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Twilight of the Sultanate c18: Chapter 13: An Age of Socio-Religious Reformers

Twilight of the Sultanate c18

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Chapter 13: An Age of Socio-Religious Reformers

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PERHAPS THE GREATEST event of the fifteenth century was the silent revolution in Indian society brought about by a galaxy of socio-religious reformers. While themselves a product of the age the impress of which their teachings surely bore, the impact of their message on society was so great and so universal that Sikandar Lodi's religious intolerance appeared completely out of date. We shall now turn to make an appraisal of their contribution to the social and cultural life of the period under study.

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About the time that Islam made its appearance in south India, a religious upheaval was in the offing there. The leader of this Hindu revivalist movement was Shankaracharya. Shankaracharya, as is well known, extinguished the last flicker of Buddhism, gave a new orientation to Hinduism, which after all had never died. But his *Advaitwād* was beyond the comprehension of the masses; it remained a subject of discussion among the intellectuals. Sankara, however, was not just a reformer; he was primarily a philosopher, a thinker and a crusader. His dynamic personality threw out sparks which illuminated the varied aspects of Hinduism. A century later Rāmānuja modified Shankara's monism, rejected the Mayawād, and laid the principle of *Visist Advaitwād*. Rāmānuja's monism was not so uncompromising,¹ but he and Shankara had retaught the nation the age-long idea of One Supreme Being. But in spite of the works of these masters and their followers the religion of the Hindus remained a blending of the two different tendencies, the monism of the intellectuals and the deistic polytheism of the commoners in which Brahminism, caste and Sanskrit were all preserved. All this is vouched for by Alberuni.

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¹ Rāmānuja derived inspiration from ancient Hindu works, especially the *Purānās*, *Brahma Sūtras* and the *Bhagavad Gītā*, but Grierson thinks that he was also influenced by Islam. Tara Chand, *Influence of Islam on Indian Culture*, 108.

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Philosophers and thinkers continued to appear on the country's stage in an unbroken chain in later centuries, helping people to assuage their sufferings and to live courageously. But as with the progress of time everything changes, their outlook also gradually changed. In the fifteenth century, India saw a number of such reformers who, while deriving inspiration from the old masters, struck a new note and by their robust outlook helped the teeming millions of the country to get out of age-long superstitious traditions and march on the path of amity and progress.

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The advent of Islam could not but cast its influence on the Indian thinkers. The Muslim Sūfī orders (Silsilā) were a great asset to the people in general and to the Muslims in particular. The tolerance of the Sūfī saints and their pious life earned them universal respect and helped to bring Hindus and Muslims close to each other. Some of them kept close to the Sultans, but the majority of the great amongst them would have nothing to do with the government. Both Nizāmuddīn Auliyā and Shaikh Nāsiruddīn Chirāgh-i-Dehlī kept away from the government.² Their non-alignment with the State, and sometimes their open defiance of the Sultans, resulted in the rapid decline of the Chistiā-Nizāmiā Silsilā in the latter part of the fourteenth century. But their failure could not just leave a vacuum. It gave rise to a national religious movement in the fifteenth century throughout the country,—Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bengal, the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The movement first gathered strength in Maharashtra where Nāmdēva³ in the thirteenth century declared that both Hindus and Muslims were blind in insisting upon worshipping in temples and mosques, while he for His worship needed neither temple nor mosque.⁴ Such courageous denunciations were infectious and

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² Shaikh Nizāmuddīn Auliyā was dead against co-operation with the government, and suffered much on that account in his last days.

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³ Later he migrated to the Punjab and his songs betray an influence of Punjabī. Parasuram Chaturvedi, *Sant Kāvya*, 144.

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⁴ हिन्दू अंधा तुरकूं काना । दुहुंते ज्ञानी सयाना ॥

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हिन्दू पूजे देहुरा । मुसलमान मसीत ॥
नामा सोई सेवया । जहां देहुरा न मसीत ॥
(The Hindu is blind; the Turk is half-blind,
But one who knows is wiser than either;
The Hindu worships in temple and
The Muslim in mosque;

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Kabīr, Nānak, Chaitanya, Raidās, Garībdās and Dadū Dayāl spoke in similar strain in later centuries. Their thought was deeply influenced by the sūfism of the north on the one hand and on the other by the centuries of Hindu religious fervour in the south. Rāmānanda was its progenitor.

Rāmānanda

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Rāmānanda brought to northern India the religious revival which Rāmānuja had initiated in the south. This movement was "in part a reaction against the increasing formalism of the orthodox cult, in part an assertion of the demands of the heart as against the intellectualism of the Vedānta",⁵ and was kept alive by a number of famous saints in the direct line of descent from Rāmānuja to Rāmānanda.⁶ There is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the date of Rāmānanda's birth and death, but Kabīr being his disciple and therefore contemporary, there is good reason to believe that he lived and worked during the first half of the fifteenth century. Rāmānand was born at Prayag in a Brahman family and received his education at Allahabad and Varanasi. His first teacher was a Shankaran Advaitist, but later on Rāmānand became a disciple of Rāghavānanda, who belonged to the Sri Sampradāya of Rāmānuja. Rāmānanda travelled widely and studied deeply. At Varanasi he joined in philosophical discussions with learned Muslims and Brahmans.⁷ It was there that he passed most of his years, teaching and preaching.

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⁵ Tagore, *Poems of Kabīr*, Introduction, v-vi.

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⁶ Rāmānuja, Dévāchārya, Haryānanda, Raghavānanda, Rāmānanda, Sitaram Bhagwan Prasad, *Bhakt Māla*, 264; Islamic Culture, VII, 1933, 650; Tara Chand, *op. cit.*, 143.

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⁷ Macauliffe, *The Sikhs*, VI, 102; Tagore, *Poems of Kabīr*, xii.

