Ramai Pandit or Ramai the Wise was a medieval Bengali poet from the region of Bengal. The exact date of his birth is not known, but some scholars believe that he was born in the later half of the 10th century and also lived in the 11th century AD, as he is a contemporary to Mayur Bhatt, the coart-poet of King Lausen. Some scholars believe that he lived in the 13th or 14th century AD. He is famous as the author of Shunya Purana, the scripture of Dharma Puja Bidhan, written in the 11th century AD. The extantShunya Purana refers to events that occurred in the 15th century. American Sanskrit scholarEdward Washburn Hopkins wrote in his "Origin and Evolution of Religion" in 1923 that,
Upbringing
According to a story, Ramai was the son of an unpopular Brahman sage; after his father's death, Ramai was Rama-kathai or Ramavataram Ramapala-charita. According to Ghanaram Chakrabarty's Dharmamangal, he was born in the Baiti caste. According to the traditional accounts preserved by the Bengali Dom caste, as well as Mayur Bhatta's narrative, Ramai Pandit was born to either an unpopular Brahmin family and after having lost his parents at an early age he was brought up by devotees of Dharma Thakur. He was the priest of King Harishchandra.
Devotional background
Ramai Pandit advocated the worship of God, whom he called Dharma and Shunya. His son, Dharmadas converted a king ofKalinga into the sect of Dharmathakur. "Shunya" mean void and Ramai Pandit, like many other Hindu philosophers in Bengal and Orissa in the time period advocated worshipping God as void and formless. Mahima Swami of the Mahima sect is another example of a Hindu philosopher popularizing worshiping God as formless Though Ramai Pandi was a devotee of Dharmathakur, in his Dharma Puja Bidhan he praises several other deities. He writes of Jagganath as Vishnu: According to the Dharma-Mangala, written by Ghanarama, Ramai Pandit was the first great priest of the Dharma cult, and Dharma Thakura himself manifested during the reign of King Dharmapala's son. Though he promoted the worship of Dharma Thakur, historically he has been viewed by Dharma Thakur devotees as incarnation himself.
Works
Dharmapuja Bidhan
Shunya Purana - Though Ramai Pandit is credited with writing the original Shunya Purana, in the fourteenth century severe modifications were made to the original text, adding to it stories of Muslims in Bengal. It refers to the spread of the MadariyaIslamic sect in Bengal founded by Syed Badiuddin who died in 1436 A.D. Sri Niranjaner Rushma chapter of the Sunya Puran states that "the form of Yavana …. assumed the name Khoda and so frightened all the ‘high and mighty’ Hindu deities that they converted themselves immediately to Islamic divinities" and that "“Kartika became a Muslim Kazi and Ganesha became a Ghazi ". All the converted gods then entered the temples at Jajpur, destroyed the temples and images, while Ramai Pandit held the feet of the Dharma and cried "This is a terrible calamity".
