NEWS

PM visited Guru Ravidas shrine in UP on account of Guru Ravidas Jayanti

GURU RAVIDAS

• 14th century poet-saint, social reformer and a spiritual figure of the Bhakti movement in North India
• Venerated as a guru (teacher) in the region of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and mainly Punjab and Haryana
• Life details are uncertain and contested
• Scholars believe he was born in 1450 CE.
• Devotional Verses were included in the Sikh scriptures ( Guru Granth Sahib )
• The Panch Vani text of the Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Guru Ravidas.
• Taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom.
• Believed to be a disciple of the bhakti saint-poet Ramananda and a contemporary of the bhakti saint-poet Kabir.
• One of his famous disciples was the saint, Mirabai.
• Among Ravidas’s moral and intellectual achievements were the conception of “Begampura”, a city that knows no sorrow; and a society where caste and class have ceased to matter.
• The AdiGranth of Sikhs, and Panchvani of the Hindu warrior-ascetic group Dadupanthis are the two oldest attested sources of the literary works of Guru Ravidas.
• Ravidas Jayanti is celebrated on Magh Purnima, the full moon day in the month of Magh according to the Hindu lunar calendar.
• It is believed that he was born in Varanasi in a cobbler’s family