Ramananda was a
14th-century Vaishnava devotional poet-saint who lived in northern India’s Gangetic basin. According to Hindu legend, he is the founder of the Ramanandi Sampradaya, the world’s greatest monastic Hindu renunciation community in modern times. He is Also known as
Ramanandacharya.
- Saint Ramananda, who was born into a Brahman Family, spent the majority of his life in the holy city of Varanasi.
- His birth and death dates are unknown, but historical evidence suggests he was one of the early saints and a pioneering member of the Bhakti movement as it rapidly flourished in North India between the 14th and mid-15th centuries, during the Islamic rule period.
- Tradition holds that Saint Ramananda was motivated by the south Indian Vedanta scholar Ramanuja while developing his philosophy and devotional themes, but evidence also reveals that Saint Ramananda was influenced by Nathpanthi ascetics of the Yoga school of Hindu philosophy.
- He was a prominent Rama worshipper and the founder of the Bhakti movement in northern India. He was a social reformer who opened the door to Bhaktism to everybody without regard for birth, caste, creed, or gender.
- He wrote and discussed his teachings in Hindi, making religion more accessible to the general public.
- His lyrics are also mentioned in the Adi Granth. He was the Guru of several poet-saints.
- His Disciples are
- Kabir, a Muslim weaver
- Ravidas, a cobbler
- Sena, a barber
- Dhanna, a Jat peasant
- Sadhana, a butcher
- Narahari, a goldsmith; and
- Pipa, a Rajput prince
- Ramananda has been referred to as “the bridge between the Bhakti movement of the South and the Bhakti movement of the North.”
- Sant-parampara (literally, the tradition of bhakti saints) in north India is often credited to Saint Ramananda.
