Goswami Tulsidas
गोस्वामी तुलसीदास
Gosvāmī Tulasīdāsa
Author of Ramcharitmanas + Hanuman Chalisa — made Rama-bhakti accessible to the masses in vernacular Awadhi
1532 CE – 1623 CE · Born at Rajapur, Banda district, Uttar Pradesh
Tradition
Saguna Vaishnava Bhakti — Rama-bhakti
Guru
Narharidas of Sukar Khet
Principal works
- • Ramcharitmanas (Awadhi retelling of Valmiki Ramayana)
- • Hanuman Chalisa (40-verse hymn to Hanuman)
- • Vinaya Patrika
- • Kavitavali
- • Dohavali
- • Geetavali
- • Vairagya Sandipani
Signature verse
मंगल भवन अमंगल हारी। द्रवहु सुदसरथ अजिर बिहारी॥
maṅgala bhavana amaṅgala hārī, dravahu sudasaratha ajira bihārī
O abode of all auspiciousness, remover of inauspiciousness, melt with compassion, O wanderer of the courtyard of Dasaratha.
— Ramcharitmanas, Bala Kanda
Life and work
Tulsidas was abandoned at birth on account of inauspicious astrological signs and raised by a wandering Vaishnava ascetic who initiated him into Rama mantra. After a turbulent householder phase ended by a famous rebuke from his wife Ratnavali, he renounced family life and undertook decades of pilgrimage through North India before settling at Banaras. There at the Assi ghat he composed the Ramcharitmanas in 1574 CE in vernacular Awadhi rather than Sanskrit, deliberately opening the Rama story to ordinary villagers, women, and shudras to whom the Valmiki text had been effectively closed. The work is structured as seven kandas mirroring Valmiki but reframed throughout as the dialogue between Shiva and Parvati, anchoring the entire devotional theology in Saguna Brahman as Rama. Tulsidas also composed the Hanuman Chalisa during this period, a forty-verse Awadhi hymn that became the most recited devotional text in the Hindi belt. His Vinaya Patrika gathers his most intimate prayers to Rama, Sita, and the divine attendants. He is regarded by tradition as an incarnation of Valmiki himself, sent in the Kali Yuga to make the Rama story sing again in the language of the people.
Key teaching
Sing the name of Rama in the language of the common people. The hari-katha recited with shraddha is itself the ferry across the ocean of becoming, and no Sanskrit lineage or ritual purity is required to board it.
Associated places
- • Assi ghat, Banaras (Tulsi ghat — composition site)
- • Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir, Banaras (founded by Tulsidas)
- • Chitrakoot (extended residence, vision of Rama)
- • Rajapur (birthplace, original Ramcharitmanas manuscript preserved)
- • Ayodhya (pilgrimage)
Modern relevance
Ramcharitmanas is recited daily in millions of households across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and the Hindu diaspora in Mauritius, Trinidad, and Fiji. Hanuman Chalisa has crossed into pan-India recitation including non-Hindi states. The annual Ramleela performances staged across North India derive almost entirely from the Tulsidas text.