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There is very little literary work credited to Rāmānanda. But his ideas can be collected from the writings of his immediate followers who claim them to be his. Rāmānanda substituted the worship of Rāma, son of Dashrath, for that of Vishnū. Rāma was not *Nirguna*, but an incarnation of God, an ideally Perfect Being, *Maryādā Purushottama*. Him Rāmānanda worshipped and taught His

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Nama (Namdeva) worships the same (God) (But)
Neither (in) temple nor mosque.)

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Bhakti to all without distinction of caste or creed. Thus, although born and bred in the old conservative Brahman atmosphere, he broke the shackles of orthodoxy and admitted into his new sect of Bhakts all men without distinction. His disciples came from all castes, from both sexes and even from among the Muslims. Thus he gave absolute social equality to all, even the privilege of studying the scriptures. All previous thinkers, more or less, had accepted the institution of Caste. But Rāmānanda had nothing to do with it. Indeed he may be said to have begun what is known as the religious renaissance in Medieval India.

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Of the numerous disciples of Rāmānanda, a dozen illustrious ones have become famous. They are Kabīr, Bhavānanda, Ātmānanda, Sursura, Padmāvatī, Narharī, Raidās, Dhannā, Pīpā, Saīn, Sukha and the wife of Sursura. Amongst these socio-religious reformers the name of Kabīr stands above all the others.

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*Sant Kabīr*

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Kabīr’s chronology and circumstances of his birth are obscure.⁸ Although it may not be possible to assign a definite date to Kabīr, A. D. 1425 as the year of his birth and A. D. 1492 or 1518 as that of his death⁹ may be taken to be quite probable.

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⁸ According to Macauliffe and Bhandarkar he was born in A.D. 1398, and according to Westcott and Farquhar in 1440. After discussing the various dates of his birth, Dr. Tarachand thinks 1425 as “eminently reasonable”. Parasuram Chaturvedi, more or less, arrives at the same conclusion. Tara Chand, *op. cit.*, 147; Parasuram Chaturvedi, *Sant Kāvya*, 157.

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⁹ *Sant Vānī Sangrah*, I, has 1518 while Sitaram Saran Bhagwan Das (*Bhakta Māla*, 474), has 1492.

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Kabīr’s parents were a Muslim couple of the weaver class, Nīrū and his wife Nīmā. According to a legend of uncertain date, he was the natural child of a Brahman widow who, to hide her shame, left him near a tank, and the weaver couple adopted him.¹⁰ Such a story might be spicy but there is probably no truth in it. That he was brought up as a Muslim and grew in the Hindu environment of Varanasi are facts which are generally accepted.¹¹ Kabīr does not seem to have received any formal education, perhaps he even did not know to read and write, but he possessed an inquiring mind¹² and living at Varanasi as he did, he became conversant with the religious literature of the Hindus. He also knew quite a bit about Islam, the religion of his parents, and about Hinduism. As he grew up his thirst for religious knowledge increased. Rāmānanda accepted him as a disciple and initiated Kabīr into a deeper knowledge of Hindu philosophy and religion.

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¹⁰ *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 22.

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¹¹ Macauliffe, VI, 122-41; *Dabistān-i-Mazāhib*, Troyer and Shea, II, 186-91; *Āīn*, Jarret, II, 171-72.

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¹² *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 34, 35.

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Kabīr took to his father's profession of weaving. He wove his cloth and while he did so he sang his ideas in songs. Some songs he wove in perfect poetry as he did his cloth, but most of the others are broken in language and faulty in grammar. He never used paper or pen, but communicated his compositions orally. The headquarters of the Kabīr Panthīs at Kabīr Chaura in Varanasi possess a collection of twenty-one books of the master. The language of these works is simple. He was no finished philosopher but only a mystic poet. He preached his message in the form of Sakhīs, Shabdas, Ramāinīs, etc. Sakhīs mostly deal with social conduct; while Shabdas and Ramāinīs elaborate religious and philosophical principles, though there is no deliberate attempt at such separation.¹³

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¹³ *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 48.

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Kabīr was a great social and religious reformer. His mission in life was to fight against all prevailing superstition—blind faith in the word of scriptures, pilgrimages, idol-worship, ritualism incarnations and the like. He fought against the caste-system and against all intolerance. But his approach to all these problems was of a positive character. He wanted to unite the Hindus and Muslims and wipe out all distinctions of caste and creed. He preached a religion of universal brotherhood. He was convinced that the essence of Hinduism and Islam was the same. He selected from both the religions their common elements and tried to demonstrate that the orthodox Pandits and 'Ulema were ignorant of the basic truth of the two creeds. While propounding his ideas he was partial to neither.

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According to Kabīr there is only one God, although He is called by different names—Rām, Rahīm, Allāh, Khudā, Harī, Govind and the like.¹⁴ He conceived of Him as attributeless (Nirguna), who has neither shape nor form. By this Kabīr escaped the excessive emotionalism which resulted from the worship of anthropomorphic personality, seen, for example, in the exuberance of Krishṇa worship. But then he also avoided the dry-as-dust conclusions of pure monism, and apprehended Him as the supreme object of love.¹⁵

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¹⁴ *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 34.

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¹⁵ Tara Chand, 154.

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Kabīr thinks that God and soul are identical and there is thus no distinction between the Absolute and the devotee. He often compares the relationship between them as that of the sea and the waves¹⁶ or the ice and water.¹⁷ The destiny of the individual is the merging of the part (soul) with the whole (God) or the realisation of union with Him. The path of this spiritual endeavour is long and difficult, but not so difficult as to frighten the devotee. Thus while love directed towards the Nirguna takes a mystic form,¹⁸ it is also direct and warm, like the wife’s passionate love for her husband, the longing of the bride for the bridegroom and the devotion of a faithful servant for his master.¹⁹ In his characterisation of this love Kabīr combines the Vaishnava concept of Bhakti with the Sūfī devotion to Allāh.

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¹⁶ K. M. Sen, *Kabīr*, II, 74.

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¹⁷ > पाणीं ही तैं हिम भया । हिम ह्वै गया बिलाई ॥

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¹⁸ *Kabīr Sākhī Sār*, 40-42.

