Tulsidas

Overview

Tulsidas, born Rambola Dubey and popularly known as Goswami Tulsidas, was a Vaishnava Hindu saint, devotee and poet associated with the Ramanandi tradition. He is celebrated for his devotion to the deity Rama and for composing several influential works in Sanskrit, Awadhi and Braj Bhasha. According to traditional accounts, he was born on 11 August 1511 and passed away on 30 July 1623.

Tulsidas is best known as the author of the Ramcharitmanas, an epic retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana in the vernacular Awadhi language, and of the Hanuman Chalisa, a devotional hymn to Hanuman. These compositions made the narratives and devotional themes of the Rama tradition accessible to a wide audience and remain central to Hindu devotional life across North India.

He spent much of his life in the cities of Banaras (modern Varanasi) and Ayodhya. The Tulsi Ghat on the river Ganges in Varanasi is named after him. He is also associated with the founding of the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple in Varanasi, traditionally believed to stand at the spot where he had a vision of the deity. Tulsidas is further credited with initiating the Ramlila, a folk-theatre adaptation of the Ramayana that continues to be performed in many parts of India.

Tulsidas has been regarded as one of the foremost poets in the Hindi literary tradition and in wider Indian literature. The impact of his works is reflected in vernacular language and idiom, in Ramlila performances, in Hindustani classical and popular music, and in modern adaptations such as television serials based on the Ramayana.

References

Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Tulsidas.