education, medical care, and other
charitable works. For further informa-
tion see George M. Williams, “The
Ramakrishna Movement: A Study in
Religious Change,” in Robert D. Baird
(ed.), Religion in Modern India, 1998.
Ramana Maharishi
(1879–1950) Modern Hindu sage, whose
life and message reiterated the funda-
mental insight of the ancient specula-
tive Upanishads, namely, that the inner
Self (atman) is identical with Supreme
Reality (Brahman). Ramana was born
into a middle-class Indian family and
during his youth demonstrated no
unusual abilities. In 1895 he obtained a
copy of the Periya Puranam, a text
chronicling the lives of the poet-saints
known as the Nayanars, and in reading
about their lives Ramana began to desire
to renounce the world. This inclination
was realized the next year, when he
imagined the death of his body and
reached the conclusion that his real
identity was the Self. He left his family
and went to the temple of Tiru-
vannamalai, also known as Arunachala,
where he remained until his death fifty-
four years later. For some time at the
start he was deep in meditation and
barely attended to his physical needs.
Soon he attracted disciples, through
whom his family eventually discovered
his whereabouts, although Ramana
refused to return home with them when
they came to see him. His mother
moved to Tiruvannamalai in 1916, and
after her death five years later Ramana
relocated his dwelling to be near her
grave. Although he spoke very seldom,
he managed to compose two short
works—Self-Enquiryand Who am I?—in
which he stated his basic insights. For
further information see T. M. P.
Mahadevan, Ramana Maharshi, 1977.
Ramananda
(14th c.?) Santpoet-saint who is tradi-
tionally cited as the spiritual teacher
(guru) of the poet-saints Kabir,
Ravidas, Pipa, and others. The Sants
were a group of poet-saints from central
and northern India who shared several
general tendencies: stress on individual-
ized, interior religion leading to a per-
sonal experience of the divine; disdain
for external ritual, particularly image
worship; faith in the power of the divine
name; and a tendency to ignore conven-
tional castedistinctions. Ramananda is
said to have been a charismatic spiritual
leader, and is claimed to have been a
direct disciple of the southern Indian
philosopher Ramanuja, who sent
Ramananda north to help spread the
devotional movement. The latter claim
is almost certainly false, given that the
only verse incontestably attributable to
Ramananda is found in the Adigranth,
the scripture of the Sikh community.
This verse does not reflect Ramanuja’s
Shrivaishnavatradition, in which the
primary deityis Vishnu, but instead
shows the influence of the Nathpanthi
ascetics, who stressed yoga. There are
other verses ascribed to Ramananda in
later sources, but their authenticity is
doubtful, and little can be definitely
known about his life.Ramanandi
Renunciant ascetics, devotees (bhakta)
of the god Vishnu, who are by far the
most numerous and most influential of
the Vaishnavaascetics. The Ramanandis
claim that their order was founded by
the religious teacher Ramananda, about
whom little is definitely known. For
some time the Ramanandis maintained
that Ramananda had been a disciple of the
southern Indian philosopher Ramanuja,
and thus that their sect had sprung out
of Ramanuja’s Shrivaishnavareligious
community, but this claim was for-
mally renounced after a dispute at the
Kumbha Melafestival in the city of
Ujjainin 1921. Ramananda is also tra-
ditionally thought to have been the
guruof many northern Indian bhakti
figures, most notably Kabir, Ravidas,
Pipa, and Sen, although on this matter
too there is little hard historical evidence.Ramanandi