Śrī Rāmcharitmānas (Hindi रामचरितमानस) is an epic poem composed by the great 16th-century Indian poet, Goswami Tulsidas (c.1532–1623) (also transliterated as Tulasidasa). As he mentions in Baal Kaand of the composition, he started writing it in Vikram Samvat 1631 (1574 AD) in Avadhpuri, Ayodhya. It was completed in two years and seven months. A large portion of the poem was composed at Vārāṇasi, where the poet spent most of his later life. It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature.

Raamcharitmaanas is a retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, concerning the amazing exploits of Rama. The great poem is popularly called Tulsi-krita Ramayana, but entitled by its author Raamcharitmaanas, or the Lake of Rama's Deeds.It is as well known among Hindus in northern India as is the Bible among the rural population of England. The composition is in Avadhi, a local dialect of Hindi, spoken in the Gangetic plain of North India. The

Tulsidas professed himself the humble follower of his teacher, Narhari-Das, from whom as a boy in Sukar-khet he first heard the tale of Rama's exploits that would form the subject of the Raamcharitmaanas. (Narhari-Das was the sixth in spiritual descent from Ramananda, the founder of popular Vaishnavism in northern India.)

The poem is a revisiting of the great theme of Valmiki (the ancient author of the Ramayana), but is not a mere retelling of the Sanskrit epic. Where Valmiki has condensed the story, Tulsidas has expanded, and, conversely, wherever the elder poet has lingered longest, there his successor has condensed. Raamcharitmaanas consists of

The tale begins at King Dasaratha's court, and tells of the birth and boyhood of Rama and his three brothers, his marriage with Sita, his voluntary exile which is the unfortunate result of Kaikeyi's guile and Dasaratha's rash vow, the dwelling-together of Rama and Sita in the great central Indian forest, her abduction by Ravana, Rama's expedition to Lanka and the overthrow of the ravisher, and life at Ayodhya after the return of the reunited pair. It is written in pure Baiswari or Eastern Hindi, in stanzas called chaupais, broken by dohas or couplets, with an occasional sortha and chhand – the latter a hurrying metre of many rhymes and alliterations.

Dr. George A. Grierson, an early-20th-century translator and anthologist of vernacular Hindi literature, describes the work as follows:

"As a work of art, it has for European readers prolixities and episodes which grate against occidental tastes, but no one can read it in the original without being impressed by it as the work of a great genius. Its style varies with each subject. There is the deep pathos of the scene in which is described Rama's farewell to his mother; the rugged language depicting the horrors of the battlefield – a torrent of harsh sounds clashing against each other and reverberating from phrase to phrase; and, as occasion requires, a sententious, aphoristic method of narrative, teeming with similes drawn from nature herself, and not from the traditions of the schools. His characters, too, live and move with all the dignity of an heroic age. Each is a real being, with a well-defined personality. Rama, perhaps too perfect to enlist all our sympathies; his impetuous and loving brother Lakshmana; the tender, constant Bharata; Sita, the ideal of an Indian wife and mother; Ravana, destined to failure, and fighting with all his demon force against his destiny, the Satan of the epic. All these are characters as lifelike and distinct as any in occidental literature."

As the author claims the book is a précis of selections from the Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, different Raamaayans (including Vaalmiki and Aadhyaatma Raamaayan) and discourses as heard by the author. The selections are for the author's swanthaha sukh (self-delight). As it features Puraans it takes inputs from Vyaas-created Aadhyaatma Raamaayan and Bhagavad Gita as well.

See also

• (in Hindi)

External link

रामचरित मानस