Nabhaji, the author of Bhaktamala (1600), writes "Tulasidas was an incarnation of Valmiki itself born again to explain Ramayana in the vernacular language." Tulasidas was one of the best poet to have graced Bharat. Tulasidas was a personification of humility. Tulasidas is an independent poet who creates a world using metaphors and similes that though consistent with Valmiki`s interpretation, differs considerably in many places.

Goswami Tulasidas was born in Rajapur, India in the present day Uttar Pradesh. He was a Sarayuparina Brahmin by birth to his father Atma Ram Dube and mother Hulasi. According to a legend his parents rejected him in infancy. Then a saint adopted him with whom he visited many places of India. As he devoted a lot of time in looking after Tulsi plants, he was named after the plant Tulasidas. He married Ratnavali after rejoining with his family and spawns a son but their son died at a very early age. Ratnavali devoted to the worship of Rama and retuned to her father`s house. Tulsidas followed her and she wants him as a preacher of the necessity of a loving faith in Rama. She told Tulasidas by saying `I am just a bag of flesh and bones. Why are you so attracted to it? Why don`t you love Lord Rama with the same fervor?` He started visiting distant places of pilgrimage in different parts of India and made Ayodhya his headquarter.

During his residence at Ayodhya the Lord Rama is said to have appeared to him in a dream, and to have commanded him to write a Ramayana in the language used by the common people. He began this work in the year 1574, and had finished the third book (Aranyakanda), when differences with the Vairagi Vaishnavas at Ayodhya, to whom he had attached himself, led him to migrate to Benares. In Kashi, he became the head of the monastery in lolarka kunda and was designated `Gosain.` Around 1612, he started to suffer from acute arm pain, also seems to have suffered from the epidemic in the local area. Tulasidas passed away on the third day of the dark fortnight in the month of Shravana in 1623 at the age of 91, during the reign of the emperor Jahangir. The period of his synchronization as an author was the latter half of the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), and the first portion of that of Jahangir. His works are as follows: "commencement of the Ramayan" in 1574, "Ram-satsai"in 1584, "Parvati-mangal" in 1586, "Ramajña Prashna" in1598, "Kabitta Ramayan" between 1612 and 1614. A deed of arbitration in his hand, dated 1612, relating to the settlement of a dispute between the sons of a land-owner named Todar, who possessed some villages adjacent to Benares, has been preserved, and is reproduced in facsimile in Dr. Grierson`s Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan. Raja Todar Mal, Akbar`s finance minister was his close friend, and Tulsi wrote a beautiful and pathetic poem on his death.

Tulsidas`s most famous work is "Ramacaritamanasa", or "The Lake of the Deeds of Rama". It is popularly called `Tulsi-krita Ramayana`. Tulasidas is so magnificent in telling the episodes, as he is passionately devoted to Lord Rama. By the sheer liveliness of his poetic imagination, he brings life into Rama, not as a son of Dasartha but as an incarnation of Vishnu and also as Brahman itself. According to Tulasidas, the name Rama means `like a sun who dispels the darkness of ignorance.` Some western scholars have asserted that this work is just a translation of the Sanskrit Ramayana by Valmiki. Both "Rama charita manas" and "Ramayana" are both biographies of Lord Rama. Naturally, there should not major changes between the two. Tulasidas was not writing a biography of Rama, but expressing a love towards Lord Rama in his work. Many of its verses are popular proverbs in the North India and for that in that region it is well known among people. Tulsidas acknowledged himself the humble follower of his teacher, Narhari-Das. As a boy in Sukar-khet he first heard the tale of Rama`s exploits from Narhari Das.

Tulsidas was the author of five longer and six shorter works beside "Ramacaritamanasa". The "Dohavali"consists of 573 miscellaneous doha and sortha verses. The "Kabitta Ramayan" or "Kavitavali"is a history of Rama in the kavitta, ghanakshari, chaupaï and savaiya metres; like the Ramacaritamanasa. The "Gitavali", also in seven kands, aiming at the illustration of the tender aspect of the Lord`s life. The "Krishnavali" or "Krishna gitavali", a collection of 61 songs in honor of Krishna. The "Vinaya Patrika"or Book of petitions, a series of hymns and prayers of which the first 43 are addressed to the lower gods. In praise of Hanuman, he also wrote "Hanuman Chalisa" containing 40 ryhems. Some scholars have noted that Tulasidas is Kalidas of Hindi literature. Actually, he is even lot more. Kalidas was a great Sanskrit poet, and there is no doubt of that, but he did not spread a social and bhakti movement. Whether it is in usage of rasa, similes or metaphors, Tulasidas parallels and even exceeds the versatility of Kalidas. He is considered one of the northern Indian Sants.