Tulsidas (1532–1623) was a Hindu king who lived from 1532 to
1623.
Poet-saint and devotee (bhakta) of the deity Rama, whose
major literary work, the Ramcharitmanas, retells the epic Ramayana in the
colloquial idiom of his day.
Tulsidas was born into a desperately poor brahmin family,
according to evidence in his poetry, but the power of Rama's name transformed
his life.
This may be interpreted both metaphorically and literally as
a reference to his instructor, who is said to have been a Ramanandi.
Tulsidas repeatedly emphasizes that Rama's name contains the
divinity's power and so makes that power available to believers.
Despite his reputation, he had a hard life, according to
legend, and his stress on devotion caused him conflicts with other brahmins who
were worried about preserving their social standing.
Tulsidas, like all of the Ramayana's vernacular retellings,
did not simply translate Rama's story, but also interpreted it according to his
own religious convictions.
The two most significant shifts are Tulsidas' overwhelming
emphasis on the importance of devotion (bhakti) and the salvific power of
Rama's name, which Tulsidas values more than Rama himself.
Tulsidas also incorporates legendary material from a number
of other texts, including the Shiva Purana and the Adhyatmaramayana, to name a
few.
This content is mostly added to the opening and end
chapters, which are where Tulsidas deviates the most from the original epic.
One theory for why Tulsidas brought in this additional
material is because he was attempting to transcend narrow sectarian limit
aries, as shown by the fact that most of the poem is told by the deity Shiva in
the form of a conversation with his wife Parvati.
The crow Bhushundi, who represents the power of dedication
to save even an ordinary carrion-eating crow, takes over as narrator for
portion of the last book.
Apart from the Ramcharitmanas, Tulsidas wrote a number of
additional works in several regional languages, each devoted to a different
deity; the Kavitavali, Vinaya Patrika, Ramavali, and Shrikrishnavali are among
the most notable.
Tulsidas mentions writing down his poetry, and although the
manuscript tradition for some of his writings is unknown, the move from song to
written text happened far quicker than it did for most of his contemporaries,
many of whom were illiterate.
For further details, read F. Raymond Allchin's Kavitavali
(1964); W. Douglas P. Hill's The Holy Lake of Rama's Acts (1971); and John
Stratton Hawley and Mark Juergensmeyer's Songs of the Saints of India (1988).
~Kiran Atma
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