A NEW GUJARATA AND THE PURXNIC MOVEMENT 115

shrouded in tradition; his creed is found only in the devo-
tional songs composed by his disciples. Ramananda, origi-
nally a follower of Ramanuja, began his apostolic work in
North India. He was an uncompromising advocate of
purity of heart, and spread the worship of Rama, the high-
souled hero of the RUmUyana and the seventh avatara of
Vishnu. He protested against social and religious evils.
The Vedas, Brahmanas, rituals, inequalities of caste, the
grossness of idolatry, and even Samskrta came in for his
iconoclastic zeal. He stood for God, humility, and equality
of men.

His teachings proved very popular among the lower
classes of Hindus and Mussalmans. His principal disciples
included Kabira, a spinner, Raidasa, a tanner, Sena, a
barber, Sadna, a butcher, and Naraharidasa, a Brahmana.
Kabira, a Hindu brought up by a Musalman, was catholic
in an age of orthodoxy; and his padas, songs, appealed
equally to both communities. He created a great impres-
sion in Gujarata and the Kabirpantha gave rise to sects
which claimed numerous adherents. Guru Nanaka
(1469-1555), the founder of Sikhism, was a disciple of Rai-
dasa ; and the Grantha Snheb, the sacred book of the sect,
contains the only available padas of Ramananda and Rai-
dasa, Naraharidasa was the guru of Tulsidasa (1532-1623),
the greatest of saint-poets of the age. The latter's Kama-
caritamUnasa, if judged by the number of men it has in-
spired, can be classed among the first few books in the
literature of the world.

Ramananda and-his disciples wielded a great liberalising
influence over their age. Even the orthodox Brahmatia
was shaken out of his religious groove, and could not but
admire their tenets and revere the idealism for which the
deity, Rama, stood. They threw their weight against Sam-
skrta, and were the first unflinching champions of the
language of the people. Kabira's attack on the lovers of
iamskrta runs thus:

Panditas talk in Samskrta alone and dubb those who use the bhasha ignor-
,nt fools. In the world, panditas praise only Samskrta. But bhakti through
he bhasha alone gives strength and leads to salvation. Samskrta is the water