The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s2.3

c14.s2.3

The equalitarian philosophy which sought to abolish the distinctions between the castes was a prominent characteristic of Hindu societal thinking in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,—with Nāmadeva as with Chaitanya. A founder of this movement is the Southerner Rāmānanda (c 1400?), who derived his cult of *bhakti* from another Southerner, Rāmānuja. Although a Southerner, he was a maker of Hindi language, and in point of social liberalism or radicalism was but distanced by one of his *chelās* or followers, namely, Kabīr (1470-1518?), a Mussalman weaver of Benares. It is wellknown that Kabīr called himself the child of both Allāh and Rāma. The annihilation of the distinction between Hinduism and Islam was the *Leitmotif* of his preachings and verses. Kabīr was by all means a pre-Moghul personality.