Ram Charit Manas – Tulsidas Ramayana

Amar Chitra Katha presents to you Tulsidas’ Ramayana. Read the tale of Ram, the Prince of Ayodhya, one of the most celebrated stories of literature from Ancient India. To date, it continues to touch the souls of its readers and remains an evergreen favourite across generations. It has also been adapted into several other forms of media. The importance of Ramayana in both Indian and world literature is a matter of great pride for India’s rich and diverse heritage.

Also known as Ram Charit Manas or Ram Charit Manas Ramayana, Tulsidas’ Ramayana was written by the great Awadhi poet Goswami Tulsidas in Kaliyuga. This version was written in Awadhi, a dialect of Hindi spoken in Uttar Pradesh. Composed in the 15th century. Ram Charit Manas comprises of 3 words – Ram, Charit which means good deeds, and Manas which means lake. Thus, it translates to ‘the lake of Ram’s good deeds’.

Having acknowledged the Valmiki Ramayana, Ram Charit Manas Ramayana is a retelling of the Ramayana. There are very subtle differences between Valmiki Ramayana and Ram Charit Manas such as Lord Hanuman is depicted as a human in the former and as a monkey in the latter. In this version, Ram is depicted as a supreme being, the incarnation of God. He is shown to have a divine touch to his deeds. His actions are described as God’s righteous ways to remove evils and establish Dharma. In the Valmiki version, Ram’s father, Dashrath, had over 350 wives whereas, in the Tulsidas’ version of the Ramayana, he has only three. Tulsidas’ Ramayana also ends with the birth of Ram and Sita’s twin sons – Kusha and Lava.

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