Rāmānanda, Ramanandaalso called Rāmānand, Ramanand or Rāmadatta Ramadatta  ( born c. 1400—died c. 1470 )  North Indian Brahman (priest), held by his followers (Ramanandis) to be fifth in succession in the lineage of the philosopher-mystic Rāmānuja and founder of the bhakti (devotional) cult of Rāma, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu known as the Rāmānandī, or Rāmavat, sect.Rāmānanda Ramanuja.

According to his hagiography (saint’s life), Ramananda left home as a youth and became a sannyāsin sannyasi (ascetic) before settling in Vārānasi Varanasi (Benares) to study Vedic texts, Rāmānuja’s Ramanuja’s philosophy, and yogic techniques. His Having completed his studies completed, he wandered about teaching and Ramananda began teaching. He adopted the practice of eating with his students, regardless of their caste. This disregard for caste caused his companions in Rāmānuja’s lineage to ask him to eat alone rather than contaminate them. This so angered Rāmānanda , but the opposition of his upper-caste companions so angered Ramananda that he left the lineage to found his own sect, the Rāmānandīs. His original disciples, 12 in number, included at least one woman, members of the lowest castes (including a leatherworker and a barber), and a Muslim (the mystic Kabīr). Rāmānanda’s Ramanandis.

Ramananda’s teachings were similar to Rāmānuja’s those of Ramanuja except that he dropped the interdiction on intercaste dining and the strict rule that all teaching and all texts used must had to be in the Sanskrit language. At his centres in Āgra Agra and VārānasiVaranasi, Rāmānanda Ramananda taught in Hindi, the vernacular, in order to reach the masses, because Sanskrit was known only to the upper castes. Today Rāmānandīs have numerous monasteries in North IndiaHis original 12 disciples are said to have included at least one woman, members of the lowest castes (including the leatherworker Ravidas), and a Muslim (the mystic Kabīr). The almost complete absence of any reference to Ramananda in poetry attributed to them, however, has caused some scholars to question the historical veracity of this connection.

The connection between the historical Ramananda and the important monastic community (Ramanandis) that claims him as its founder has also been called into question, both by academic scholars and by a group of “radical Ramanandis” in the early 20th century who disputed the Brahman tie with Ramanuja. The history of the present Ramanandi sampradaya (school of religious teaching) apparently does not reach back before the 17th century, but this does nothing to diminish the fact that it is the largest Vaishnava (devotees of the god Vishnu) monastic order in North India today, and perhaps the largest monastic order of any sectarian affiliation throughout the Indian subcontinent.