Tulsidas is considered by modem scholars as greater than Surdas, both as a poet and as a devotee. He was born in a Saryuparian Brahmin family in or about 1532 in Varanasi.

His father’s name was Atma Ram Dubey and his mother was Hulsi. On account of his wife Ratna vali’s taunt, he took to the life of a religious hermit. It is presumed that he began writing his Ram Charit Manas in 1574, when he was 42 years of age.

Besides this, he wrote several other books, such as Gitawali, Kavitawali, Vinay Patrika, etc. The Ram Charit Manas is an exposition of religious devotion of the highest category. Tulsidas was the worshipper of Rama and he was drawn as ideal picture of his favourite deity. He looked upon Rama as an incar­nation of God and believed that man could reach him only through bhakti.

Tulsidas died at the age of 91, in 1623. “He is considered even now as a great Vaishnava bhakta and acharya who lived in the hearts of millions of men and women, through his immortal Vinaya Patrika and Ram Charit Manas”.