Ramacharitamanas
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Śrī Rāmacaritamānasa (Hindi: रामचरितमानस) is an epic poem composed by the 16th-century Indian poet, Goswami Tulsidas (c.1532–1623) (also transliterated as Tulasidasa). An English translation of Rāmacaritamānasa is "The Ocean of the Deeds of Rama". As mentioned in the Bāla Kaṇḍa of the composition, Tulsidas started writing it in Vikram Samvat 1631 (1574 AD) in Avadhpuri, Ayodhya. It was completed in two years and seven months. A large portion of the poem was composed at Varanasi, where the poet spent most of his later life. It is considered one of the greatest works of Hindi literature.
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[edit] Language
It is written in Awadhi (Baiswari), which is belongs to the Eastern Hindi language family.
[edit] Structure
The Rāmacaritamānasa consists of seven books, of which the first two, entitled Childhood and Ayodhya, make up more than half the work. (The second book, an expansive recounting of the meeting of Rama with his brother Bharata in the forest, is often the most admired.)
The work is composed in stanzas called chaupais, broken by dohas or couplets, with an occasional sortha and chhand, the latter being a hurried metre of many rhymes and alliterations.
[edit] Storyline
The Rāmacaritamānasa is a retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, concerning the exploits of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. The great poem is also called Tulsi-krita Ramayana, or "The Ramayana of Tulsidas".
The poem revisits the of Ramayana of Valmiki, but is not a mere retelling of the Sanskrit epic. Where Valmiki has condensed the story, Tulsidas has expanded, and, conversely, wherever the elder poet has lingered longest, there his successor has condensed.
The tale begins at King Dasaratha's court, and tells of the birth and boyhood of Rama and his three brothers, his marriage with Sita, his voluntary exile which is the unfortunate result of Kaikeyi's guile and Dasaratha's rash vow, the dwelling-together of Rama and Sita in the great central Indian forest, her abduction by Ravana, Rama's expedition to Lanka and the overthrow of the ravisher, and life at Ayodhya after the return of the reunited pair.