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¹⁹ Tagore, *Poems of Kabīr*, XXIX.

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God being Absolute, belief in idols and Avatārs is gross superstition. “The images are all lifeless, they cannot speak: I know for I have cried aloud to them.” So is also the case with temples and mosques, K’abā and Kashi. Like Nāmdēva, Kabīr declares: “The Hindu resorts to the temple and the Musalman to the mosque, but Kabīr goes to the place where both are known.²⁰ Kabīr fails to understand how there can be one God for Hindus and another for Muslims. “If you say that I am a Hindu then it is not true, nor am I a Musalman … Mecca has verily become Kashi, and Rām has become Rahīm.”²¹

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²⁰ Yugalānand, *Kabīr Saheb Ki Sākhī*, Madhya Ka Anga.

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²¹ *Ibid.*

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जो कुछ था सोई भया । अब कछु कहा न जाई ॥
(The water coagulates into snow,
And the snow melts into water;
It (only) changes into Itself,
Now nothing (what else) can be said.)
*Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 35.

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Union with God can be realised; but not just through inspiration and intense devotion (Bhakti). It is of the utmost importance to seek a spiritual preceptor (Gurū), for a devotee faces many temptations and doubts in his Sādhanā, and Māyā is ever intent on attracting man away from God.²² Great caution is needed in the selection of Gurū. A wrong choice would only lead both the Gurū and the disciple into the well of darkness.²³ A Gurū is that Sadhū who has already realised union with Him and can inspire faith in his disciple. But once the Gurū is selected, confidence in him should be unconditional. "Consider the Gurū as Govind (God)",²⁴ nay he is even superior to Him, for "If Harī becomes angry, Gurū is the refuge, but if Gurū is angry then there is no place to go to."²⁵ In the *panth* of Kabīr, Gurū holds the same position as Pīr in any Sūfi order.

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²² *Kabīr Sākhī Sār*, 25-32.

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²³ जाका गुर भी अंधला । चेला खरा निरंध ॥ अंधे अंधा ठेलिया । दून्यूं कूप पडंत ॥ (One whose Gurū is blind, (ignorant), While the disciple is completely blind (ignorant), The blind leads the blind and Both fall into the well.) *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 2.

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²⁴ Yugalānand, *op. cit.*, Guru Deva Ka Anga.

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²⁵ हरि रूठ गुरू ठौर है । गुर रूठे नहिं ठौर ॥ (When Harī (God) gets annoyed There is refuge with the Gurū; But when the Gurū gets annoyed, There is no refuge.) *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, also Yugalānand, 6.

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Under the guidance of the Gurū, by yogic exercises and Sādhanā, the disciple would gain complete control of his passion and desire. By abandoning anger and pride and by acquiring humility, poverty and patience he would experience that self-effacement in which he would realise his identity with Him. One who truly seeks His protection (*sharana*) is never disappointed, for He is merciful (Dayālū and Meharbān).

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For union with Him there was no need to completely retire from the world or to flee to the jungle. Kabīr, who felt that he had realised union with Him, himself never left the world. He lived the life of a house-holder, stuck to his profession and earned an income.

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He advocated the same simple recipe for others. One should live in the world, but should have no attachment to worldly things as they were Māyā.

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Thus Kabīr preached a universal religion, and showed a path which everybody could tread. But people, he found, were enveloped in gross superstition. There were distinctions of high and low and differences between Hindus and Muslims. Therefore he fervently appealed to them to give up their superstitious beliefs and dogmas, and take to the path of universal brotherhood. He asked the Hindus to give up all externalia of religion—worship of idols, ritualism, belief in distinctions of caste and creed, emphasis on scriptures and incarnations. He asked the Muslims to give up their arrogance and blind faith in "one Prophet and his book". Pilgrimages to Mecca, fasts and regulated prayers were meaningless. To both Hindus and Muslims he taught reverence for the living creatures, to abstain from violence and bloodshed, to give up all pride and live like brothers. Kabīr was perhaps the first socio-religious reformer who clearly and repeatedly declared that Hindus and Musalmans were the children of the one Supreme Being. They must live as one. Their differences were the product of their ignorance.

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In his attacks on the ignorant and superstitious, Kabīr was uncompromising. Day in and day out this weaver, sitting in front of his lowly cottage weaving his cloth (so the pictures depict him), would castigate the Hindus and the Muslims, sparing none. The unusual in Kabīr attracted the people towards him. The story of his birth was unusual, his education was unusual—he was an unlettered philosopher—his way of life was unusual—he was both an ascetic and a householder, a saint who earned his living by work—his approach to the problems of society was unusual, he criticised all. People listened to him because he spoke the truth, bare and stark. But some of them were naturally annoyed at his scathing criticism of everything they believed or did. The Muslims could hardly tolerate being told that their religion was not superior to others, and their fasts and pilgrimages had no intrinsic worth. The Hindus could not always bear to hear that their temples and gods, the *Vedas* and *Shāstras*, their caste and *Varna* were all false. In the view of the orthodox, whether Hindu or Muslim, Kabīr was plainly a heretic. Some of the Mullās and Pandits lodged a protest with Sikandar Lodī against the activities of Kabīr. This was about the year 1495 when Sikandar Lodī was completing his subjugation of the eastern region. The Sultan summoned Kabīr to his presence, but was averse to punishing this well-meaning old man of more than sixty years of age. Moreover, there appeared nothing blasphemous in the simple teachings of a poor weaver. Sikandar, therefore, only sent him into temporary exile, from Varanasi to Maghār.

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In spite of the malicious opposition from the orthodox people, Kabīr's movement became a living force in the fifteenth century and after. For the lower caste Hindus, he was like Christ. He saved them from degradation and resuscitated Hindu society by reclaiming them to it. Kabīr not only succeeded fairly well in his mission, but he also inspired many contemporary and later thinkers who kept his movement alive and led society forward on the path shown by him.

