ious centuries the centre of religious feeling lay in the south,
it now shifts to the north. Hinduism had been buffeted but not
seriously menaced there: the teachers of the south had not failed to
recognize by their pilgrimages the sanctity and authority of the
northern seats of learning: such works as the Gita-govinda testify to
the existence there of fervent Vishnuism. But the country had been
harassed by Moslim invasions and unsettled by the vicissitudes of
transitory dynasties. The Jains were powerful in Gujarat and
Rajputana. In Bengal Saktism and moribund Buddhism were not likely to
engender new enthusiasms. But in a few centuries the movements
inaugurated in the south increased in extension and strength. Hindus
and Mohammedans began to know more of each other, and in the sixteenth
century under the tolerant rule of Akbar and his successors the new
sects which had been growing were able to consolidate themselves.

After Ramanuja and Madhva, the next great name in the history of
Vishnuism, and indeed of Hinduism, is Ramanand. His date is
uncertain.[604] He was posterior to Ramanuja, from whose sect he
detached himself, and Kabir was his disciple, apparently his immediate
disciple. Some traditions give Prayaga as his birthplace, others
Melucote, but the north was the scene of his activity. He went on a
lengthy pilgrimage, and on his return was accused of having infringed
the rules of his sect as to eating, etc., and was excommunicated, but
received permission from his Guru to found a new sect. He then settled
in Benares and taught there. He wrote no treatise but various hymns
ascribed to him are still popular.[605] Though he is not associated
with any special dogma, yet his teaching is of great importance as
marking the origin of a popular religious movement characterized by
the use of the vernacular languages instead of Sanskrit, and by a
laxity in caste rules culminating in a readiness to admit as equals
all worshippers of the true God.[606] This God is Rama rather than
Krishna. I have already pointed out that the worship of Rama as the
Supreme Being (to be distinguished from respect for him as a hero) is
not early: in fact it appears to begin in the period which we are
considering. Of the human forms of the deity Krishna was clearly the
most popular but the school of Ramanuja, while admitting both Rama and
Krishna as incarnations, preferred to adore God under less
mythological and more philosophic names such as N