NDA (I) 2021 General Ability Test · Question 114 of 149

Correct — B, Raidas. The saint-poet Mirabai (c. 1498–1547), a Rajput princess wholly devoted to Krishna, is by tradition regarded as a disciple of Sant Raidas (Ravidas), the cobbler-saint of Varanasi; NCERT and standard accounts of the Bhakti movement name Ravidas as her guru or preceptor. This ties Mira to the sant tradition of North India rather than to a court poet.

• (a)Dadu — Dadu Dayal was a later nirguna sant of Rajasthan/Gujarat who founded the Dadu Panth; he was not Mirabai's teacher.
• (c)Ramanand — Ramananda headed the North-Indian bhakti lineage and was the guru of saints such as Kabir and (by tradition) Raidas himself, a generation before Mira — a tempting 'root of the tradition', but Mira's own preceptor is named as Raidas, not Ramananda.
• (d)Surdas — Surdas was a blind Krishna-devotee poet of the Braj region — a parallel strand of Krishna-bhakti — but he did not teach Mirabai.

The Bhakti movement stressed direct, personal devotion to God over ritual and caste. It ran in two broad streams — saguna (worship of God with form, e.g. Krishna and Rama) and nirguna (a formless God). Mirabai belongs to the saguna Krishna-bhakti tradition, while her preceptor Raidas belongs to the nirguna sant stream, showing how the two currents intertwined through guru-shishya lines.

The trap is to pick Ramananda — the celebrated head of the lineage — or Surdas, a fellow Krishna poet. Remembering the specific tradition that Mira accepted Raidas (Ravidas) as her guru pins the answer.

• Mirabai (c. 1498–1547) was a Rajput princess-saint devoted to Krishna as 'Giridhar Gopal'.
• Tradition and NCERT name Sant Raidas (Ravidas) of Varanasi as her guru/preceptor.
• Raidas belonged to the nirguna sant stream linked to the Ramananda lineage.
• Mira's padas (devotional songs) survive in Rajasthani and Braj and are sung across North India.

• Confusing Ramananda (the lineage head) with Mira's direct guru Raidas.
• Mixing up parallel Krishna-bhakti poets (Surdas) with her teacher.

Asked as 'guru/preceptor of a named saint' or by matching bhakti saints to their gurus, deities or regions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Mirabai's devotional songs are addressed chiefly to which deity?

  • (a)Shiva
  • (b)Krishna
  • (c)Ganesha
  • (d)Surya

  Answer(b) Krishna — she worshipped him as 'Giridhar Gopal'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Sant Raidas (Ravidas), linked to Mirabai, belonged to which stream of the Bhakti movement?

  • (a)Saguna Rama-bhakti
  • (b)Nirguna (formless God)
  • (c)Sufi silsila
  • (d)Shakta

  Answer(b) Nirguna — he worshipped a formless, attribute-less God.