Tulsi Peeth edition of the Ramcharitmanas

Last updated

Tulsi Peeth edition of the Ramcharitmanas
Ramabhadracharya Works - Ramacaritamanasa Tulsi Pitha Samskarana (2006).jpg
Cover page of the Tulsi Peeth edition of the Ramcharitmanas
Author Rambhadracharya
Original titleरामचरितमानस का श्रीतुलसीपीठ संस्करण
Country India
Language Awadhi
PublisherShri Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas
Publication date
2005

The Tulsi Peeth edition of the Ramcharitmanas is a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas edited by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya and published by the Tulsi Peeth. [1] It has more than 3000 differences compared to the popular editions of the scripture. [2]

Contents

In November 2009 a controversy arose over this edition in Ayodhya, when the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad and Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas demanded an apology from Rambhadracharya over the Tulsi Peeth edition, accusing him of tampering with the epic. [1] [3] The author responded saying that he had merely edited extant copies of the epic and not modified the original epic. The dispute died down after Rambhadracharya expressed his regret for any annoyance or pain caused by the publication. [4] A writ petition was also filed against him but it was dismissed. [5] This edition was published in 2005 by Shri Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas. [6] [7]

Differences in the Tulsi Peeth edition

The Ramcharitmanas was composed by Tulsidas in the late sixteenth century. It has been extremely popular in northern India over the last four hundred years, and is often referred to as the "Bible of northern India" by Western Indologists. [8] After nearly eight years of research, Rambharacharya came up with a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas. [1] [9] Rambhadracharya says he has relied extensively on older manuscripts for the text of the epic. [1] Ram Sagar Shukla notes the following differences in spelling, grammar, and prosodic conventions between the Tulsi Peeth edition and contemporary editions of the Ramcharitmanas. [10] [11]

  1. Several present-day editions, including the one by the Gita Press, consider one chaupai verse to be a unit of 64 syllabic instants [lower-greek 1] in two lines, where each line has two parts, each of 16 instants. Some other scholars count one chaupai verse as a unit of only 32 instants. [13] Rambhadracharya has considered a chaupai to consist of 32 instants in one line, citing the examples of Hanuman Chalisa and the critique of Padmavat by Ramchandra Shukla in support. He says that the chaupai still has four feet, because of the caesura after every eighth instant.
  2. With some exceptions, for example when needed to satisfy prosodic constraints, in the Tulsi Peeth edition, words in the nominative and accusative cases do not end in the rounded vowel (Unicode उ, IPA /u/), as they do in present-day editions. Rambhadracharya considers such endings to be artefacts in the manuscripts, calling them unnatural in Awadhi. Most of the corresponding words in the text of Tulsi Peeth edition end in the central vowel (Unicode अ, IPA /ɐ/)
  3. The Tulsi Peeth edition does not use nasalised vowels ( anunasika ) to indicate case endings. According to Rambhadracharya, this is the same as in older editions, where the use of anunasika for case endings is absent.
  4. In place of the conjunct nasal-fricative consonants nh (Unicode न्ह्, IPA /n̪ɦ/) and mh (Unicode म्ह्, IPA /mɦ/) seen in accusative plural and second person pronoun usages in contemporary editions, the Tulsi Peeth edition has the single nasal consonants n (Unicode न्, IPA /n̪/) and m (Unicode म्, IPA /m/) respectively.
  5. For Tadbhava words, the Tulsi Peeth edition uses the dental fricative s (Unicode स्, IPA /s̪/) instead of the palatal fricative ś (Unicode श्, IPA /ɕ/) in the corresponding Tatsama form selectively, only at places where the replacement does not result in a faux pas. For example, the dental fricative is used in the word sobhā (सोभा, from Sanskrit śobhā, meaning splendour or brilliance) but the palatal fricative is unchanged in Śaṃkara (शंकर, a name for Shiva) where the replacement would result in Saṃkara (संकर), which means a child born out of wedlock. [14] Contemporary editions use the dental fricative throughout.

