Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas and critic of the holy book

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Why did Ramcharitmanas resist, and what part of it was resisted? Lower castes have been denied education, and Ramcharitmanas say that once educated, people from lower castes become as poisonous as a snake, Shekhar said at Nalanda Open University convocation ceremony .

A few days later, the Samajwadi MLC Party and a former minister in the BJP and BSP led UP governments, Swami Prasad Maurya, told a TV station: Kai crore log isko (Ramcharitmanas) nahin padhte… Dharm ho, hum uska swagat karte hain. Why do you speak in the name of religion? Dalit ko, adivasiyon ko, pichhdon ko. Name of caste doctor. Shudra keh kar ke, kyon gaali de rahe hain? (Millions of people don’t read Ramcharitmanas. We welcome religion, but why abuse in the name of religion? Dalits, tribals, backwards, naming their castes, abusing them by calling them shudra?)

The Ramcharitmanas

The poem was written in the 16th century in the Awadhi dialect which is mostly spoken in the areas that are today Lucknow, Prayagraj and Ayodhya districts. It is divided into seven chapters (Kand) which tell the story of Lord Ram from his birth until he became king of Ayodhya.

The Ramcharitmanas is based on the Ramayana, the great epic of sage Valmiki. It is the holiest book in the Indo-Gangetic region, and among the most widely read holy books in the world according to one estimate, Geeta Press (Gorakhpur) has sold almost 7 million copies. In the heartland of Hindi, a reference to the Ramayan often actually means Ramcharitmanas.

Goswami Tulsidas

Tulsidas, a Brahmin whose original name was Ram Bola Dubey, is believed to have been born in Rajapur by the Yamuna in present-day Banda district. He composed the Ramcharitmanas on the bank of the Ganges in Varanasi, he is said to have started writing on Ram Navami’s day in 1574 and completed the poem in the following years.

In the seventh shloka of the first chapter (Baal Kand), Tulsidas states, Swantah sukhay Tulsi Raghunathgatha i.e. he wrote the story of Raghunath (Lord Ram) for his own happiness.

Tulsidas lived during the time of Emperor Akbar, and some believe he was in contact with Abdurrahim Khan-e-Khanan, the son of Akbars commander Bairam Khan, and they may have also exchanged communications poetic.

Tulsidas made Lord Ram’s story popular among the masses because he wrote in the regional dialect that most people understood. This earned him the wrath of Sanskrit scholars of the time, and Tulsidas recorded his anguish in his Kavitawali: …Kahoo ki beti son, beta n byahab, kahoo ki jaati bigad na souMaangi ke khaibo, maseet ke soibo, laibo ko eku na daibe ko dou (i don’t have to marry my son to anyone’s daughter or degrade a caste, i can survive on alms and sleep in the mosque, i have nothing to see (with no one).

Criticized portions

* The main review is for a chaupai in Sundar Kand. Lord Ram is on the coast, but the sea refuses to give way. When the Lord threatens to dry up the sea, he says, dhol ganwar shudra pashu naari (fools, illiterates, shudras and women), sakal tadana ke adhikari. While Geeta Press Ramcharitmanas (54th edition, 1997) translates taadan as shiksha (education), some critics say it means beating or scolding.

* In Uttar Kand, Kagbhushundi (the crow) says to Garuda, the king of birds: Je barnadham teli kumhara, swapach kiraat koli kalwara, naari mui grih sampatti nashi, mood mudai hohin sanyasi (lower castes like Teli, Kumhar, Chandal, Bheel , Kol and Kalwar, etc. become sanyasis by toning their heads after the death of their wives or the loss of their wealth).

*Later says Kagbhushundi, Adham jaati may shiksha paaye, bhayau jatha ahi doodh pilaye (Educating a lower caste person is like giving milk to a snake). This was the line mentioned by the Minister of Bihar, Chandra Shekhar.

* In Aranya Kand, Lord Ram kills the demon Kabandh. When Kabandh mentions Durvasa, Lord Ram praises the sage: Shapat, tadat parush kahanta, bipra pujya asi gavahin santa, pujiye bipra sheel gun heena, shudra na gun gan gyan praveena (the saints said that a brahmin should be respected even if his conduct is not good, and he curses, beats people or speaks harshly; a Shudra cannot be respected even if he has good qualities and good knowledge).

* When Lord Ram reaches Lanka, Ravan’s wife Mandodari tries to persuade her husband not to go to war. An angry Ravan then describes the eight avgun (bad habits) of women.

Past controversies

While in the Ramcharitmanas Lord Ram is maryada purushottam, the embodiment of righteousness, his conduct has been criticized by leaders of anti-Brahmin movements like EV Ramasamy Periyar.

One of the 22 promises Dr. BR Ambedkar made to his followers upon embracing Buddhism in October 1956 was: I shall have no faith in Rama and Krishna, who are said to be the incarnation of God, nor will I wouldn’t love it either.

The assertion of the non-superior caste in politics has sometimes manifested itself in criticism of the Ramcharitmanas. Critics have used these parts of the poem to accuse Tulsidas of being against non-superior castes and women, and a standard bearer for the idea of ​​Brahmanical superiority.

In 1974, Socialist Party MP for Derapur (Kanpur), Chaudhary Rampal Singh Yadav, while participating in a discussion on Dalit empowerment, tore pages from the Ramcharitmanas in the UP Assembly. The chairman, Professor Vasudev Singh, disapproved of Yadav’s behavior against a religious book and said that every member should respect all religious books.

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