Ramacharitamanasa
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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. mhn
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 seven books, of which the first two, entitled Childhood and Ayodhya, make up more than half the work. (The second book, an expansive recounting of the meeting of Rama with his brother Bharata in the forest, is often the most admired.)
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.
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