214. caste
my distant home, where everything is right.
That imperial kingdom is rich and secure,
where none are third or second—all are one.
Its food and drink are famous, and those who live there
dwell in satisfaction and in wealth.
They do this or that, they walk where they wish,
they stroll through fabled palaces unchallenged.
Oh, says Ravidas, a tanner now set free,
those who walk beside me are my friends.^31 (AG3)
NOTES
- I mean no disrespect by retaining the term Untouchable here. I do so only because
Ravidas refuses so pointedly to avoid it. The literature onFriGovardhanpur is principally
confined to Julie Womack, “Ravidas and the Chamars of Banaras,” an essay written for the
Junior Year Abroad Program of the University of Wisconsin in Benares, 1983. Also rele-
vant are B. R. Ghera,FriGuru RavidasjikaSamksipt Itihas(n.p.: All India Adi Dharm Mis-
sion, n.d.); Mark Juergensmeyer,Religion as Social Vision: The Movement against Un-
touchability in 20th-century Punjab(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 260–62;
and R. S. Khare,The Untouchable as Himself: Ideology, Identity, and Pragmatism among the
Lucknow Chamars(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 40–50, 94–104. - This and most other citations of poems of Ravidas are drawn from the series
recorded in the Sikh scripture, calledAdi Granth [AG] or GuruGranth Sahib.They have
been sequentially numbered by Padam Gurcaran Simh, Sant Ravidas: Vicarak aur Kavi
(Jullundur: Nav-Cintan Prakafan, 1977), 191–204. - Ravidas was not the first poet to voice this sentiment. For an earlier example from
South India, see A. K. Ramanujan, Speaking ofFiva (Baltimore: Penguin, 1973), 90. - Printed collections of poetry attributed to Ravidas are given a systematic listing in
Darshan Singh,A Study of Bhakta Ravadasa(Patiala: Punjabi University, 1981), 3–4. To
this list should be added the edition compiled by Candrikaprasad Jijñasu,Sant Pravar
RaidasSahab,rev. ed. (Lucknow: Bahujan KalyanPrakafan, 1969 [1959]), and, notably, the
two-hundred-odd poems assembled in B. P.Farma,Sant Guru Ravidas-Vani(Delhi: Surya
Prakafan, 1978), 66–142. The most ample English translation is that of K. N. Upadhyaya,
Guru Ravidas: Life and Teachings(Beas, Punjab: Radha Soami Satsang Beas, 1981), 76–210. - The version reported at FriGovardhanpur is that Nanak came to Guru Bagh in
quest of the meaning of spirituality. Ravidas satisfied him with a sermon on the subject,
in consequence of which Nanak took initiation from Ravidas before departing (Kafi
Das, interview, Varanasi, August 20, 1985). - The standard version of this text is that of Bakhsidas, edited by RajaRam Mifra