Question

Saint Kabir was the contemporary of ___________.
A) Guru Nanak
B) Sultan Sikander Lodhi
C) Both A and B
D) Babar

Answer 1

Hint:
A new wave of the bhakti movement was seen in north India after the period of the thirteenth century. This was a period when Sufism, Brahmanical Hinduism, Islam, various strands of bhakti, and the Yogis, Nathpanths, and Siddhas influenced one another. People were taking up new professions and finding new roles for themselves, and new towns and kingdoms were emerging. Such people, especially peasants, craftspersons, traders, and laborers hurried and crowded to listen to these new saints and spread their ideas. Some of them like Kabir rejected all orthodox religions.

Complete Answer:
Kabir was one of the most influential saints. He was considered to be the contemporary of Guru Nanak and Sultan Sikander Lodhi. He probably lived in the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries in or near the city of Benares (Varanasi) and was brought up in a family of Muslim julahas or weavers. His ideas or thoughts came to light through a vast collection of verses known as sakhis and pads which are said to have been composed by him and sung by wandering bhajan singers. Some of these were later collected and preserved in the Bijak, Panch Vani, and Guru Granth Sahib. Kabir completely and vehemently rejected all of the major religious traditions and that was the basis of his teachings. His teachings openly ridiculed the pre-eminence of the priestly classes and the caste system and all forms of external worship of both Brahmanical Hinduism and Islam. The language of his poetry was understood by ordinary people widely since it was a form of spoken Hindi. Sometimes, He also used cryptic language which is very difficult to follow. Kabir preached that the only path to salvation was through bhakti or devotion and he believed in a formless Supreme God. His followers were drawn from both Hindus and Muslims.

Thus, option (C) is correct.

Note:
The successor of Guru Nanak, who was Guru Angad, and later Guru Angad’s three successors wrote under the name of “Nanak” and in 1604, all of their compilations were combined by Guru Arjan. The writings of Saint Kabir were also added to this compilation.