TulsiDas

TulsiDas
Tul·si Das (to͝olʹsē däsʹ), 1543?-1623.
Hindu poet whose Ramcaritmanas is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature.

* * *

▪ Indian poet
born 1543?, probably Rājāpur, India
died 1623, Vārānasi

      Indian sacred poet whose principal work, the Rāmcaritmānas (“Sacred Lake of the Acts of Rāma”), is the greatest achievement of medieval Hindi literature and has exercised an abiding influence on the Hindu culture of northern India.

      The Rāmcaritmānas expresses par excellence the religious sentiment of bhakti (“loving devotion”) to the Vaiṣṇava avatar, Rāma, who is regarded as the chief means of salvation. Although Tulsīdās was above all a devotee of Rāma, he remained a Smārta Vaiṣṇava (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 Rāma. His eclectic approach to doctrinal questions meant that he was able to rally wide support for the worship of Rāma in northern India, and the success of the Rāmcaritmānas has been a prime factor in the replacement of the Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) cult by the cult of Rāma as the dominant religious influence in that area.

      Little is known about Tulsīdās' life. He was probably born at Rājāpur and lived most of his adult life at Vārānasi. The Rāmcaritmānas was written between 1574 and 1576 or 1577. A number of early manuscripts are extant—some fragmentary—and one is said to be an autograph. The oldest complete manuscript is dated 1647. The poem, written in Awadhi, an Eastern Hindi dialect, consists of seven cantos of unequal lengths. Although the ultimate source of the central narrative is the Sanskrit epic Rāmāyaṇa, Tulsīdās' principal immediate source was the Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇa, a late medieval recasting of the epic that had already sought to harmonize the Advaita system and the Rāma cult. The influence of the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, the chief scripture of the Krishna cult, is also discernible, with that of a number of minor sources.

      Eleven other works are attributed with some certainty to Tulsīdās. These include Kṛṣṇa gītāvalī, a series of 61 songs in honour of Krishna; Vinay pattrikā, a series of 279 verse passages addressed to Hindu sacred places and deities (chiefly Rāma and Sītā); and Kavitāvalī, telling incidents from the story of Rāma.

      A prose translation of the Rāmcaritmānas, with a useful introduction, is W.D.P. Hill's The Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama (1952).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Tulsidas — (Hindi: तुलसीदास Tulsīdās, auch Tulasidas, Gosvāmī Tulsīdās, Tulasī Dāsa, * wahrscheinlich um 1532 / um 1543, wahrscheinlich in Rajapur, Distrikt Banda, in Uttar Pradesh; † 1623 in Asi Ghat/Varanasi) war ein indischer Dichter, Mystiker,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Tulsidas — Nombre completo Gosvāmī Tulsīdās Nacimiento 1532 Rajapur, Uttar Pradesh …   Wikipedia Español

  • Tulsidas — Tulsîdâs Goswami Tulsîdâs (1532 1623; hindi: तुलसीदास) est un poète et philosophe indien, principalement connu pour sa version du Ramayana. Il est souvent considéré comme l équivalent pour la langue hindi de ce que Molière est au français ou… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Tulsidas — Tulsidas,   indischer Dichter, * Raipur (?) 1532, ✝ Benares (heute Varanasi) 1623; seine in Althindi verfassten Werke sind v. a. der Ramaverehrung gewidmet. Seinem Hauptwerk »Ramacaritmanas« (»See des Lebenslaufs des Rama«) liegt der Stoff des… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Tulsidas — (1532–1623)    greatest Hindi poet    It can be said without reservation that Tulsidas is the greatest poet to write in the Hindi language. Tulsidas was a BRAHMIN by birth and was believed to be a reincarnation of the author of the SANSKRIT… …   Encyclopedia of Hinduism

  • Tulsidas — Gosvāmī Tulsīdās (1532 1623; Devanāgarī: तुलसीदास, may be written as Tulasī Dāsa depending on if the name is transcribed to indicate Sanskrit pronunciation instead of Hindi) was an Awadhi poet and philosopher, and the author Rāmacaritamānasa (… …   Wikipedia

  • Tulsîdâs — Goswami Tulsîdâs (1532 1623 ; hindi : तुलसीदास) est un poète et philosophe indien, principalement connu pour sa version du Ramayana. Il est souvent considéré comme l équivalent pour la langue hindi de ce que Molière est au français ou… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Tulsīdās — biographical name 1543? 1623 Hindu poet …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Tulsi Das — Tulsîdâs Goswami Tulsîdâs (1532 1623; hindi: तुलसीदास) est un poète et philosophe indien, principalement connu pour sa version du Ramayana. Il est souvent considéré comme l équivalent pour la langue hindi de ce que Molière est au français ou… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Tulsî Dâs — Tulsîdâs Goswami Tulsîdâs (1532 1623; hindi: तुलसीदास) est un poète et philosophe indien, principalement connu pour sa version du Ramayana. Il est souvent considéré comme l équivalent pour la langue hindi de ce que Molière est au français ou… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”