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TULSI DAS (1532–1623)
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TULSI DAS (1532–1623) , the greatest and most famous of See also:Hindi poets, was a Sarwariya See also:Brahman, See also:born, according to tradition, in A.D. 1532, during the reign of See also:Humayun, most probably at Rajapur in the See also:Banda See also:District See also:south of the See also:Jumna. His See also:father's name was Atma See also:Ram Sukal Dube; that of his See also:mother is said to have been Hul.asi. A See also:legend relates that, having been born under an unlucky See also:conjunction of the stars, he was abandoned in See also:infancy by his parents, and was adopted by a wandering See also:sadhu or ascetic, with whom he visited many See also:holy places in the length and breadth of See also:India; and the See also:story is in See also:part supported by passages in his poems. He studied, apparently after having rejoined his See also:family, at Sukarkhet, a See also:place generally identified with SorOf in the See also:Etah district of the See also:United Provinces, but more probably the same as Varahakshetrat on the See also:Gogra See also:River, 3o M. W. of See also:Ajodhya (Ayodhya). He married in his father's lifetime, and begat a son. His wife's name was Ratnawali, daughter of Dinabandhu Pathak, and his son's See also:Tara. The latter died at an See also:early See also:age, and Tulsi's wife, who was devoted to the See also:worship of Rama, See also:left her See also:husband and returned to her father's See also:house to occupy herself with See also:religion. Tulsi Das followed her, and endeavoured to induce her to return to him, but in vain; she reproached him (in verses which have been preserved) with want of faith in Rama, and so moved him that he renounced the See also:world, and entered upon an ascetic See also:life, much of which was spent in wandering as a preacher of the necessityof a loving faith in Rama. He first made Ajodhya (the See also:capital of Rama and near the See also:modern See also:Fyzabad) his headquarters, frequently visiting distant places of See also:pilgrimage in different parts of India. During his See also:residence at Ajodhya the See also:Lord Rama is said to have appeared to him in a See also:dream, and to have commanded him to write a Rdmayana in the See also:language used by the See also:common See also:people. He began this See also:work in the See also:year 1574, and had finished the third See also:book (Aranya-kand), when See also:differences with the Vairagi Vaishnavas at Ajodhya, to whom he had attached himself, led him to migrate to See also:Benares, where he settled at Asi-See also:ghat. Here he died 1 This is the view of Baijnath Das, author of the best life of Tulsi Das. At Soron there is no tradition connecting it with the poet. Varahakshetra and Sukar-khet have the same meaning (Vardha= Sukara, a See also:wild See also:boar). in 1623, during the reign of the See also:emperor See also:Jahangir, at the See also:great ' age of 91. The See also:period of his greatest activity as an author synchronized with the latter See also:half of the reign of See also:Akbar (1.556-1605), and the first portion of that of Jahangir, his dated See also:works being as follows: commencement of the Ramayan, 1574; Ram-satsai, 1584; Parboli mongol, 1586; Ramayya, 1598; Kabitta Ramayan, between 1612 a,nd 1614. A See also:deed of See also:arbitration in his See also:hand, dated 1612, See also:relating to the See also:settlement of a dispute between the sons of a See also:land-owner named Todar, who possessed some villages adjacent to Benares, has been preserved, and is reproduced in facsimile in Dr Grierson's Modern See also:Vernacular Literature of Hindustan, p. 51. Toclar (who was not, as formerly supposed, Akbar's See also:finance See also:minister, the celebrated See also:Raja Todar Mall) was his attached friend, and a beautiful and pathetic poem'. by Tulsi on his See also:death is extant. He is said to have been resorted to, as a venerated teacher, by Maharaja See also:Man Singh of See also:Jaipur (d. 1618), his See also:brother Jagat Singh, and other powerful princes; and it appears to be certain that his great fame and See also:influence as a religious See also:leader, which remain pre-eminent to this See also:day, were fully established during his lifetime. See also:Tula 's great poem, popularly called Tulsi-krit Ramayan, but named by its author Ram-charit-manas, " the See also:Lake of Rama's deeds," is perhaps better known among See also:Hindus in upper India than the See also:Bible among the rustic See also:population in See also:England. Its verses are everywhere, in this region, popular See also:proverbs; an See also:apt See also:quotation from them by a stranger has an immediate effect in producing See also:interest and confidence in the hearers. As with the Bible and See also:Shakespeare, his phrases have passed into the common speech, and are used by every one (even in See also:Urdu) without being conscious of their origin. Not only are his sayings proverbial: his See also:doctrine actually forms the most powerful religious influence in See also:present-day See also:Hinduism; and, though he founded no school and was never known as a guru or See also:master, but professed himself the humble follower of his teacher, Narhari-Das,2 from whom as a boy in Sukar-khet he heard the See also:tale of Rama's doings, he is everywhere accepted as an inspired and authoritative See also:guide in religion and conduct of life.
The poem is a rehandling of the great theme of Valmiki, but is in no sense a See also:translation of the See also:Sanskrit epic. The See also:succession of events is of course generally the same, but the treatment is entirely different. The episodes introduced in the course of the story are for the most part dissimilar. Wherever Valmiki has condensed, Tulsi Das has See also:expanded, and wherever the See also:elder poet has lingered longest, there his successor has hastened on most rapidly. It consists of seven books, of which the first two, entitled " Childhood " (Bal-kand) and " Ayodhya " (Ayodhya-kand), make up more than half the work. The second book is that most admired. The tale tells of See also: Its See also:style varies with each subject. There is the deep pathos of the See also:scene in which is described Rama's farewell to his mother: the rugged language depicting the horrors of the battlefield—a torrent of harsh sounds clashing against each other and reverberating from phrase to phrase; and, as occasion requires, a sententious, aphoristic method of narrative, teeming with similes See also:drawn from nature herself, and not from the traditions of the See also:schools. His characters, too, live and move with all the dignity of an heroic age. Each is a real being, with a well-defined See also:personality. Rama, perhaps too perfect to enlist all our sympathies; his impetuous and loving brother'Lakshman; the See also:tender, See also:constant Bharat; Sita, the ideal of an Indian wife and mother; Ravan, destined to failure, and fighting with all his demon force against his destiny—the Satan of the epic—all these are characters as lifelike and distinct as any in occidental literature." A See also:manuscript of the Ayodhya-kand, said to be in the poet's own hand, exists at Rajapur in Banda, his reputed birthplace. One of the Bal-kand, dated Sambat 1661, nineteen years before the poet's i See Indian See also:Antiquary, xxii. 272 (1893). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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