Bhagat Ravidas Ji: the 650th birth anniversary of the saint of Kashi

This day celebrates the birth of Bhagat Ravidas Ji, the saint of Kashi whose bani is included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and in Nanakshahi 558 the SGPC's calendar marks his 650th birth anniversary. Widely celebrated as Guru Ravidas Jayanti, the day falls on the full moon of Magh.

The cobbler of Kashi

Ravidas Ji was born at Seer Goverdhanpur, near Kashi, now Varanasi, into a family of leather workers, a community the caste order treated as untouchable. He worked as a cobbler all his life, mending shoes and giving freely to holy men who came to him. Tradition holds that he was a disciple of Swami Ramanand and a contemporary of Bhagat Kabir Ji, and that Mirabai, the Rajput princess-poet, honoured him as her teacher.

His bani

Forty shabads and one shalok of Bhagat Ravidas Ji are included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in sixteen raags. He speaks openly of his caste and of those who despised it, and says that devotion has made him greater than those who looked down on him. His best-known shabad describes Begumpura, a city without sorrow, where there is no tax, no fear, no second or third class of person, a vision of a just society that still inspires.

How he is remembered

For millions, above all in the Ravidassia community of Punjab, he is Guru Ravidas Ji. His birthplace at Seer Goverdhanpur draws vast crowds, and Nagar Kirtans are held in Punjab and around the world.

How the day is observed

In gurdwaras, sangats mark the day with kirtan of his shabads, katha on his life and Ardas.