Other Disciples Of Rāmānanda

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Of the disciples of Rāmānanda, Kabīr undoubtedly occupies the first place. But Dhannā, Pīpā, Saīn and Raidās also delivered the same broad-based message though in an humbler way. Some of the hymns of the first three are preserved in the *Ādigrantha* of the Sikhs, while Raidās's teachings have been published separately.

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Dhannā was born in the village of Dhuan, in Tank, Rajputana.²⁶ He was a simple peasant and taught Bhakti to the people through his simple songs. Pīpā was the Raja of Gagraungarh, but being of saintly temperament, became the disciple of Rāmānanda. "*Pīpājī Ki Bānī*" has not been published, but a hymn in the *Ādigranth* shows the same tendency as is found in other contemporary saints, that is, worship must be internal and discipleship of Gurū helps one to attain God. Saīn was a barber. His hymns are both in Marathi and Hindi, which shows that his message influenced both the south and the north. Ravidās or Raidās belonged to Varanasi.

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²⁶ He was born in A.D. 1472 according to Macauliffe and in A.D. 1415 according to Tarachand; but since he was a disciple of Rāmānanda the latter date seems to be more probable. Tarachand, 178; Also *Sant Kāvya*, 228.

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He was a worker in leather and the people of his family used to do the work of removing carcasses.²⁷ It was in consonance with the spirit of the fifteenth century that such a very low caste reformist came to be known as a saint (*sant*). It is said that Jhālī Rānī, a princess of Mewar, became his disciple. His poems, retailed in stray publications, show his heart completely saturated with the love of God.

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²⁷ *Sant Kāvya*, 210.

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Kabīr and his contemporaries (including his son Sant Kamāl) influenced the life and thought of the people in Uttar Pradesh, Rajputana, northern Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and perhaps the south also. Nānak, another mighty mind, created a similar stir in the Punjab.

Gurū Nānak

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Nānak met Kabīr when he was about twenty-seven years of age.²⁸ This must have been nearabout the last decade of the fifteenth century when Kabīr was more than sixty-five and his fame had spread far and wide. There is no doubt that Nānak learnt much from Kabīr, for in the *Ādigranth*, the religious Book of the Sikhs, there are many lines composed by Kabīr.

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²⁸ Westcott, *Kabīr and Kabīr Panth*; *Kabīr Granthāvalī*, 20.

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Nānak's chronology is fairly certain and exact. He was born on the full-moon day of Kārtik, 26 November, 1469 at the village of Talwandī, situated on the banks of the Ravi, in the district of Gujranwalla. He appears to have acquired some knowledge of Hindi and Persian, but was averse to any deep desire for learning. He was tried on many odd jobs like agriculture and shop-keeping but without much success.

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At the age of eighteen Nānak was married to a Khattrī girl Sulākhin, and by her he had two sons, Srī Chand and Lakshmī Chand.²⁹ But he was neither attached to his family nor to his job. He longed to satisfy his spiritual hunger—an innate thirst to know the Truth. At last when he was about thirty years he gave up his home and his job and became a Sanyasī. He set out to meet Sadhūs and saints and to gather experience. On his wanderings he was accompanied by Bhai Bālā, his companion from childhood and Bhai Mardānā, a Muhammadan Rabābī or minstrel who used to play on the harp when the master meditated. Nānak’s common recitation in the praise of the Creator was “Tūhī Nirankār, Kirtār,—Nānak Bandā Terā”. With regard to Nānak’s travels, it is difficult to speak with precision, but he appears to have visited most of the important places in India, Ceylon, Arabia and Iran. He seems to have visited Mecca and Medina in the garb of a Muhammedan faqīr.³⁰ All kinds of miraculous stories are related in connection with these travels. In 1504 he became the Gurū of the Sikhs (*Shishya*, disciples) and for the next thirty-four years he preached his message. During these years also he travelled, and most of the places he visited in the Punjab in course of time became centres of pilgrimage.³¹ He breathed his last in 1538 in his home-town at the ripe age of seventy. The Muslims erected a tomb and the Hindus a shrine in his memory. Both the tomb and the *samādhi* have since been swept away by the waters of the Ravi.

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²⁹ Srī Chand later founded the order of Udāsīs who have a number of *Akhārās* all over the Punjab.

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³⁰ Ind. Ant., III, 1874, 298.

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³¹ *Kiara Saheb*, where he used to lie in youth grazing cattle; *Mal Saheb*, where he spent the money given by his father for trade on feeding the Sadhus and thus did Kharā Saudā or true business; *Sant Ghāt* and *Baba Ki Bīr* where he used to bathe and sit near Ban Nadi; *Rori Saheb*, where he slept at Aminabad; *Panja Saheb* in Hasan Abdāl near Rawalpindi—and many others. Ind. Ant., III, 1874, 295-99.

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Nānak regarded himself as the prophet of God, and had “received from His door-step” the message which he delivered.³² His mission was the unification of the Hindus and the Muslims. Punjab was so situated as always to bear the brunt of the attack of invaders from the north-west. During the invasion of Tīmūr it had suffered terribly. All along the fifteenth century it was in turmoil; foreign invaders and local rebels had brought about untold misery to the fair land of the Five Rivers. In Nānak’s days the pressure of Islam on the people of the Punjab was daily increasing. There seemed to be no end to the conflict between the Hindus and the Muslims. Nānak realised that in order to heal the wounds of society, it was necessary to end the conflict of religions. He strove towards that end. That was the mission of his life.

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³² Khazān Singh, *The History and Philosophy of Sikhism*, II, 350.

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His *Janam Sākhis* (biographies) declare that the first words that the Gurū uttered after his revelation were: "There is no Hindu, there is no Musalman."³³ This clearly indicates that it was Nānak's settled intention to do away with differences between the two by instituting a third course which should supersede both of them. Nānak's message is similar to that of Kabīr's, for both were trying to cure the same diseases of the same society.

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³³ T. P. Hughes, *Dictionary of Islam*, 586.