Controversy

Jagadguru Rambhadracarya presenting the critical edition of Ramacaritamanasa to the President of India, Pratibha Patil JagadguruRamabhadracharya008.jpg
Jagadguru Rambhadracarya presenting the critical edition of Ramacaritamanasa to the President of India, Pratibha Patil

In November 2009 a controversy arose over this edition in Ayodhya, when the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad and Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas demanded an apology from Rambhadracharya over the Tulsi Peeth edition, accusing him of tampering with the epic. [1] [3]

Accusations

In a report in Times of India, Manjari Mishra and V N Arora accused Rambhadracharya of committing a "blasphemous act of challenging the mighty pen of the Goswami". Nritya Gopal Das, president of Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, was quoted by Times of India as saying, "How dare he ... he has committed an pardonable [sic] sin and must own it up". [1] A Zee News report accused Rambhadracharya of "changing dohas to chaupais " and vice versa, "changing the wordings of several verses", and "renaming Laṅkākāṇḍa to Yuddhakāṇḍa". [2] [5] Zee News reported that a Mantra of page 59 of the edition called Rambhadracharya a Rishi , and quoted that The Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad chairperson Mahant Gyan Das as questioning how Rambhadracharya could be called a Rishi, a term used for the likes of Vamadeva, Jabali and Vasistha. [2] Gyan Das and Nritya Gopal Das also accused the swami of "deleting certain verses and arbitrarily substituting news words". [1] Gyan Das said that as per the meeting of Saints and Dharmacharyas, it was decided that Rambhadracharya should apologise till 8 November, otherwise a decision will be taken to remove Rambhadracharya from the post of Jagadguru in the proposed meeting of the Parishad on 10 November. [3]

Response by Rambhadracharya

Times of India reported Rambhadracharya's disciples as denying the charges of deleting verses and substituting words. Rambhadracharya told Times of India that he had "merely edited, not altered the Ramcharitmanas published by Geata Press, Gorakhpur". He said that "they have pronounced me guilty without even going through my book", and added that the controversy was "a ploy to malign me and extort money". [1] On the use of the word Rishi to refer to him, Zee News reported Rambhadracharya's response that a Rishi is somebody who sees a Mantra and in this sense he was a Rishi for the new Mantra he proposed for offering oblation to the Ramcharitmanas. [2] Later in 2010, Dainik Jagaran and One India websites reported Rambhadracharya's response to the controversy, quoting him as saying that he had merely edited extant copies of the epic and not modified the original epic, similar to what Nanda Dulare Vajpayee had done for the Gita Press edition published in 1949. [15] [16]

The dispute subsided on 8 November 2009, when Rambhadracharya sent a letter to the Akhara Parishad, expressing regret over any annoyance or pain caused by the publication of the Tulsi Peeth edition. In the letter, he requested the Akhara Parishad to consider older printed editions of the Ramcharitmanas as authentic, not others. [4] The saints in Ayodhya expressed satisfaction over the language of the letter and decided to stop the protest against Rambhadracharya. [4]

Court case

A writ petition filed in 2008 by Shiv Asray Asthana, publisher of the journal Prakhar Vichar, seeking the seizure and forfeiture of Rambhadracharya's critical edition on the grounds that it hurt religious sentiments, was dismissed by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in May 2011. Asthana was fined ₹20,000 (US$250) by the high court. [5] [17] [18] Speaking to Dainik Jagran, Rambhadracharya termed the decision as a victory of the fundamental rights and announced a nine-day victory celebration. [18]

Critical response

Several scholars of Hindi and Ramcharitmanas have reviewed the critical edition by Rambhadracharya. Prem Bhushan, a Kathavachak and discipline of Rambhadracharya, said that the "differences are mainly related to grammar and spelling". [1] Ram Sagar Shukla, a retired correspondent of Prasar Bharti, wrote that "most of the corrections" in the Tulsi Peeth edition pertain to the language of the epic, while some relate to several episodes.Shukla doubts the swami Rambhadracharya's opinion on the definition of Chaupai, saying that according to Pingala's definition a Chaupai has 64 instants, and that the title Hanuman Chalisa could also mean 40 half-Chaupais. Sunita Shastri, a scholar on Ramcharitmanas and advisor to Gita Press, told the Times of India that she examined the book for two hours and found "several verses missing " in the Ayodhyakand from the Tulsi Peeth edition. She quoted the verse dīpaśikhā sama juvati tana ... as missing. Ravindra Agnihotri, author in Sanskrit, Hindi and English, wrote that Rambahdracharya pointed to "more than 3000 mistakes in contemporary prevalent editions" including addition of verses and change of words, and added that the Akhil Bharatiya Akhada Parishad and Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas should have praised his work instead of criticising him. [9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Mātrās or temporal units, where a short syllable has one instant and a long syllable has two. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulsidas</span> Hindu saint and poet (c.1497–1623)

