Tulsidas' Ramayana

Tulsidas (the Sanskrit name of Tulsidas can be transliterated in two ways. Using the IAST transliteration scheme, the name is written as Tulasīdāsa, as pronounced in Sanskrit. Using the Hunterian transliteration scheme, it is written as Tulsidas or Tulsīdās, as pronounced in Hindi). Tulsidas was a great scholar of Sanskrit. However, he wanted the story of Rama to be accessible to the general public and not just the Sanskrit-speaking elite. In order to make the story of Rama as accessible to the layman as to the scholar, Tulsidas chose to write in Awadhi, a dialect of Hindi which was the language of general parlance in large parts of north India at the time. Tradition has it that Tulsidas had to face a lot of criticism from the Sanskrit scholars of Varanasi for being a bhasha (vernacular) poet. However, Tulsidas remained steadfast in his resolve to simplify the knowledge contained in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas to the common people. Subsequently, his work was accepted by all.