Guru Ravidas: From a Cobbler’s Bench to a Scripture

A boy born into a leatherworking family, at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, grew up to write hymns that Sikhs still sing today. He also imagined a city with no caste, no tax, and no sorrow at all. That city was called Begampura, and it never stopped being an idea people reach for.

A 2001 commemorative postage stamp issued by India Post honouring Sant Ravidas. Government Open Data License (GODL) — India, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Guru Ravidas

From a cobbler’s bench to a scripture, to a modern movement

c. 1377 CE

Born near Varanasi

Born in Seer Goverdhanpur into a family of leatherworkers, at the very bottom of the caste hierarchy of his time.

15th–16th c. CE

Teaches against caste, imagines Begampura

Becomes a leading Bhakti-movement poet-saint, describing an ideal city, Begampura, with no caste and no sorrow.

1604 CE

40 hymns enter the Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Arjan compiles the Sikh scripture and includes 40 of his hymns, honouring him as a Bhagat.

2010 CE

Ravidassia Dharm is declared

Following a deadly 2009 attack on Dera Sachkhand Ballan leaders in Vienna, followers formally declare a separate faith.

Not just history

Guru Ravidas isn’t only a medieval Bhakti saint remembered once a year. His teachings against caste still shape a living religious and political identity movement in Punjab and beyond.

📑 Contents

1Who Guru Ravidas Was
2Teachings and Begampura
3Legacy in Scripture
4Test Yourself
5A Living Identity Movement

Who Guru Ravidas Was Need to Know

Guru Ravidas was a poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, born in Seer Goverdhanpur, a village near Varanasi.
Traditional dates place his life around 1377 to 1527 CE, though historians treat the exact years as uncertain.
He was born into a family of leatherworkers, a caste placed at the very bottom of the traditional Hindu social hierarchy.
He is remembered today as both a spiritual teacher and an early social reformer who spoke directly against caste.
His Jayanti, or birth anniversary, is observed on Magh Purnima, the full moon day of the Hindu month of Magh.
In 2026, Guru Ravidas Jayanti fell on Sunday, 1 February, marking his 649th birth anniversary.

Teachings and Begampura Good to Know

Guru Ravidas taught that caste should not decide a person’s worth, and that honest work and devotion mattered more than birth.
He belonged to the wider Bhakti movement, which placed personal devotion above rigid ritual and social division. See ArtnCulture0036 — The Bhakti Movement for the movement’s full regional sweep.
He was a contemporary of Sant Kabir, another major Bhakti poet-saint who preached against caste and empty ritual.
A poem attributed to him describes an ideal city called Begampura, meaning “the land without sorrow.”
Begampura is imagined as a place with no caste, no tax, and no injustice, where everyone lives with equal dignity.
His hymns also influenced later Bhakti figures; Meera Bai’s own devotional poetry is often linked to his teachings.

Legacy in Scripture Good to Know

Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru, compiled the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604.
He included 40 hymns by Guru Ravidas in that scripture, honouring him as a Bhagat, a non-Sikh devotee whose verses were treated as authoritative.
Those hymns are still sung in gurdwaras worldwide today, alongside the compositions of the Sikh Gurus themselves.
His birthplace in Varanasi, Shri Guru Ravidas Janam Asthan, is a major pilgrimage site for his followers.

Test Yourself

A Living Identity Movement Great to Know

Dera Sachkhand Ballan, a religious organization in Punjab, became a major centre of Guru Ravidas’s followers in the 20th and 21st centuries.
In May 2009, attackers struck a Guru Ravidas gurdwara in Vienna, Austria, killing Dera leader Ramanand Dass and wounding its head, Niranjan Dass.
The attack triggered unrest among Ravidassia communities and a renewed push to assert a distinct religious identity.
On 29 January 2010, followers of Dera Sachkhand Ballan formally declared a separate faith, Ravidassia Dharm.
They also introduced their own religious text, the Amritbani Guru Ravidas.
Guru Ravidas remains a central figure in Dalit identity and social-justice movements in Punjab and beyond, not just a historical Bhakti saint.

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