52 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE There he spent the greater part of his life, though he also visited other places, such as Soron, Ayodhya, Chitrakut, Allahabad, and Brindaban. Many legends are told about him, but scarcely anything that is reliable. Nabha Das, the author of the Bhaktamaldy is said to have been his friend, and Sur Das is also supposed to have visited him. He was not directly connected with the court, though Raja Man Singh and Abdul Rahim Khankhana are said to have befriended him, and no doubt he was affected by the artistic influence in literature which was characteristic of the age in which he lived. Tulsi Das died at Benares in 1624. The great masterpiece of Tulsi Das is the Rdmdyan, This is the name by which it is generally known, but he himself called it the Rdm-charit-mmas, the
- Lake of the deeds of Rama." It was commenced in
1575, according to his own statement in the prologue. The story of Rama had been told long before by the Sanskrit poet Valmiki, who lived probably in the fourth century B.C., and it has been a frequent theme of Indian poets in the various languages of India. The Rdmdyan of Tulsi Das is not, however, a translation of that of his Sanskrit predecessor. The general outline of the story is the same, but there is a great deal of difference in treatment. It is only in the broadest outline that the two agree. Not only are there different episodes in each, but even in the main story the incidents are differently placed and often have quite a different complexion. The main difference, however, between the work of Valmiki and that of Tulsi Das is in their theological outlook. In books II to VI of Valmiki's poem Rama appears as a man and only a man, except in one passage which has been interpolated into the sixth book. The first book, in which Rama and his brothers are regarded as partial incarnations of Vishnu, is considered by scholars as a later addition. In the poem of Tulsi Das, however, Rama appears throughout as an incarnation of the Supreme God. The same theological position as that
