SANT RAVI DAS

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Context: The President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu has greeted fellow-citizens on the eve of birthday of Sant Guru Ravidas. 

Details:

Sant Ravidas:

• Ravidas was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century CE.
• Venerated as a guru (teacher) in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana, he was a poet, social reformer and spiritual figure.
• Scholars believe he was born in 1450 CE.
• He taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom.
• Ravidas's devotional verses were included in the Sikh scriptures known as Guru Granth Sahib.
• The Panch Vani text of the Dadu Panthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas.
• He is also the central figure within the Ravidassia religious movement.

Literary works:

• The Adi Granth and the Panchvani of the Hindu warrior-ascetic group Dadupanthi are the two oldest attested sources of the literary works of Ravidas.
• In the Adi Granth, forty one of Ravidas's poems are included, and he is one of thirty six contributors to this foremost canonical scripture of Sikhism.

Philosophy:

• The songs of Ravidas discuss Nirguna-Saguna themes, as well as ideas that are at the foundation of Nath Yoga philosophy of Hinduism.
• He frequently mentions the term Sahaj, a mystical state where there is a union of the truths of the many and the one.
• Ravidas's poetry is imbued with themes of boundless loving devotion to God, wherein this divine is envisioned as Nirguna.
• In the Sikh tradition, the themes of Nanak's poetry are very broadly similar to the Nirgun bhakti ideas of Ravidas and other leading north Indian saint-poets.

Monistic Brahman or Anthropomorphic God:

• Multiple manuscripts found in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, dated to be from the 18th and 19th centuries, contain a theosophical debate between Kabir and Ravidas on the nature of the Absolute, more specifically whether the Brahman (Ultimate Reality, Eternal Truth) is monistic Oneness or a separate anthropomorphic incarnate.
• Kabir argues for the former. Ravidas, in contrast, argues from the latter premise to the effect that both are one.
• In these manuscripts, Kabir initially prevails, Ravidas accepts that Brahman is monistic, but till the end Kabir didn't accept worshipping a divine avatar (sagun conception).

PRELIMS QUESTION:

Q.Consider the following statements in reference to Sant Ravidas:

1. He is the central figure within the Ravidassia religious movement.
2. The Adi Granth and the Panchvani are the two oldest attested sources of the literary works of Ravidas.

Which of the above is/are correct?

a.1 only

b.2 only

c.Both 1 and 2

d.Neither 1 nor 2

Correct answer: c

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