to start god Rama-based Vaishnavism movement from Hindu holy city of Varanasi. The Hindu tradition recognizes him as the founder of the Ramanandi Sampradaya, the largest monastic Hindu renunciant community in modern times. The monasteries of these ascetics are found particularly in the northern and western states of India, in Nepal, but they are also found as wandering monks. The largest mathas of the Ramanandi tradition are in Ayodhya and Varanasi, and Ramanandi monks are also known as Bairagis or Vairagis (literally, detached ones), their groups called Akharas. The Ramanandi mathas are historically notable for being part of warrior ascetics movement in medieval India, where monks metamorphosed into a militant group, trained in arms, rebelled against Islamic rule and at times cooperated with the British colonial officials as mercenaries. Known for his egalitarian views in a time of political uncertainty and Hindu-Islam conflicts, Ramananda and his matha accepted disciples without discriminating anyone by gender, class, caste or religion (he accepted Muslims). Traditional scholarship holds that his disciples included later Bhakti movement poet-sants such as Kabir, Ravidas, Bhagat Pipa and others, however some postmodern scholars have questioned some of this spiritual lineage while others have supported this lineage with historical evidence. His ideas also influenced the founding of Sikhism in 15th century, and his teachings are included in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib. Shri Ramcharitmanas is a key text of this matha. Other Vaishnava Mathas Yadugiri Yathiraja Mutt Gaudiya Matha Narasingha Chaitanya Matha Sree Rama Dasa Matha, Chenkottukonam, Thiruvananthapuram Bhubaneswar matha Advaita Mathas While Shankara is traditionally regarded as the founder of the most famous monasteries in Hinduism, there are no records of those mathas before the 14th century. In the 14th century, the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire started to patronize Sringeri matha. In the late 15th century, the patronage of the Vijayanagara kings shifted to Vaisnavism. Following this loss of patronage, Sringeri matha had to find others means to propagate its former status, and the story of Shankara establishing the four cardinal mathas, as cast in the wholly legendary digvijaya genre, may have originated in the 16th century. These Advaita mathas have hosted the under five Maṭhas, with the headquarters at Kanchi matha. Dwarka in the West, Jagannatha Puri in the East, Sringeri in the South and Badrinath in the North. Each math was headed by one of his disciples, called Shankaracharya, who each independently continued the Advaita