Rama

=== Worship ===
{{Vaishnavism}}
Rama is a revered Vaishanava deity, who is worshipped privately at home or in temples.

As part of the [[Bhakti movement]], Rama became focus of the [[Ramanandi Sampradaya]], a ''[[sannyasi]]'' community founded by the 14th-century North-Indian poet-saint [[Ramananda]]. This community has grown to become the largest Hindu [[Sannyasa|monastic]] community in modern times.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Raj|first1=Selva J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ov2oltTLinkC|title=Dealing with Deities: The Ritual Vow in South Asia|last2=Harman|first2=William P.|date=1 January 2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-6708-4|language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn|James G. Lochtefeld|2002|pp=98-108}} This Rama-inspired movement has championed social reforms, accepting members without discriminating anyone by gender, class, caste or religion since the time of Ramananda who also accepted Muslims wishing to leave Islam.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Larson|first=Gerald James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6jmckIUHMAC|title=India's Agony Over Religion: Confronting Diversity in Teacher Education|date=16 February 1995|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-2412-4|language=en|access-date=6 March 2021|archive-date=31 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131062746/https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=g6jmckIUHMAC&redir_esc=y|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Harvard citation no brackets|James G. Lochtefeld|2002|p=1}}.</ref> Traditional scholarship holds that his disciples included later Bhakti movement ''poet-saints'' such as [[Kabir]], [[Ravidas]], [[Bhagat Pipa]] and others.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lorenzen|first=David N.|author-link=David Lorenzen|date=1999|title=Who Invented Hinduism?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SO-YmMWpcVEC|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|volume=41|issue=4|pages=630–659|doi=10.1017/S0010417599003084|issn=0010-4175|jstor=179424|isbn=9788190227261|s2cid=247327484|via=Book|access-date=6 March 2021|archive-date=23 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223185737/https://books.google.com/books?id=SO-YmMWpcVEC|url-status=live}}</ref>