The Ārya Samāj was initially established in Suriname in 1911, when Professor Bhai Parmānand, a Vedic missionary from India, visited the West Indies. Various local Ārya Samāj associations were established in the Surinamese villages in these years. The arrival of another preacher from India, Pandit Mehtā Jaimīnī, on 15 June 1929, led to the formation of an umbrella organisation, the Arya Dewakar Maha Sabha, or in Dutch the "Vereniging Arya Dewaker" on 29 September 1929. Mostly the organisation is briefly called Arya Dewaker. Arya Dewaker means 'Aryan Sun'. On 5 February 1930, the organisation was registered as a religious body. In 1932 Arya Dewaker started the training of Vedic priests and on 28 October 1933 it opened an orphanage and boarding school named Swami Dayanand Orphanage.