Agnihotri

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Agnihotri (1859–1928). Hindu founder of the Dev Samaj. Originally called Shiv Narayan, he was born into a brahman family and became a teacher in Lahore. He joined the Brahmo Samāj, and was a fiery opponent of Ārya Samāj. He broke away from Keshub Chandra Sen in 1887, but his Dev Samaj only took on distinctive ideas when he adapted Herbert Spencer to ideas of Brahman/ātman, thus viewing ātman as an ‘inanimate’ life-force, evolving to altruism.