Swami Dayananda Saraswati was born in a village Tankara near Morbi in Rajkot district of Gujarat on 12 th   February 1824. He is known as the first leader to give the call for  Swarajya. He propounded India for Indians. Later on Lokmanya Tilak  continued the movement. Swami Dayananda is also the founder of Arya  Samaj. Even though in the beginning he was an ardent worshiper of Lord  Shiva, yet later he advocated ancient Vedic traditions of Hinduism. He  expressed that ideal that idol worship had brought many ills in the  Hindu society. In Vedic tradition chanting mantras and performing havans  are prominent.          Dr. S. Radhakrishnan who was a great philosopher and also the President  of India called Swamiji as one of the ‘makers of modern India’. Shri  Aurobindo Ghosh also gave great importance to the contribution of Swami  Dayananda in modernizing the Hindu society. There were many others who  were deeply influence by Swami Dayananda. These included Madam Cama,  Pandit Guru ...