Sant Ravidas (Raidas)

Sant Ravidas was a cobbler of Kashi who mended shoes by the roadside and gave his earnings and his time to sadhus. His followers celebrate his birth on Magha Purnima at Seer Goverdhanpur in Varanasi. Tradition counts him among the disciples of Swami Ramananda, with Kabir, Sain and Pipa, and the bhakta-charitras tell many kathas of him: the Ganga that rose in his leather-worker’s water bowl, which gave the saying “man changa to kathauti mein Ganga”, a pure mind finds the Ganga in a tanner’s tub; and the princess Meera who came to him for guidance. Forty of his shabads are kept in the Guru Granth Sahib, and many more padas and sakhis survive in north Indian collections. He speaks openly of the scorn he met for his birth and answers it not with anger but with God: the Lord who sets a royal canopy over the head of the despised. His image of Begampura, a city without sorrow where no one is second-class, is still sung. He sang of a nirguna Ram and of Hari, and his best-loved pada, “Prabhu ji tum chandan ham pani”, is the plainest statement of devotion in Hindi. Communities across Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and beyond honour him as their guru.