ABSTRACT
Ramchandra Shukla, in his influential history of Hindi literature(Hindi sahitya ka itihas, first published in 1929, second revised edition in 1940), refers to a ‘very competent group’ (atyant nipu2 dal) in Ayodhya, and notes the achievements of some members of the group in the specific context of Ramananda:
The eminent critic-historian was obviously aware of the core issue of the sectarian feud (sampradayik jhag^ra)—‘the complete detachment of Ramananda from the Ramanuji tradition’. Some of the Ramanandi sadhus were bent upon proving that Ramananda did not belong to the spiritual lineage of Ramanuja; whereas Shukla did not have any
sympathy for this project. Still, did it require a serious engagement on his part? After all, he was writing the history of literature and not that of sects and their feuds. He could only disdainfully dismiss the production of dubious manuscripts by this band of sadhus and their adversaries. He does not even mention any member of the ‘very competent group’ by name. Moreover, Ramananda is not very important as a literary figure and as Shukla himself noted, quite rightly, ‘the unavailability of any authentic account of Ramananda has facilitated circulation of all kind of rumours about him’.2