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The chief point of Nānak's teaching was unquestionably the unity of God. The Sikh Gurū conceived of God as One, Nirguna (attributeless) and Nirākār (formless). He "is inaccessible, fathomless and is exalted above all."³⁴ Once this Absolute Supreme could be understood there was to be no difference between His creatures, Hindus or Muslims, and there was to be no quarrel about His name. Nānak himself uses the names of Harī, Rām, Govind, Brahma, Allāh, Khudā, Sāhab, Parmēshwara, with absolute freedom. By emphasising the Majesty of the Absolute Supreme the Gurū dealt a blow to the Hindu pantheon of deities. In the *Ādi Granth*³⁵ it is clearly stated that "the cause of causes is the Creator."³⁶

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³⁴ Macauliffe, I, 363.

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³⁵ *Ādi Granth* of Gurū Nānak is distinguished by the *Guru Granth* finalised by Gurū Govind Singh.

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³⁶ Dr. Trumpp's translation of the *Ādi Granth*, 474; Hughes, 590.

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Man's soul is held by Nānak to be a ray of light emanating from the Light Divine.³⁷ But being enmeshed in Māyā, men are deluded into egotism and think of their existence as apart from His. This delusion prevents the pure soul from freeing itself from the matter, and hence the long chain of painful births and deaths, of transmigration of the soul. To remove this delusion and to return and merge with the Light Divine should be the aim of man. It is like *fanā* of the Sūfīs and *Nirvāna* of the Buddhists. This can be achieved by constant remembrance of His name (*Smarana*), ardent, constant, sincere *smarana*, be it of any name of God. One who is constantly lost in love of God is in harmony with Him and His creations. He loves and serves all, and hates none. Nānak laid great emphasis on right action and humility of temper.

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³⁷ Macauliffe, *op. cit.*, II, 171.

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It is by complete surrender to Him that self-realisation is possible, not by pilgrimages, idol-worship, practice of austerities, self-torture or mechanical recitation of this or that formulae. He strongly condemns the superstitions of both Hindus and Muslims. "Until thou art saturated with the True name, nothing would avail thee," says Nānak.³⁸ He attacks the caste-system of the Hindus and declares himself to be "with those who are low-born among the lowly."³⁹ To the Musalmans his advice is : "Make kindness thy mosque, sincerity thy prayer-carpet, what is just and lawful thy Qurān".⁴⁰ Like Kabīr, Gurū Nānak is never tired of praising the good and attacking the evil. He threatens sinners with dire punishments, but if they chose to walk along the path of virtue, the mercy of God was always there for He was ever ready to help.

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³⁸ He exclaims:

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³⁹ Macauliffe, I, 186.

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⁴⁰ *Ibid.*, 1, 38.

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Self-realisation was to be achieved amidst the tumult and turmoil of life. Sachkhand (the kingdom of Heaven) was to be earned within this world. Renunciation of the world was tantamount to fleeing from the battle of life. The Gurū knew that after all people have to live in the world and work in their professions, and a religion of renunciation could not suit them.⁴¹ He, therefore, advocated a middle path between extreme asceticism and free satisfaction of the senses. Like Kabīr, Gurū Nānak also thought that a preceptor (Gurū) was essential for one who sought self-realisation.

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⁴¹ Tarachand, 174; Macauliffe, I, 13.

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As time passed Sikhism became a full-fledged religion almost of the pattern of Islam. It had a Prophet (Gurū Nānak), a Book

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"Hadst thou the eighteen *Puranas* with thee,
Couldst thou recite the four *Vedas*,
Didst thou bathe on holy days and give alms according to man's castes,
Didst thou fast and perform religious ceremonies day and night,
Wast thou a Qāzī, a Mullā, or a Shaikh,
A Jogi, a Jaṅgam, didst thou wear an ochre-coloured dress
Or didst thou perform the duties of a house-holder,
Without knowing God, Death would bind and take all men away."
Also,
"He who worshippeth stones, visiteth places of pilgrimage, dwelleth in
forests,
And renounceth the world, wandereth and wavereth,
How can his filthy mind become pure."
Macauliffe, I, 133, 139.

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(*Ādi Granth*; later the *Gurū Granth Sahab*) and a Church (Gurudwārā for the *Sangat*). Amritsar became the Mecca of the Sikhs (during the time of Gurū Rām Das) and they paid a religious tax (started by Gurū Arjun) of the type of Zakāt. Kabīr had only attacked the evils of the society, but in Nānak's teachings there were seeds of a definite religion. Nānak even otherwise succeeded better while Kabīr caused offence by his airs of superiority. Nānak's pure and serene way of life, his characteristic humility and his forbearance won for him the love of the people. He could prove what he said, and his "miraculous" acts made many staunch Hindus and Muslims his sincere disciples.⁴² In the course of the next two centuries political persecution changed Sikhism into a militant religion, but in essentials it continued to have the indelible impress of Gurū Nānak's teachings. During the period of our study Sikhism was distinguished by its stern ethical tone and puritanism from similar movements in the fifteenth century.

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⁴² *Dictionary of Islam*, 586-87.

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It has been noted that Kabīr and Nānak and other minor contemporary reformers derived inspiration from Sūfic lore, Hindu religious books, and teachings of earlier masters. Nānak learnt much from Kabīr. Kabīr was a disciple of Rāmānanda and Rāmānanda belonged to the school of Rāmānuja. There is consequently an unmistakable impress of the ideas of Rāmānuja on the teachings of Kabīr and Nānak.

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Both Kabīr and Nānak, while conceiving of God as formless (Nirguna, Nirākār), apprehended Him as the supreme object of love. To Rāmānuja the individual soul, made by God out of his essence, returned to its maker and lived in full communion with him, although ever remaining distinct (*Visistadwaita*). Kabīr considered that the destiny of the individual is the merging of the part (soul) with the whole (God). Similarly Nānak held man's soul to be a ray of light emanating from the Light Divine. To Rāmānuja Bhakti-yoga was the greatest yoga.⁴³ To Kabīr and Nānak and other *sants* of the fifteenth century also Bhakti was the surest way to redemption. Thus Rāmānuja, Kabīr and Nānak all believed in Bhakti as the only means of salvation.

