Tulsidas, a writer of Indian religious poetry,…
1585 CE
Tulsidas, a writer of Indian religious poetry, probably born at Rajapur, probably born at Rajapur, has lived most of his adult life at Varanasi.
Between 1574 and 1576 or 1577 he writes his principal work, the Ramcaritmanas (“Sacred Lake of the Acts of Rama”), an expression of the religious sentiment of bhakti (“loving devotion”) to the Vaisnava avatar, Rama, who is regarded as the chief means of salvation.
Although Tulsidas is above all a devotee of Rama, he remains a Smarta Vaisnava (a follower of the more generally accepted traditions and customs of Hinduism rather than a strict sectarian), and his poem gives some expression both to orthodox monistic Advaita doctrine and to the polytheistic mythology of Hinduism—though these are everywhere subordinated to his expression of bhakti for Rama.
His eclectic approach to doctrinal questions means that he was able to rally wide support for the worship of Rama in northern India, and the success of the Ramcaritmanas has been a prime factor in the replacement of the Krishna (Krsna) cult by the cult of Rama as the dominant religious influence in this area.
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South Asia
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