With the Himalayas rearing their heads above the skies at its back, and the beautiful banks of "Mother Ganga" bordering it in front, the Gurukula Academy, founded in 1902 at Kangri, near Hardwar, in the Punjab, is ideally situated. The site was given by a generous friend of the cause, and Mahatma Munshi Ram, the chief exponent of the idea and the leader of a section of the Arya Samaj-a Protestant Hindu faith founded about a quarter of a century ago by Swami Dyanand Sarasvati-immediately set out to have the jungle cleared while he canvassed the country for funds to build and conduct the academy. The course of study in the Gurukula Academy extends over sixteen years, and the boys who are admitted are obliged to take a vow to remain absolutely celibate until they are twenty-five years of age, while their parents or guardians are required to give assurance that they neither will betroth nor marry the lads until they reach that age.