Ravidasi

Name taken by followers of the
untouchable poet-saint Ravidas. The
Ravidasis emphasize many ideas found
in the poetry of Ravidas, such as the
irrelevancy of ideas of purity and impurity (ashaucha), the futility of trying to
contain the divine in texts and rites, and
his vision of a society in which all people
can have equal status, whatever their
background. It is unlikely that the
Ravidasis were established by Ravidas
himself, nor is Ravidas an object of worship for them, although he is held as a
model for religious equality, based on
the messages in his poetry. In modern
times the Ravidasis have focused on
opposing all sorts of caste-based
discrimination and have also taken
up the empowerment of various lowcaste groups. This movement is very
recent, and to date little has been
published about it; for some information see the introduction to Ravidas in
John Stratton Hawley and Mark
Juergensmeyer (trans.), Songs of the
Saints of India, 1988.