Ravishankar continued his schooling at Rajnandgaon and subsequently at Raipur High School. From here some of his schoolmates, Thakur Hanuman Singh, Govindlal Purohit and Rewati Mohan Sen, would remain his lifelong friends. He then shifted to Jabalpur and joined Robertson College (whose premises then were what is today the Model High School in front of the High Court of Jabalpur) and completed the Intermediate in the year 1895 aged 18 years. The same year he shifted to Nagpur and joined Hislop College for the graduation course. In those days Hislop College was affiliated to Calcutta University. At Hislop College Nagpur, his young mind was influenced when he witnessed the Ganesh Festival which in those days was not just a religious ritual but had become a great social movement where patriotism was displayed by singing patriotic songs in the processions going round the town. The songs portrayed Shivaji's patriotism and asked youngsters to be united for the 'national awakening'. The credit for popularising the Ganesh festival with nationalism was due to Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak.