RAMANANDA

RAMANANDA (1400–1470), Hindu religious teacher. The founder of the Rāmanandis, a sect of Vaishnava Hinduism, Ramananda was part of the medieval Hindu devotional movement (thirteenth to seventeenth centuries) in North India, when focus moved from polytheism to the worship of one God and his avatars, especially Krishna and Rāma. Devotees did this through an emotional, passionate devotion or love of God, bhakti. In his youth Ramananda resided in South India and on his return was a follower of his great, great-grandfather Rāmānuja's Srivaishnava sect. Ramananda settled in Benaras (Varanasi) and developed his ideas of egalitarianism, preaching in a local dialect. He called for the love of God in as intense a manner as possible. He saw humanity as one large family, in which all men were brothers, and caste and creed were irrelevant. Accordingly, he preached to everyone, no matter how high on the social and ritual scale they were. His twelve personal disciples included women, an outcaste, and a Muslim. Ritual was unimportant, only personal love of God was meaningful. He also believed in "service to man," following the beliefs of Vaishnavite and Shaivite saints of the first millenium. He advocated devotion to Rāma and his shakti, Sītā, but a devotion devoid of eroticism. Accordingly, the devotee's attitude should be that of servant to master, rather than that of a lover, as epitomized by the service given by Hanuman to his master Rāma.

Ramananda's sect is of great historical significance because its followers started a number of other sects and movements in North India and inspired the Sikhs and Kabirpanthis, who adopted their social concerns. The Rāmanandis base their theology on the writings of Tulsidas (1532–1623), the author of Rāmacaritmanasa (The sacred lake of Rāma's deeds), in which Rāma is the supreme lord and the other deities are subordinate to him. It is composed in Hindi rather than Sanskrit and is derived from Valmiki's Rāmāyaṇa. The Rāmanadis are ascetically minded, and while all castes were welcome in the sect, including "untouchables," and caste duties were abolished, with devotion to Rāma replacing all obligations, the contemporary practice is to impose caste resrictions in Rāmanandi temples, where only Brahmans can be priests. Likewise, both sexes were originally initiated into the sect, but there are now very few nuns. Their most popular festival is Rāmlila, which is celebrated throughout North India. The Rāmacaritmanasa is recited, and the story of Rāma and Sītā is enacted, from Rāma's birth to the establishment of his Rāmrajya ("Rama's Rule," i.e., paradise).

Roger D. Long

See alsoBhakti

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Basham, A. L., ed. A Cultural History of India. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

Flood, Gavin, ed. The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.