Swaminarayan (
April 3,
1781 -
June 1,
1830) was born
Ghanshyam Maharaj to a
brahmin family in the village of
Chhapaiya[?],
Uttar Pradesh. He left home at the age of 11 to travel the whole of
India, eventually settling in
Gujarat where he founded a religious community at age 21. Maharaj later became known as
Swamminarayan after the
mantra he taught (see also
Swami[?] and
Narayana[?]).
The teachings of Swaminarayan have been preserved verbatim in the Vachanamrut[?] (English translation: ISBN 81-7526-190-0).
Today, some Hindus worship Swaminarayan as the nineth avatar of Vishnu.