Which of the following statements is correct?

Statement A- There were debates about whether Kabir Das was a Hindu or a Muslim by birth.

Statement B- Hagiographies within the Vaishnava tradition attempted to suggest that Kabir Das was born a Muslim and raised by a Hindu weaver.

Only statement A is correct.

The correct answer is Option 1 - Only statement A is correct.

Statement A- There were debates about whether Kabir Das was a Hindu or a Muslim by birth.

Correct statement B- Hagiographies within the Vaishnava tradition attempted to suggest that Kabir Das was born a Hindu, Kabirdas (Kabir itself is an Arabic word meaning “great”), but was raised by a poor Muslim family belonging to the community of weavers.

Just as Kabir’s ideas probably crystallised through dialogue and debate (explicit or implicit) with the traditions of sufis and yogis in the region of Awadh (part of present-day Uttar Pradesh), his legacy was claimed by several groups, who remembered him and continue to do so. This is most evident in later debates about whether he was a Hindu or a Muslim by birth, debates that are reflected in hagiographies. Many of these were composed from the seventeenth century onwards, about 200 years after Kabir’s lifetime. Hagiographies within the Vaishnava tradition attempted to suggest that he was born a Hindu, Kabirdas (Kabir itself is an Arabic word meaning “great”), but was raised by a poor Muslim family belonging to the community of weavers or julahas, who were relatively recent converts to Islam. They also suggested that he was initiated into bhakti by a guru, perhaps Ramananda.