India is known worldwide as a country of saints, sacred people, gods and goddesses. They commanded  highest respect  in the society. Besides preaching, they were also instrumental in giving social order to the society for ages, which had to be scrupulously followed by the society. Priesthood was mightier than the Kings and whatever religious or social commands they gave was abided by the then Kings and the people. The social order given to ancient Hindu society by the Rishi-Munis was responsible for introduction of untouchability in the society.

  Shri Guru Ravidass Ji was born in Varanasi in UP, India in the 14th century in a humble family, which was considered untouchable as per the social order prevailing at that time in Hindu society. This social order called Chaturavarna was the outcome of religious sanctity attached to it through Hindu scriptures namely Rigveda and Manu Samriti. The early Aryans were not known to be practising caste system strictly. They had divided the society into four classes on the basis of profession / duties they were supposed to perform. One could change one's duties over to the other. But soon the division on the basis of work became rigid. The original principle of division of labour soon gave way to rigid division into caste classification according to which the three upper castes Brahmin, Kashatriya and Vaish were considered superior and the fourth cast, the Shudras were given an ignoble place. They were barred from acquiring knowledge i.e. education, have any kind of property and were considered untouchables in the sense that not only physical contact with them, even their shadow was considered to pollute the bodies of people of higher castes. These conditions prevailed in the Hindu society for more than three thousand years.

    Guru Ravidass was born in family condemned to such miserable conditions in Varanasi, then known as "Kanshi" in the year 1376 AD (Bikrami Samvat 1433, widely accepted by most of the scholars & institutions) to father Santhok Dass Ji and mother Kalsi Devi Ji. From childhood itself, Guru Ravidass Ji had spiritual traits and soon came to be known as a highly enlightened saint. He started propagating these spiritual ideas among the people. His popularity increased day by day and soon Kings and Queens of different princely states became his disciples. Raja Nager Mal of Banaras, Rani Jhalanbai and Miranbai of Chittaur (see web page name - Followers) were some of the well known disciples of Guru Ji.

    This irked the Brahmin priests who, took popularity of Guru Ravidass Ji and his becoming an imperial Guru, a challenge to their monopoly as religious preachers. They also considered it as a threat to their bread and butter. The Brahmin priests considered to check Guru Ravidass Ji's popularity. They approached the kings and instigated them to ask Guru Ravidass Ji to prove his powers as a Godly man. Shri Guru Ravidass Ji turned victorious in all these tests & the Brahmin priests had to eat humble pie on each & every occasion. Then Guru Ravidass Ji devoted his attention to preach equality & brotherhood of mankind. "Every human being has the equal rights including the right to worship his God". His efforts were coupled by the contemporary saints. Prominent among them were Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Bhagat Kabir Ji, Rama Nand Ji and many others. They all preached the gospel of brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God to break the inhuman shackles of untouchability and discrimination. That was the time of Bhagti Movement, a period of renaissance which gave new light to the people.

    Shri Guru Ravidass Ji wrote Bani religious discourses, out of which forty shabads and one shaloka are enshrined in Shri Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Sikh scripture.

The Raja-Maharaja's built many a temple devoted to Shri Guru Ravidass Ji. But in the later years, the temples were owned by the brahmnical preachers. No trace of any place accredited to the  memory of Guru Ji was left. Despite the efforts of saints and social reformers the conditions of the untouchables continued to remain the same i.e. of hatred abhorrence, poverty, drudgery and squalor.

And then a ray of hope and fulfilment was seen...............................