President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Sant Kabir Academy and Research Centre at Maghar

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President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Sant Kabir Academy and Research Centre Swadesh Darshan Yojana at Maghar, Uttar Pradesh on June 5.

• Kabir and the Bhakti movement

• The Bhakti movement began in the 7th century in South India to spread across north India in the 14th and the 15th centuries. 

• The movement included popular poet-saints, who sang devotional songs in local languages, with several preachings for the abolition of the varna system and for Hindu-Muslim unity.

• They emphasised a deep emotional attachment with God.

• Within the Bhakti movement there was a school Nirguna tradition and Sant Kabir was a prominent member of it.

• In this tradition, God was understood as a universal and formless being.

• Kabir was a 'low caste' weaver, Raidas was a leather worker and Dadu was a cotton carder.

• His campaign against conservatism and rejection of caste made him extremely popular among the masses and his ideology of egalitarianism spread across India.

• His early life 

• He was born in Varanasi and lived between the years 1398 and 1448, or until the year 1518 according to popular belief.

• According to other belief, Kabir was born to a Brahmin widow, who placed him in a basket and set him afloat on a pond, after which he was rescued and adopted by a Muslim couple.

• He is also believed to be a disciple of the famous guru Ramananda, a 14th century Vaishnava poet-saint.

• His verses are found in the Guru Granth Sahib, the scripture of Sikhism.

• His work was collected by the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Dev.

• Kabir's works were written in Hindi language, which was easy to understand.

• Kabir Granthawali, Anurag Sagar, Bijak and Sakhi are his main texts.