RAMANANDA

also called Ramanand, or Ramadatta born c. 1400 died c. 1470 North Indian Brahman, fifth in succession in the lineage of the philosopher-mystic Ramanuja and founder of the bhakti (devotional) cult of Rama, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu known as the Ramanandi, or Ramavat, sect. Ramananda left home as a youth and became a sannyasin (ascetic) before settling in Varanasi (Benares) to study Vedic texts, Ramanuja's philosophy, and yogic techniques. His studies completed, he wandered about teaching and eating with his students, regardless of their caste. This disregard for caste caused his companions in Ramanuja's lineage to ask him to eat alone rather than contaminate them. This so angered Ramananda that he left the lineage to found his own sect, the Ramanandis. His original disciples, 12 in number, included at least one woman, members of the lowest castes (including a leatherworker and a barber), and a Muslim (the mystic Kabir). Ramananda's teachings were similar to Ramanuja's except that he dropped the interdiction on intercaste dining and the strict rule that all teaching and all texts used must be in the Sanskrit language. At his centres in Agra and Varanasi, Ramananda taught in Hindi, the vernacular, in order to reach the masses, because Sanskrit was known only to the upper castes. Today Ramanandis have numerous monasteries in North India.