1 verses · ~1 min
भज मन रामचरन सुखदाई॥ध्रु०॥ जिहि चरननसे निकसी सुरसरि संकर जटा समाई। जटासंकरी नाम परयो है, त्रिभुवन तारन आई॥ जिन चरननकी चरनपादुका भरत रह्यो लव लाई। सोइ चरन केवट धोइ लीने तब हरि नाव चलाई॥ सोइ चरन संत जन सेवत सदा रहत सुखदाई। सोइ चरन गौतमऋषि-नारी परसि परमपद पाई॥ दंडकबन प्रभु पावन कीन्हो ऋषियन त्रास मिटाई। सोई प्रभु त्रिलोकके स्वामी कनक मृगा सँग धाई॥ कपि सुग्रीव बंधु भय-ब्याकुल तिन जय छत्र फिराई। रिपु को अनुज बिभीषन निसिचर परसत लंका पाई॥ सिव सनकादिक अरु ब्रह्मादिक सेष सहस मुख गाई। तुलसीदास मारुत-सुतकी प्रभु निज मुख करत बड़ाई॥
इति
The Poet
तुलसीदास
Tulsidas
1532 · 1623
There are works of literature, and there are works that become the living tissue of a civilization works so deeply absorbed into the bloodstream of a people that they cease to be read and begin, instead, to be breathed. Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas is that second and almost impossibly rare thing. Composed in Awadhi in the sixteenth century, at a time when Sanskrit had erected a wall of exclusion around sacred knowledge, the Ramcharitmanas was an act of radical democratization a decision by a scholar of profound erudition to lay down his privilege and carry the light directly to those who had been told they were unworthy of it. Tulsidas took the Valmiki Ramayana and did not merely translate it. He recomposed it in the devotional key of Bhakti, saturating every couplet with such concentrated love that the text functions as much as a spiritual practice as a literary one. Generations of Hindu households have woken before dawn to the sound of these verses, heard them at birth and at death, found in them the moral grammar by which they ordered their lives. Tulsidas was not merely a poet. He was, in the most precise sense, an architect one who built a cathedral large enough for an entire subcontinent to live inside. The structure still stands. It has sheltered half a billion souls and shows no sign of age.
Paired Painting
Hermitage of Valmiki, Folio from the Nadaun Ramayana
This exquisite folio captures a moment of profound spiritual sanctuary within the hermitage of the sage Valmiki. As the Ramayana reaches its poignant conclusion, the forest setting becomes a haven of peace where the divine Sita finds refuge and maternal grace. The artist invites us to witness a landscape where nature and spirit coalesce, depicting the animals living in harmonious proximity to the holy hermitage. Every stroke reflects the deep reverence held for the epic tradition, portraying a world where the sorrows of the mortal realm are softened by the serenity of forest life and the wisdom of the sages.
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