Tulsi Smarak Bhawan: Memorial to Tulsidas

Who Tulsidas was

Goswami Tulsidas, the sixteenth-century saint-poet, did for the common people of north India what Valmiki had done in Sanskrit: he told the story of Ram in Awadhi, the language spoken in and around Ayodhya, so that a farmer could sing it as easily as a scholar could study it. His Ramcharitmanas is recited daily in countless homes. He also composed the Hanuman Chalisa, the Vinay Patrika and other works.

Tulsidas records that he began the Ramcharitmanas in Ayodhya, on Ram Navami in the Vikram year 1631, which corresponds to 1574 CE. The city therefore has a special claim on him.

The memorial

Tulsi Smarak Bhawan was built in his memory in 1969 near the eastern end of Rajgang crossing. It houses the Ayodhya Shodh Sansthan, a research institute devoted to the Ram tradition, with a library of works on the Ramayana in many languages. The institute has collected Ramayana art, manuscripts and Ramlila traditions not only from across India but from the many countries where the story travelled, among them Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

For visitors the two attractions have been the Ram Katha exhibits and the Ramlila: for many years a Ramlila was staged here every evening by troupes invited from different regions, making it one of the few places where the story could be watched on any day of the year. Prayer meetings, religious discourses and cultural programmes are held, and Tulsi Jayanti in the month of Shravan is celebrated with particular care.

Why visit

Temples show where the story happened; this place shows how it was carried. It is the best stop in Ayodhya for students, for visitors from abroad, and for anyone curious about how one poem came to be sung from Awadh to Bali.

Visiting

• Ask locally or at your hotel what is on that day and at what time, as programmes and hours vary and the complex has been under redevelopment.
• It is on the way between the old town and Mani Parvat.
• Related reading: The Ramayana in seven kandas and Hanuman.