Dayananda was born in the village of Tankara near Morvi(Morbi) in the Kathiawar region of modern-day Gujarat, into a Brahmin family on February 12th in 1824. He was named, Moolshankar, and led a very comfortable early life, studying Sanskrit, the Vedas and other religious books to prepare him for a future as a Hindu priest.

A number of incidents resulted in Dayananda questioning traditional beliefs of Hinduism and inquiring about God in early childhood. Still a young child on the night of Shivratri (literally: the night for God Shiva) when his family went to a temple for overnight worship, he stayed up waiting for God to appear to accept the offerings made to idol of God Shiva. While all else slept, Dayananda saw mice eating the offerings kept for the God. He was utterly surprised and wondered how a God, who cannot even protect his own "offerings", would protect humanity. He argued with his father that they should not be worshipping such a helpless God.

The deaths of his younger sister and his uncle from cholera, caused Dayananda to ponder over the meaning of life and death and he started asking questions, which worried his parents. His parents decided to marry him off in his early teens (common in 19th century India), but he decided marriage was not for him and ran away from home. [1]