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⁴³ A. L. Basham, *The Wonder that was India*, 332. Tarachand, *op. cit.*, 102.

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Again, just as Rāmānuja had advocated not only unconditional trust in the Gurū but even his adoration (*āchāryā bhimāna—yoga*), so did Kabīr and Nānak give a divine status to the Gurū. Even in the sphere of social reform Rāmānuja had shown the way. He had admitted into the great temple of Srirangam, where he taught and preached, Shudras and the out-caste, although with certain restrictions. For them he had advocated *prapatti* (self-surrender). Kabīr and Nānak recognized no distinction of caste, creed or religion and advocated the path of Bhakti and *prapatti* for all. Thus the teachings of Kabīr and Nānak bore the stamp of Rāmānuja's philosophy and thought.

Vallabhacharya

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Kabīr and Nānak had preached the path of Bhakti for self-realisation. They conceived God as Nirguna (attributeless) and Nirākār (formless). Love for Him took a mystic, Sūfī form. Their influence was greatest in the eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab, but in the fifteenth century the whole of northern India was experiencing a religious ferment. In Bengal and western Uttar Pradesh also Chaitanya and Vallabhacharya helped give rise to a similar religious stir. But their love took the shape of an emotional, even erotic form. Though the two great sects of Chaitanya and Vallabhacharya have different geographical spheres, both adore Krishna as a child or young man. It is not the Nirguna Deity that is worshipped but a Saguna (anthropomorphic). Their almost simultaneous appearance in Bengal and Central India represents an unusually strong current of similar ideas and sentiments⁴⁴ throughout the country.

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⁴⁴ Eliot, *Hinduism*, II.

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Vallabhacharya was the son of Lakshmana Bhatt, a Telingana Brahman, and was born at Varanasi in A. D. 1479. At twelve, Vallabha had already discovered a new Vaishnava religion, and started on a pilgrimage to preach it. He is said to have gone to the court of Krishna Dēvarāya of Vijayanagar, where he defeated some Shaiva pandits in discussion. It is said that while at Vrindāvan, he was visited by Krishna in person.

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Vallabha insisted on the "complete identity of both soul and world with the Supreme Spirit". His monism was known as *Suddha-* *adwaita* or "Pure Non-Duality". According to him Bhakti was both the means and the end; it is given by God; it comes by His grace. He conceived of Brahma as the material cause of the world, and believed that through His grace salvation could be achieved. His was the *Pushtī-Mārg*, or path of salvation through His Grace (*anugraha*). *Pushtī* in its highest form enabled one to attain God; in the ordinary way it enabled one to attain the objects of one's desires. Vallabha regarded the teacher on earth as divine, receiving divine honours.

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Vallabha differed from Rāmānuja in so far that he believed in *Suddha-adwaita*, recognising no distinction between Soul and God—Soul was not His part but Him. Otherwise he also followed in the footsteps of the twelfth century master. Rāmānuja's advocacy of intense devotion to Vishnu is fully realised in Vallabh's faith. According to both, Gurū was comparable to God. Above all, to both of them, God was full of grace, and love for His creation.

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In essence Vallabh's teachings were good, in practice they became "wordly". Eliot thinks that with Vallabh the vision which is generally directed Godwards and forgets the flesh, turned earthwards and forgot God. The literature of the Vallabhacharīs repeatedly states that the Gurū is the same as the deity, and often the worship tended to be licentious when women worshipped the deity in the form of the priest. In the sixteenth century the Rādhā-Vallabhīs, who gave pre-eminence to Rādhā, made the worship a farce bordering on TXobscenity. In the words of Monier Williams,⁴⁵ "Vallabhacharyaism became in its degenerate form the Epicureanism of the East".⁴⁶

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⁴⁵ Also cited in *An Advanced History of India* (Macmillan, 1953), 404.

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⁴⁶ Today the Māhārāj of the Nathdwārā temple in Rajasthan is the chief of the Vallabhī sect.

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In spite of the few weaknesses that had crept in the movement of Vallabhacharya, there were many redeeming features in it. Vallabha advocated the worship of Bāl Gopāl or the Child Lord. The idea is foreign to the western mind, but in India the worship of Bāl Bhagwān has an important place. Vallabha sect also attracted men of all castes and creeds including Muhammadans.

Chaitanya

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The emotional land of Bengal is perhaps the natural ground for the worship of Krishna as the God of love. Here flourished Jayadēva (twelfth century),⁴⁷ Chandi Dās (A. D. 1417-78) and Vidyāpatī (A. D. 1433-81). Their passionate poetry had prepared the way for the passionate lover-beloved Chaitanya. Since Chaitanya was undoubtedly a child of his Age, a word about the social life of those times would not be out of place here.

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⁴⁷ The author of *Gīta Govind*.

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Muslim conquest was not without its blessings in Bengal. There, as elsewhere, developed an understanding between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus offered sweets at Muslims shrines; consulted and kept copies of the Quran. Musalmans responded with similar acts.⁴⁸ Vidyāpatī dedicated his songs to Nāsir Shāh, and Sultan Husain Shāh of Gauda is supposed to have been the originator of the cult of Satya Pir to which both Hindus and Muslims were attracted. But the state of Hindu religion was far from satisfactory. On the one hand there was the worship of Chandī with all its concomitant sacrifices and tantrism of a debased and sensuous nature, on the other society was suffering from the harmful pride of pedigree, caste and religious narrowness. Everywhere in Bengal the power of the Brahmans was in the ascendant, and the lower strata of society groaned under the tyranny of the higher.⁴⁹

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⁴⁸ Tarachand, 217.

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⁴⁹ D. C. Sen, *History of Bengali Language and Literature*, 413-14.

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Such was the background in which Chaitanya appeared on the scene.⁵⁰ He was born at Nawadwīp or Nadia in March, 1486, to Jagannath Misra and his wife Sachi Debi. Nimaī (for that was Chaitanya's pet name in childhood) was a handsome child with expressive eyes and sonorous voice.⁵¹

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⁵⁰ J. N. Sarkar, *Chaitanya's Pilgrimages and Teachings*, 226.

