Ramananda - Historical Sources and Controversies

Historical Sources and Controversies

Controversy about Birth and Death Year - Controversy about Birth and Residence Place - Many southern scholars tried to prove him to be of Tamil origin.

Controversy about his importance - Much about the life of Ramananda and his contributions to India are disputed between scholars. Dearth of information has led to disputes about the birthplace, life, and death of Ramananda. More significantly, while texts written by his disciples indicate that Ramananda was significant in the lives of people in Northern India while he was living, modern scholars argue whether he was in fact as influential as he is described to be. Given the historical importance of the Ramanandi sect, many scholars find it hard to believe that there is such little information in the sectarian literature on the events which led to its formation. Scholars have tried to reconstruct the early history of the Ramanandi sect, yet there is such a scarcity of information that scholars reach different conclusions. Some scholars believe that Ramananda truly was a great Hindu saint, yet others feel that from the lack of information provided, that Ramananda was not a historically important enough saint to have caused others to write details of his life. It seems to many scholars, that the life of Ramananda is far inferior to the accounts of the lives of his disciples who have extensive biographies written about them.

Controversy about his literary works - Of the few books written by Ramananda himself, some may have been written by his followers and then accredited to Ramananda.