discoveries of modern
science, will naturally not bear examination. The following instances
of the method are given by Professor Oman: "At one of the anniversary
meetings of the society a member gravely stated that the Vedas
mentioned _pure_ fire, and as pure fire was nothing but electricity,
it was evident that the Indians of the Vedic period were acquainted
with electricity. A leading member of the sect, who had studied
science in the Government college, discovered in two Vedic texts,
made up of _only eighteen words in all_, that oxygen and hydrogen
with their characteristic properties were known to the writers of the
Rig Veda, who were also acquainted with the composition of water,
the constitution of the atmosphere, and had anticipated the modern
kinetic theory of gases." [243] Mr. Burn gives the following parallel
versions of a verse o