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⁵¹ Ind. Ant., II, 1873, 2; Havell, *Aryan Rule in India*, 415 n. and 30.

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Born in a high class Brahman family, Nimaī shaped well as a boy and was renowned for his love of learning. When eighteen he got married and settled down as a teacher in a *tol* (school) established by himself on the banks of the Bhagīrathī. Nadia at this time was a famous educational centre.⁵² The chief interest of Nadia society was debates on philosophical subjects, and Chaitanya is said to have defeated many famous scholars of the day in intellectual bouts. Soon the call from within did not let him continue in his profession for long. Even as a boy he seems to have been eccentric and used to swoon at the name of Krishna. He left his school and went to east Bengal, where he added to his scholastic reputation. At Gaya he met Ishwar Purī, a Vaishnav devotee and preacher, who initiated him into the Bhakti cult.

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⁵² D. C. Sen, *op. cit.*, 410.

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When he returned home, at twenty-three, he was a completely changed man. He was now known as Chaitanya, which literally means "the soul, the intellect". He was saturated with love of Krishna. He felt that Krishna, the everlasting Being and Radha, the ceaseless Becoming, had attained a mystical identity with him. Everything Krishna did, Chaitanya must do too. Thus *Sankīrtans* (singing in worship) were held and dances done in which Chaitanya and Murārī Gupta and many others used to swoon and foam at the mouth. The new religionists met with some opposition and a good deal of mockery.⁵³ But ultimately all opposition died out. Chaitanya's sincere and emotional *Kīrtans* won him hundreds of adherents from all sections of society, castes, creeds and religions. Their common meeting ground was the *nāma Sankīrtan* (singing the name of the Lord).

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⁵³ Ind. Ant., II, 1873, 3.

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At the age of twenty-five Chaitanya took to Sanyās. Like any other Sanyāsī he started on a round of travels. He first went to the shrine of Jagannāth at Puri and thence for six years he roamed all over India preaching Vaishnavism or the cult of Bhakti. In the north he went up to Vrindāvan, passing through Varanasi and Prayag, and in the south up to Rameshwaram. During his travels he came in touch with many Faqīrs and Sādhūs. He was impressed by the simple and democratic ideas of the Muslim Saints.⁵⁴ At Kashi he won over the Vedantic Sanyāsī Prakāshānand Saraswati to his doctrine of Bhakti. On his way from Vrindāvan to Kashi, he converted by his love ten “Pathan Vairāgīs”.⁵⁵ He returned at last to Puri where he passed the remaining eighteen years of his life. He died in 1534 at the early age of forty-eight. After him, his work was carried on by the Goswamīs, an order of the Vaishnava monks founded by him.

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⁵⁴ As indicated in his biography *Chaitanya Charitamrita* of Krishna Dās Kavirāj, translated by J. N. Sarkar. Also Jadu Bhattacharya, *Hindu Castes and Sects*, 464.

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⁵⁵ *Chaitanya Charitamrita*, Sarkar's translation, 226. Also “His Pilgrimage in Upper India”—*Amrit Bazar Patrika*, Allahabad, Supplement, March 16, 1957.

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Chaitanya’s leading principle is Bhakti or devotion. Like all Vedāntists he speaks of Brahma, the Supreme Being, with the highest esteem, but his Brahma is possessed of attributes which are best manifested in the charming personality of Sri Krishna. His God was a personal being, full of grace and love for His creation and endowed with qualities of unequalled excellence. He calls Him Bhagwān or more frequently Harī. Krishna is a loving God. He inspires love and feels affection for His devotees. According to Chaitanya, Bhakti and love are best exemplified and illustrated by the mutual love of Rādhā and Krishna. In his ideas Chaitanya seems to have been deeply influenced by the *Bhagavad Gītā*, the *Bhāgwat Purāna* and the teachings of Rāmānuja.

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For Chaitanya to strive to be near Him and to completely surrender to Him (*prapatti*) was the way to salvation. In relation to God, reason was useless. The Bhakta passes through five successive stages in his goal of salvation. The first is *Santī*, or resigned contemplation; the second *Dasya* or service and servitude to Him. In the third the devotee reaches a stage of *Sākhya* or friendship which warms into the fourth stage of *Vātsalya* or love like that of a child for its parents. The last stage is of *Mādhurya*, earnest and all-engrossing love, love of a woman for her lover. Chaitanya’s biographers claim that he had experienced this last stage of love and combined in himself the unique blending of the two aspects of God—God the lover and God the beloved—represented in Vaishnava literature as Krishna and Radha.

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Chaitanya was an optimist. Existence to him is not *Māyā*. In existence there is no misery, there is a definite and positive joy. It is the play (*Līlā*) and the playground of God. Like Rāmānuja, Chaitanya also felt that “God needed man as man needed God”.⁵⁶

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⁵⁶ Basham, *op. cit.*, 332.

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Each and every devotee has a place in this *Līlā*. Viewed from this angle, the world is an abode of His play and we are participants in His Divine *Līlā*. Once the devotee feels that everything is a part of His sport, he will actually experience the joy of Krishna's company. His attachment to worldly objects would slacken and his soul will be liberated. Chaitanya thought that even repetition of His name with sincerity and devotion was enough for the people of Kalyug (Kālī Age). This is exactly what Nānak⁵⁷ and Rāmānuja also said.

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⁵⁷ Macauliffe, I, 177.

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Like Rāmānuja and the thinkers of the fifteenth century, Chaitanya gives the Gurū a very prominent place in the life of the devotee. "If a creature adores Krishna and serves his Gurū, he is released from the meshes of illusion and attains to Krishna's feet."⁵⁸ He condemns the ritualistic system of the Brahmans. He is against all distinctions of caste. He accepted disciples from all classes of people. From king Pratap Rudra of Orissa to villains and miscreants like Jagai Madhai and Chalgōpāl, all sorts of people were his disciples and their spiritual regeneration was exemplary. Of his Muslim disciples the names of Rūp, Haridās and Sanatan are prominent.

