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Ravidass

Guru
Guru Ravidas
SriGuruRavidasJi.jpg
Guru Ravidas
Born uncertain, ~1450
Varanasi, India
Died uncertain, ~1520
Varanasi, India
Honors Venerated as a Sant in Ravidassia religion and having hymns included in the Guru Granth Sahib
Religious career
Teacher Ramanand

Guru Ravidas was a North Indian mystic poet-sant of the bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century CE. Venerated as a Guru (teacher) in the region of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh the devotional songs of Ravidas made a lasting impact upon the bhakti movement. He was a poet-saint, social reformer and a spiritual figure. He is considered as the founder of 21st-century Ravidassia religion, by a group who previously were associated with Sikhism.

The life details of Ravidas are uncertain and contested. Most scholars believe he was born about 1450 CE, in a family that worked with dead animals skin to produce leather products.Tradition and medieval era texts state Ravidas was one of the disciples of the brahmin bhakti saint-poet Ramananda.

Ravidas' devotional songs were included in the Sikh Scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib. The Panch Vani text of the Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas. Guru Ravidas Ji taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedoms.

The details of Ravidas' life are not well known. Most scholars state he was born about 1450, and died about 1520.

Ravidas was born in the village of Seer Goverdhanpur, near Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India. His birthplace is now known as Shri Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan. Mata Ghurbinia was his mother, and his father was Raghuram. His parents belonged to a leather-working Chamar community making them an untouchable caste . While his original occupation was leather work, he began to spend most of his time in spiritual pursuits as a Vaishnava Hindu in the Ramananda tradition. Thereafter he spent most of his life in the company of Hindu saints, sadhus and ascetics.

The text Anantadas Parcai, one of the earliest surviving biographies of various Bhakti movement poets, introduces the birth of Ravidas as follows,


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