ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>R&#256M&#256NANDA (1300-1410)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="RMNANDA,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279R&#256M&#256NANDA (1300-1410), promoter of Vai&#7779&#7751av Bhakti in North India and founder of the Bair&#257g&#299 sect of anchorites, was born at Pray&#257ga (All&#257h&#257b&#257d) in a K&#257nyakuba Br&#257hma&#7751 family. He studied in K&#257&#347&#299 (Ban&#257ras), the ancient seat of learning, and it was here that he became 'a disciple of R&#257ghav&#257nanda, the fourth <i>&#257ch&#257rya</i> (teacher, preacher, head of a sect) in the line of R&#257m&#257nuja, the founder of Va&#347i&#7779&#7789&#257dvaita. He was, however, more liberal than his <i>gur&#363</i> with regard to the caste system in general and untouchability in particular. He initiated a separate sect of his own, the R&#257m&#257vat or R&#257m&#257nand&#299 Samprad&#257ya, with Lord R&#257ma and S&#299t&#257 as its Supreme Deity instead of Chaturbhuja N&#257r&#257ya&#7751a and Lak&#7779am&#299 worshipped by followers of Sr&#299 Samprad&#257ya. R&#257m&#257nanda established himself as a teacher at K&#257&#7779&#299, where to this day Pañchga&#7749g&#257 Gh&#257&#7789 is associated with his name. From there his disciples, the R&#257m&#257nand&#299 Bair&#257g&#299s, spread his message of R&#257ma-worship all over the country, but mostly in the central Gangetic plain. It is perhaps his liberal views regarding caste distinctions that has led to a well-established tradition that a number of low caste saints of the Bhakti movement, such as the weaver Kab&#299r, leather worker Ravid&#257s, the barber Sain and the J&#257&#7789 peasant Dhann&#257 were his disciples, chronological impossibilities notwithstanding.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Many works in Sanskrit and Hindi are ascribed to R&#257m&#257nanda by his followers, but modern scholars accept only two, <i>Vai&#7779navamatabja Bh&#257skar</i> and <i>R&#257m&#257chan&#257 Paddhat&#299</i> as authentic. Two Hindi <i>padas</i> (hymns) attributed to him are found in the <i>Sarb&#257&#7749g&#299</i> compiled by Rajjab. One of them which duplicates his single hymn included in Sikh Scripture, the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, points to his nearness to the Sant tradition of <i>nirgu&#7751a-bhakti</i> (worship of the Transcendent One). In this hymn (GG, 1195) idol-worship is clearly rejected, the supreme Deity, Br&#257hma&#7751, is conceived as all-pervading, revealed to the mind only through the <i>&#347abda</i> of the True Gur&#363, whereas <i>Vedas</i> and <i>pur&#257&#7751as</i> avail nothing.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Macauliffe, Max Arthur, <i>The Sikh Religion</i>. Oxford, 1909<BR> <li class="C1"> N&#257bh&#257d&#257s, <i>Bhaktam&#257l&#257</i>, ed. S.B. Prasad. Lucknow, 1951<BR> <li class="C1"> Barathw&#257l, P.D., <i>R&#257m&#257nanda k&#299 Hind&#299 Rach&#257n&#257e&#7749</i>. Vara&#7749asi, 1955<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">R&#257m Si&#7749gh Tomar<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>