Ramananda

(14th c.?) Sant poet-saint who is traditionally cited as the spiritual teacher
(guru) of the poet-saints Kabir,
Ravidas, Pipa, and others. The Sants
were a group of poet-saints from central
and northern India who shared several
general tendencies: stress on individualized, interior religion leading to a personal experience of the divine; disdain
for external ritual, particularly image
worship; faith in the power of the divine
name; and a tendency to ignore conventional caste distinctions. Ramananda is
said to have been a charismatic spiritual
leader, and is claimed to have been a
direct disciple of the southern Indian
philosopher Ramanuja, who sent
Ramananda north to help spread the
devotional movement. The latter claim
is almost certainly false, given that the
only verse incontestably attributable to
Ramananda is found in the Adigranth,
the scripture of the Sikh community.
This verse does not reflect Ramanuja’s
Shrivaishnava tradition, in which the
primary deity is Vishnu, but instead
shows the influence of the Nathpanthi
ascetics, who stressed yoga. There are
other verses ascribed to Ramananda in
later sources, but their authenticity is
doubtful, and little can be definitely
known about his life.