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Photo: Master of the first generation after Manaku and Nainsukh of · Public domain
Saint

Guru Ravidas

Saint-poet of Kashi, singer of Begampura

15th–16th century CE

Ravidas, a leather-worker of Seer Govardhanpur near Kashi, sang of a city without sorrow where none is high or low. Forty of his hymns are in the Guru Granth Sahib, and his jayanti on Magha Purnima draws lakhs to Varanasi.

“Begampura, the city without sorrow, is its name; no grief or anxiety dwells in that place.”Guru Granth Sahib, Raag Gauri, Ang 345 (Bhagat Ravidas)

01The Ganga in a tanner’s bowl

He worked at mending shoes all his life and gave freely to sadhus. Tradition makes him a disciple of Swami Ramananda, like Kabir. The saying everyone in the Hindi lands knows, “man changa to kathauti mein Ganga”, if the mind is pure the Ganga is in the tanner’s water-bowl, comes from a katha about him: a Brahmin going to bathe in the Ganga offered to carry his gift, and the Mother herself is said to have reached out of the water for it. Meerabai and, by tradition, the queen Jhali of Chittor called him guru.

02Begampura

When Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth in 1604, he included forty shabads and one shalok of Ravidas. The best known is Begampura, the city without grief, where there is no tax and no fear, no second or third class, and all walk where they please. His followers, the Ravidassia, and devotees of every background gather at the Guru Ravidas Janmasthan temple at Seer Govardhanpur on Magha Purnima.

Kashi Vishwanath
Place · Present temple 1780, Ahilyabai Holkar; gold on the spires 1835, Maharaja Ranjit SinghKashi VishwanathThe Jyotirlinga of Kashi, the city Shiva never leaves, where death on the ghats is said to bring moksha. The temple was destroyed in 1194 and 1669 and stands today beside the mosque built on its old plinth.Read →

“Begampura, the city without sorrow, is its name; no grief or anxiety dwells in that place.”

Guru Granth Sahib, Raag Gauri, Ang 345 (Bhagat Ravidas)

Places

Kashi VishwanathRebuilt
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Kashi Vishwanath

The Jyotirlinga of Kashi, the city Shiva never leaves, where death on the ghats is said to bring moksha. The temple was destroyed in 1194 and 1669 and stands today beside the mosque built on its old plinth.