Rama’s wife Sita. Although his wife
Mandodariand his brothers rebuke him
for this act and advise him to return Sita
and make peace with Rama, Ravana
stubbornly refuses to listen. His inflated
pride and desire to avenge the insult to
his sister deafen his ears to their good
counsel, and he eventually pays for his
stubbornness with his life when Rama
kills him in battle.
As with all demons, Ravana is not
completely villainous by nature but
rather greatly powerful and greatly
flawed at the same time. According to
some stories he is a devotee (bhakta) of
the god Shiva, and the hymn to the
dancing Shiva known as the
ShivatandavaStotrais often attributed
to Ravana.
Ravidas
(ca. 1500) Santpoet-saint who lived his
life in the city of Benaresand is tradi-
tionally believed to have been a younger
contemporary of the poet-saint Kabir.
The Sants were a loose group of central
and northern Indian poet-saints who
shared several general tendencies: stress
on individualized, interior religion lead-
ing to a personal experience of the
divine; disdain for external ritual, partic-
ularly image worship; faith in the power
of the divine Name; and a tendency to
ignore conventional castedistinctions.
Both tradition and references in his
poetry describe Ravidas as a leather
worker (chamar), a social group whose
contact with dead animalsand their
skins rendered them untouchable. He is
believed to have supported himself by
his hereditary trade, and much of his
poetry speaks on issues of worldly birth
and status. He never denied the impor-
tance of heredity but ultimately felt that
his devotion to God had helped him to
transcend his birth and given him status
based on different criteria. His poetry
reflects this staunch personal faith, as
do his frequent warnings to his listeners
that life is short and difficult, and that
they should pay great attention to reli-
gious practice.
Given his low social status, Ravidas
was almost certainly illiterate. His poet-
ic songs were likely first transmitted
orally, though their personal appeal
made him one of the most popular sant
poets. The two oldest attested sources
of his work are the Adigranth, the scrip-
ture for the Sikh community, and the
Panchvanicollections, compiled by the
Dadupanth. In modern India, Ravidas
has also served as a model for the
depressed classes; his followers call
themselves Ravidasis. For further
information see John Stratton Hawley
and Mark Juergensmeyer, Songs of
the Saints of India, 1988; and
Winand M. Callewaert and Peter
Freidlander (trans.), The Life and Works
of Raidas, 1992.Ravidasi
Name taken by followers of the
untouchable poet-saint Ravidas. The
Ravidasis emphasize many ideas found
in the poetry of Ravidas, such as the
irrelevancy of ideas of purityand impu-
rity (ashaucha), the futility of trying to
contain the divine in texts and rites, and
his vision of a society in which all people
can have equal status, whatever their
background. It is unlikely that the
Ravidasis were established by Ravidas
himself, nor is Ravidas an object of wor-
shipfor them, although he is held as a
model for religious equality, based on
the messages in his poetry. In modern
times the Ravidasis have focused on
opposing all sorts of caste-based
discrimination and have also taken
up the empowerment of various low-
caste groups. This movement is very
recent, and to date little has been
published about it; for some informa-
tion see the introduction to Ravidas in
John Stratton Hawley and Mark
Juergensmeyer (trans.), Songs of the
Saints of India, 1988.Ravidas Jayanti
Festival falling on the full moon
in the lunar monthof Magh( January–Ravidas Jayanti