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Guru Ravidas

2022 JAN 19

Preliminary   > Art and Culture   >   Philosophies   >   Religion

Why in news?

  • Accepting a demand by the Punjab Government and various political parties, the Election Commission of India has postponed State Assembly polls in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti.

About Guru Ravidas:

  • Ravidas, or Raidas, was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the bhakti movement and founder of the Ravidassia religion during the 15th to 16th century.
  • The life details of Ravidas are uncertain and contested. Scholars believe he was born in 1450 CE in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
  • The text Anantadas Parcai is one of the earliest surviving biographies of various Bhakti movement poets which talks about the birth of Ravidas.
  • Ravidas's devotional verses were included in the Sikh scriptures known as Guru Granth Sahib.
  • The Panch Vani text of the Dadupanthi tradition within Hinduism also includes numerous poems of Ravidas.
  • He is believed to be a disciple of the bhakti saint-poet Ramanandaand, a contemporary of the bhakti saint-poet Kabir.
  • One of his famous disciples of Ravidas was Mirabai.

His teachings:

  • He taught removal of social divisions of caste and gender, and promoted unity in the pursuit of personal spiritual freedom.
  • He gained prominence due to his belief in one God and his unbiased religious poems.
  • 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.

About Ravidassia religion:

  • Guru Ravidas belonged to an untouchable caste and suffered a lot of atrocities as a result. However, the saint chose to focus on spiritual pursuits and he also founded the Ravidassia religion.
  • The Ravidassias are a Dalit community of whom the bulk — nearly 12 lakh — live in the Doaba region.
  • The Dera Sachkhand Ballan, their largest dera with 20 lakh followers worldwide, was founded in the early 20th century by Baba Sant Pipal Das.
  • Once closely connected with Sikhism, the dera severed these decades-old ties in 2010, and announced they would follow the Ravidassia religion.
  • From 2010, the Dera Sachkhand Ballan started replacing the Guru Granth Sahib with its own Granth, Amritbani, carrying 200 hymns of Guru Ravidas, in Ravidassia temples and gurdwaras.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements about Guru Ravidas:

1. He advocated for abolition of the caste system and openly despised the notion of a Brahminical society.

2. He founded the Ravidassia religion.

3. His devotional poems were included in ‘Guru Granth Sahib’

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1,2 and 3

Answer