I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the great Kumbh Mela at Allahabad in February, 1918. There I found that Śaṅkara's Daśnāmī sannyāsīs were more numerous than any other group of ascetics, and that next to them in numbers came the Rāmānandī Vairāgīs. This illustrates the fact that in the history of religion in North India Rāmānanda is one of the very greatest figures. Yet very little is known about him with certainty. Hitherto his date, life, sect, teaching, attitude to caste have all been uncertain. Is it possible to-day to throw any light upon his historical position?

We take his date first. The traditional dates are 1299–1410. The great age to which this makes him live is at least suspicious, so that the statement requires to be tested; and since his immediate predecessors and all his chief disciples are known, we may be able from their chronological position to realize when he lived.