TRANSFORMATION OF THE CONVENTIONAL IMAGE OF GOD IN TULSIDAS RAMCHARITMANAS

Tulsidas is one of the prominent poet-saint of India and Ramcharitmanas is one of his masterpieces. It has been translated in many Indian and non-Indian languages. The success of the work can be measured with its utmost popularity even today, and it can be found even in non-Hindu families. The work is a treatise on the utopian society and governance that deals with the general socio-political and religious issues that are still the same. It connotes the theologies that prove guidelines to the ruler as well as the ideal citizen. It emphasizes the duty that needs to be performed by an individual in the society. It even throws light on the prevalent vices of medieval era that are almost the same even today. It projects the novel image of God, unlike the one that had been projected by the earlier upper Sanskritized class of the society. Tulsidas presents the protagonist Rama of Ramcharitmanas as an ideal. His God differs from the earlier one that lived in the high temples covered in to precious jewels. In sharp contrast to this, Tulsiddas present Him as the God of common man. This transformed image of God affected a lot to the contemporary scenario.