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  knowledge about Islam and perhaps was inspired by it. It was Ramananda
  then, who first renounced the rigidity of the Hindu philosophy. His
  disciples, thus, became avadhutas or the detached. However, he had some
  weaknesses in his thought as he never really recognised the right of the
  lower classes to read the Vedas, and did not really preach or work for
  social equality. His major contribution was the use of the common
  language. The teachings of Ramananda created two distinct schools
  among his disciples and the later bhakti saints. Saguna and nirguna are
  two important schools which originated during his period.
  The former tried to enrich the religion of Hinduism and also preserved the
  authority of the Vedas and did not wish to break away from the past.
  Chaitanya, Shankardeva, Surdas, Mirabai and Tulsidas are some of the
  most important saguna saints.
  Another school represented by Kabir was nirguna, a religious system of
  monotheism, different from the monotheism of Shankara. Kabir preached
  absolute abolition of caste and seriously questioned the authority of the
  Vedas. He also made an attempt to learn from Islam and tried to establish
  a synthetic movement which made him to declare the famous dictum that
  Ram and Rahim are equal. Some of the other important saints of the
  nirguna school were Nanak, Dadu Dayal, Raidas, etc. Theirs was neither
  an attempt to reform the institutionalised Hinduism by attacking the
  system of worship, nor the means of escape through submerging
  consciousness of worship. These philosophers denied both the Hindu and
  the Muslim ideas of God and even equated them by stating that they were
  identical.
    He pleaded for Hindu-Muslim unity, and emphasised the unity and
formlessness of god. Kabir denounced formal religious practices in both
Hinduism and Islam. He did not suggest the abandonment of the life by a
normal house holder for the sake of a saintly life. He believed that asceticism
and book knowledge were not necessary for true knowledge and salvation.
He sharply condemned caste and religious distinctions and preached
brotherhood of man through his dohas (poems).
Nanak (1469–1539) and Sikhism            Born at Talwandi (now Nankana in