Ramkali is one of the largest and most consequential sections in the volume, and it carries several of the compositions best known outside the rag arrangement.
The long composition of Guru Amar Das on the state of bliss stands here, and is sung at the close of Sikh gatherings, so that a person who has attended one has heard the opening of it whether or not they know where it sits. Guru Nanak's dialogue with the Nath yogis is here too, conducted in the ascetics' own vocabulary and answering them on their own ground while declining their premises, which makes it one of the most detailed records of an actual religious argument anywhere in the volume. So is his long alphabetical meditation.
And here stands the var of Satta and Balwand, the musicians of the Gurus' court, which is not by a Guru and is the earliest account of the succession composed from inside the community. Its presence in the scripture is remarkable on its own terms: a work about the Gurus, by employees of the Gurus, admitted into the volume the Gurus compiled.
The measure suits its contents. Ramkali carries an association with ascetics and with the Nath tradition in particular, which makes the choice of it for a dialogue with the Naths a deliberate and slightly pointed one.