Goswami Tulsidas and Ramcharitramanas

According to Puranas, at one time Ganga had its abode in swarga [heaven]. Due to which, only devas [gods] had the privilege of enjoying the benefits of its sacred water, while the common people living in the physical world were deprived of it. But later, so that the water of Ganga could be made available to the people at large, Bhagirath observed an awful austerity and brought Ganga down to the earth from swarga. And, long after this great event, one who repeated this glorious history was none other than Goswami Tulsidas. What Bhagirath did regarding Ganga, regarding Ramayana did Tulsidasji , translating it from Sanskrit into local dialect for the commoners as Ramcharitramanas.

First created by sage Valmiki, the Ramayana is originally found to be written in Sanskrit. Since the time immemorial Sanskrit has commanded a great importance in India. So much so that it is looked upon as devbhasha. Means, if others are the languages of common people, then Sanskrit is the language of gods, or, may be said, the language of intellectual-class. From Vedas to mostly other sacred scriptures all are found in this language.

Due to the above reasons people would hold Sanskrit in high esteem in old times. But, however, it had its own drawbacks. As it was the language of intellectuals and not the common people, what written in the scriptures got to be inaccessible to the grasp of the greater section of the people. And, of course, this drawback could have been overcome by the efforts of contemporary intellectuals. But, they[intellectuals] were either least interested in revealing the contents of scriptures , or if at all interested then in foisting upon them(people) only such concoctions and perversions that could serve to fulfill their vested interests alone. This proved extremely harmful to the good of the society. And, people began to drift more and more away from Dharma.

Not that there was no scripture available in local dialect. Some such scriptures written by the local religious preachers were there, indeed. And more or less whatever rudimentary knowledge people had about dharma, gods and the episodes associated with them, they learnt it through these scriptures only. But, as they were in the local dialects and not in Sanskrit, they failed to gain the recognition of the contemporary intellectual class, and hence could not come into prominence. As such, there needed such a scripture that would be composed in such a language that could be tenable to the common people and, besides, could inspire the veneration of all, including the intellectual class as well. And the one who fulfilled this seemingly altogether impossible task by composing Ramacharitramanas was Goswami Tulsidas. Himself a great Sanskrit scholar, he knew well that any new idea of this sort would never be accepted by the traditional class so easily. He, therefore, put forth several instructive instances to prove his point.
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He argued that if the gods could descend on earth in the form of monkeys to serve Ram, then why devbhasha shouldn’t take the form of local dialect so that more and more people could take the benefit of its divine refuge and spiritual bliss. In Ramayana Ram always held rishis and munies [sages] in high esteem. Yet, this regard towards ancient tradition never became an obstacle in carrying his friendship with the monkeys, bheels, koles and other low castes. After victory over Lanka when he reached Ayodhaya he came as a bridge between Guru Vashistha and monkeys, and brought them close to each other. Giving the credit of victory to both, where he held the blessings of Vashistha as the inexhaustible source of motivation, then he praised the contribution of the monkeys in bringing the mission into execution in no less term. By composing Ramcharitramanas Goswamijee too, like his Ram, build such a bridge between commoners and their local dialect on one side and intellectuals and their devbhasha, Sanskrit, on the other, so that instead of continued to be rivals anymore, they became complementary to each other.

By Er Rajesh Pathak