Shri Ramcharitmanas

The title means 'the Manasa lake of the deeds of Rama'. Tulsidas describes his poem as a sacred lake: Shiva first created it and kept it in his heart (manas), and the seven kands are the seven steps (sopan) leading down into its pure water. In the opening he says he is writing 'svantah sukhaya', for the joy of his own heart, drawing on the Puranas, the Vedas, the Agamas and the Ramayana.

Tulsidas was a learned Sanskrit scholar, but he chose the spoken language of his region, Awadhi, so that ordinary people could sing and understand Rama's story. Tradition says the scholars of Kashi initially objected to a sacred work in the vernacular. The choice made the Manas the beating heart of Rama-bhakti in North India: it is sung in homes and temples, quoted in daily speech, and performed every year in the Ramlila.

The Manas has seven kands, following the outline of Valmiki's Ramayana but with Tulsidas's own emphasis. Each kand opens with Sanskrit invocation verses. The narrative flows in groups of chaupais (four-line quatrains in two rhyming couplets) punctuated by a doha or soratha, with longer chhand passages at moments of high feeling. The first two kands make up more than half the poem.

The story is told within four nested dialogues: Shiva narrates to Parvati, the crow-sage Kakbhushundi to Garuda, the sage Yajnavalkya to Bharadvaja at Prayag, and Tulsidas to his readers. These conversations allow the poet to pause for teaching and devotion.

Tulsidas states the date himself in the Bala Kand: he began the work in Samvat 1631 on the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra, Rama's birthday, in Ayodhya. Devotional tradition holds that the poem was blessed by Shiva and Hanuman, and that Tulsidas received Rama's darshan at Chitrakoot through Hanuman's grace. Popular stories also tell of the Kashi scholars placing the Manas beneath the Vedas and other texts in the Vishvanath temple overnight, and finding it on top in the morning; such stories express the reverence in which the poem is held rather than recorded history.

Historians agree that the poem was composed in the late 16th century, in Ayodhya, Varanasi and perhaps Chitrakoot. Tulsidas died in 1623 in Varanasi; his birth year is uncertain, and dates from the early to the mid-16th century have been proposed. A manuscript of 1648 CE is preserved at a Hanuman temple at Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi. In literary terms, scholars see the Manas as drawing not only on Valmiki but also on the Adhyatma Ramayana, the Bhagavata Purana and Sanskrit drama, shaped by the Saguna bhakti of the Ramananda tradition.

The power of Rama's name. Tulsidas declares the name of Rama greater even than Rama himself, since the name saves countless people who never met him in person.

Bhakti open to all. Shabari, Kevat the boatman, Guha the Nishad king, the vanaras and Vibhishana are all embraced by Rama. In the Aranya Kand Rama teaches Shabari the nine forms of devotion, beginning with the company of saints.

Satsang. The opening chapters praise the company of good people as the root of all blessings, as in the verse quoted below.

Maryada and Ramarajya. Rama remains the ideal son, brother, husband and king; the Uttar Kand describes Ramarajya as a kingdom without fear, disease or poverty, where people follow dharma happily.

The Manas also changes some episodes for devotional reasons: it is a 'shadow Sita' (maya Sita) who is abducted while the real Sita waits in the fire, and the poem ends before Sita's second exile.

The Awadhi text below follows the 1925 Indian Press edition transcribed on Hindi Wikisource, which joins compound words with hyphens; spellings in Gita Press editions differ slightly (for example, 'मंगल भवन अमंगल हारी').

Three formal ways of reciting the whole poem are widely practised: navah parayan, in nine days (popular in both Navaratris), mas parayan, in thirty days, and akhand path, an unbroken recitation of the entire text within about twenty-four hours, often held for a family occasion. Most printed editions mark the stopping points for the nine- and thirty-day readings.

The Sundar Kand is often recited on its own, especially on Tuesdays and Saturdays, the days associated with Hanuman. Manas katha by traditional kathavachaks draws vast audiences, and Ramlila performances based on the Manas, most famously the month-long Ramlila of Ramnagar near Varanasi, are staged across North India in the weeks before Dussehra. The poem also guided Ramanand Sagar's television series Ramayan (1987).

The standard household edition is published by Gita Press, Gorakhpur, with the Awadhi text and a Hindi explanation by Hanuman Prasad Poddar; it is available in several sizes, and Gita Press also publishes an edition with English translation. Gita Press also issues the Sundar Kand separately. For readers of English, W. Douglas P. Hill's translation 'The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama' (1952) and the ongoing Murty Classical Library translation by Rohini Chowdhury are reliable, and Philip Lutgendorf's 'The Life of a Text' is an excellent study of how the Manas is performed.

Begin with the Sundar Kand to feel the poem's devotion, then return to the start of the Bala Kand and read straight through. Reading aloud, even slowly, is part of the experience: the Manas was written to be sung.