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⁵⁸ Sarkar, *op. cit.*, 278; Tarachand, 219.

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Again like other contemporary thinkers, Chaitanya was against asceticism or renunciation. Though he became a Sanyāsī himself, he did not like people to renounce their duties in the world. In fact he induced Nityānand, a mendicant, to give up Sanyās, marry and be a house-holder. He also tried his best to persuade Raghunāth, the only heir of a rich family, not to become a Sanyāsī, and only initiated him into Sanyās after giving a number of strict, gruelling tests.

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Thus by attacking the evils of the day and in giving a simple religion of Bhakti to the people, Chaitanya contributed much to the regeneration of the Bengali people. His religion of emotional love, unlike that of Vallabha, retained its chaste form. He severely punished any delinquents and Haridās, a beloved disciple of his, was turned out from his order for behaving indiscreetly in matters of sex. In the beginning Chaitanya had permitted women to join the *Sankīrtans*; later this practice was discouraged.

Conclusion

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The saint-reformers continue to appear in a chain in the succeeding centuries, but the scope of the present work necessitates a review of the work of the reformers of the fifteenth century only. From Rāmānand to Chaitanya it is a long line of some of the greatest thinkers that the country has seen in any one century, and it can be asserted without any fear of contradiction that the fifteenth century in India was an Age of Socio-Religious Reformers.

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These reformers gave to the people a simple religion. They believed in one God—Saguna or Nirguna. The Soul was His part and constantly strove to be near Him or merge with Him. Communion with Him could not be achieved through rituals, pilgrimages, or adherence to the letter of the scriptures. The path of salvation lay in Bhakti. Salvation could be achieved by all; there was no distinction of caste or creed or religion before God. A devotee needed to have a Guru; there was no place for the exploiting priestly class. The Bhakta was not to attach himself to the mundane things of life, nor was he to retire completely from the world. These saints advocated a middle path of life. Theirs was a simple creed which every one could follow.

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The contribution of these reformers in the religious field was great indeed, but it was still greater in the social sphere. By their message these saints revolutionised the Indian society in a peaceful, invisible way. They were men of very high order. Almost all of them travelled widely and extensively, and met people of all shades of opinion and all climes. They belonged to India and not to any state or province. They held cosmopolitan views; they reflected the common urge, the cherished views of their age.

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The urge for unity which began during Tīmūr's invasion, when Hindus and Muslims stood shoulder to shoulder to fight the foreign invader, found its culmination in their teachings. The difference was that unity in the first case was born of adversity and necessity. In the case of these saints, their appeal was directed towards the hearts rather than towards the minds of the people. The doctrine of Bhakti went straight to the heart, and proved to be a panacea for the many prevailing ills. It showed the futility of meaningless religious conflicts when the essence of all religions was but the same.

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It gave the privilege of communion with God to all—high and low—without distinction and without the aid of the self-seeking priestly class. It checked excessive polytheism with its rituals, ceremonies and superstitions and their debasing effects. The masters taught the lowly not to surrender to insolent might just as they taught the strong that all human beings were the children of one God. Their convincing attacks on the caste system helped raise the status of millions of down-trodden people. Perhaps their greatest contribution was the uplifting of the common low-caste man. Besides, their teachings created an atmosphere which produced men like Bodhan Brahman, Dongar Mal, Mān Singh and Ahmad Khan.

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Just as these socio-religious reformers uplifted the social status of the common man, they also helped in the development of the language of the common people throughout the country. Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit were being cultivated in the secluded corridors of Islamic and Hindu institutions. The language of the common man possessed little literature and was hardly studied. Amīr Khusru was perhaps the first national poet who employed Persian metres in Hindī in which he composed many couplets, but by the fifteenth century Hindī got a definite shape at the hands of Sant Kavīs like Kabīr, Raidās, etc. The message of these masters was delivered in simple but beautiful language. Their medium was poetry, mystical and philosophical, sarcastic yet soothing. They preached and composed in Hindī. Therefore, the importance of Sant Kāvya in Hindī language and literature is self-evident. Besides Sūfī poets like Qutban, Manjhan and Jaisī (and the great Bhakta poet Tulsī Dās in the sixteenth century) also greatly enriched Hindī literature. Similarly the Vaishnava poets of Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat contributed much to the development of the languages of their regions. In the Punjab, Gurū Nānak gave to the people a new dialect—Gurmukhī.

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Thus the services of these saints to Indian religious thought, society, language and literature were great indeed. However, looking retrospectively, we find that they could not unite the Hindus and Muslims into one nation, though they spared no pains in their efforts to do so. People of the two faiths listened to their behests, followed their teachings, but then continued to cling to their religions tenaciously. On the death of Kabīr there was a quarrel between his Hindu and Muslim followers about the disposal of his body. The story repeated itself on Nānak's death. In days to come if there was an Akbar in India, there was an Abdul Qādir Badaonī also; if there was a Dārā Shikoh, there was an Aurangzeb too. The division of India and creation of Pakistan (whatever the part played by the divide-and-rule policy of the British Government) points to the painful fact that centuries of association of the people of the two religions could not weld Indians into one nation. Why?

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The work of these reformers lacked in many ways. Their audience generally comprised of low class people whose lot they had sought to improve. The high caste privileged classes seem to have hardly paid much attention to them. They even suspected their motives, and some Brahmans and Mullās even appealed to Sikandar Lodī to put a stop to the activities of Kabīr, which the king did. Now, when an idea or an appeal which is meant for all reaches or influences only a certain section or sections of people, it does not succeed in its purpose. This is what happened with the appeal of these masters. All sections of people appreciate their ideas today, but in their own times their appeal lay mainly with the lower strata of society. Even there they did not work with the intention of converting people to their "faith." Each master had his message to deliver; he did not approach the people in the must-convert spirit.

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