§ 128 .] 
TUL’SI DAS. 
45 
to that of Krish’n, though the latter god appeared in person and 
assured him that there was no difference between the two. Out of 
this tissue of childish legends it is perhaps possible to extract a 
few threads of fact; but till we can find a copy of the Gosa'i 
Charitr’ there does not appear to be much hope of our being able 
to do so. 
His most famous work is the Rdm-Charit-IVIdnas, ‘the Lake of 
the Gests of Ram/ which he commenced to write in Ajodhya on 
Tuesday, the 9th Chaitra, Sambat 1631 (A.D. 1574-75). 1 It is often 
incorrectly called the Rdmayan, or the Tul’si-krit-Ramayan, or 
(alluding to its metre) the Chaupdi Rdmayan, but, according to the 
forty-fourth chdupai of the Bal Kand of the poem, the above is its full 
and proper name. Two copies of this work are said to have existed 
in the poet’s own handwriting. One of them, which was kept at 
Raj’pur, has disappeared, all but the second book. The legend is that 
the whole copy which existed was stolen, and that the thief being 
pursued flung the manuscript into the river Jamuna, whence only the 
second book was rescued. I have photographs of ten pages of this 
copy, and the marks of water are evident. The other copy exists in 
Malihabad (so Sib Sirjgh ; Growse says in the temple of Slta Ram at 
Ban dr as), of which only one leaf is missing. I am in possession of an 
accurate literatim copy of so much of the Raj’pur manuscript as exists. 
I have also a printed copy of the poem carefully compared with, and 
corrected from, a manuscript in the possession of the Maharaj of 
Banaras, which was written in Sambat 1704 (A.D. 1647), or only 
about twenty-four years after the author’s death. 
Little as the Ram-Charit-Manas is known to European students, 
still less is known of the poet’s other works. Those which I have 
seen and read are the following:— 
(1) The Gitaball (Rag.).—This is the story of Ram told in the form 
of sonnets adapted for singing. There are several incorrect editions of 
it in print, some of which have commentaries of varying excellence. 
(2) The Kabittabali or Kabitta Rdmayan (Rag.).—It deals with the 
same subject, and is in the Kabitta metre. 
(3) The Dohabali or Doha Rdmayan (Rag.).—As its name imports, 
it is in the dohd metre. It is rather a moral work than an epic poem. 
I am not sure that it is not a collection of dohas from his other works 
by a later hand. I have, at any ’rate, been able to identify many 
of them. 
1 Ram. Ba. ch. 42. 