Rambola Dubey, known as Tulsidas, was a Vaishnava (Ramanandi) Hindu saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit, Awadhi, and Braj Bhasha, but is best known as the author of the Hanuman Chalisa and of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana, based on Rama's life, in the vernacular Awadhi language.

Jagadguru, literally meaning "guru of the universe", is a title used in Sanātana Dharma. Traditionally, it has been bestowed upon or used for ācāryas belonging to the Vedānta school who have written Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthānatrayī – the Brahma sūtras, the Bhagavad-gītā and the principal Upaniṣads. Historically, jagadgurus have established a lineage and an institution to spread dharma which has been based in Varanasi, the centre of Sanskrit study.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanuman Chalisa</span> Hindu devotional hymn

The Hanuman Chalisa is a Hindu devotional hymn (stotra) in praise of Hanuman. It is an Awadhi language text attributed to Tulsidas, and is his best known text apart from the Ramcharitmanas. The word "chālīsā" is derived from "chālīs", which means the number forty in Hindi, as the Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arundhati (Hinduism)</span> Wife of Vasishtha in Hinduism

Arundhati is the wife of the sage Vasishtha, one of the seven sages (Saptarshi) of Hinduism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambhadracharya</span> Indian Hindu religious leader since 1988

Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, educator, Sanskrit scholar, polyglot, poet, author, textual commentator, philosopher, composer, singer, playwright and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India. He is one of four incumbent Jagadguru Ramanandacharya, and has held this title since 1988.

<i>Gitaramayanam</i>

Gītarāmāyaṇam (2011), literally The Rāmāyaṇa in songs, is a Sanskrit epic poem (Mahākāvya) of the Gītakāvya genre, composed by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1950–) in the years 2009 and 2010. It consists of 1008 songs in Sanskrit which are divided into seven Kāṇḍas (books), every Kāṇḍa being sub-divided into one or more Sargas (cantos). There are 28 cantos in all, and each canto consists of 36 songs. The songs of the epic are based on rhythms and tunes or Rāgas found in the folk music and classical music of India. In the epic, each song in sung by one or more characters of the Rāmāyaṇa or by the poet. The songs progressively narrate the Rāmāyaṇa via monologues, dialogues and multilogues. There are occasional Sanskrit verses between the songs, which take the narrative forward.

<i>Arundhati</i> (epic)

Arundhatī (1994) is a Hindi epic poem (Mahakavya) composed by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (1950–) in the year 1994. It consists of 1279 verses in 15 cantos (sargas). The poem presents the narrative of the couple Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha which is found in various Hindu scriptures. As per the poet, the narration of the epic is directly related to the psychological evolution of humans. A copy of the epic was published in 1994 by the Shri Raghav Sahitya Prakashan Nidhi, Haridwar, Uttar Pradesh. The book was released by the then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma on July 7, 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Divyanga University</span>

Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Divyanga University (JRDU), formerly Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University, is a government university in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh, previously this University privately run by trust of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, In 2022 Jagadguru Rambhadracharya suggested CM of UP Yogi Adityanath ji to take over University and make it government University run by UP Government Bharat. It was established in 2001 by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya for disabled people. It was the only university in the world exclusively for disabled people until the establishment of Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University at Lucknow.

Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas is an Indian religious and social service institution based at Janki Kund, Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was established by the Hindu religious leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya on August 2, 1987. Rambhadracharya believes that this Peeth is situated at the place where the Hindu god Rama gave his sandals to his brother Bharat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Works of Rambhadracharya</span> List of works by Hindu religious leader Rambhadracharya

Jagadguru Rambhadracharya is a Hindu religious leader, Sanskrit scholar and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India. His works consist of poems, commentaries, plays and musical compositions of his works, etc. He has authored more than 100 books and 50 papers, including four epic poems, a Hindi commentary on Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, and Sanskrit commentaries on the Ashtadhyayi and the Prasthanatrayi scriptures. Various audio and video recordings o his works have also been released. He writes in Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, Maithili, and several other languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Rambhadracharya</span>

This timeline lists important events relevant to the life of the Vaishnava (Hindu) spiritual leader, poet, commentator, educationist, religious and social figure Rambhadracharya.

Śrīrāghavakṛpābhāṣyam is a series of Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi, authored by Rambhadracharya. These commentaries were released on 10 April 1998 by the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Rambhadracharya composed a commentary on Narada Bhakti Sutra in 1991, and thus revived the tradition of Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi after five hundred years. This was also the second commentary of the Ramananda Sampradaya on Prasthanatrayi, the first being the Ānandabhāṣyam, composed by Ramananda himself. These commentaries were published by Shri Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas. The author won the Rajshekhar Samman from the Madhya Pradesh Sanskrit Academy, Bhopal, for the commentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambhadracharya's literary style</span>

Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya is a Hindu religious leader, Sanskrit scholar and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India. Rambhadracharya is a spontaneous poet and writer in Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, Maithili, and several other languages. He has authored more than 100 books and 50 papers, including four epic poems, a Hindi commentary on Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, a Sanskrit commentary in verse on the Ashtadhyayi, and Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi scriptures. He is regarded as one of the greatest authorities on Tulsidas in India, and is the editor of a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vishwadevanand Puri</span>

Swami Vishwadevanand Puri was a Hindu monk and a traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta. He founded the Vishwakalyan Foundation Trust in Haridwar.

Tulsi Manas Mandir is one of the most famous temples in the holy city of Varanasi. This temple has great historical and cultural importance in Hinduism since the ancient Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas was originally written at this place by Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher Goswami Tulsidas in the 16th century.

Khanda is a big & historical village in Kharkhoda tehsil of Sonipat district in Haryana, India. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) from Kharkhoda and 7 miles (11 km) from Sonipat. It is a part of the Delhi NCR. Khanda has two Gram Panchayats Khanda Khas & Khanda Alman. Two Sarpanchs elects from the village in every five years. Khanda is the head of 12 villages of Dahiya Khap mainly known as.

Yajnavalkya Ashram was a gurukul of the Indian philosopher Yajnavalkya. It is believed that Yajnavalkya got his enlightenment here. It is the place where he wrote many texts of Ancient Indian philosophy. He wrote Shatapatha Brahman, Yajnavalkya Smriti, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yoga Yajnavalkya and many more. Yajnavalkya Ashram is situated at Jagban village of Madhubani district in Mithila region of Bihar.

Ashtavakra Mandir is the Hindu temple built in the memory of the Indian philosopher Ashtavakra at the bank of the holy river Ganga near Kahalgaon,Bihar. The temple was inaugurated by Padmavibhushan Swami Rambhadracharya. The temple is located at Charon Dham Ghat of Uttar Vahini Ganga Ghat in Kahalgaon of Bhagalpur district. Kahalgaon is believed as the birthplace of the Indian philosopher Ashtavakra. It is the first temple devoted to Ashtavakra.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mishra, Manjari; Arora, V. N. (1 November 2009). "Fury in Ayodhya over Ramcharitmanas". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 11 August 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 रामचरितमानस पर महाभारत! [Mahabharata over Ramcharitmanas] (in Hindi). Chitrakoot: Zee News. 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 "रामचरित मानस से जुड़ा विवाद गहराया" [Dispute associated with Ramcharitmanas deepens]. Webdunia (in Hindi). 3 November 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 "रामभद्राचार्य के खेद जताने से संत पड़े ठंडे" [Saints calm down after Rambhadracharya expresses regret]. Webdunia (in Hindi). 9 November 2009. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 Kant, Pradeep; Kumar, Anil (19 May 2011). "Writ Petition No. 8023 (MB) of 2008: Shiv Asrey Asthana and others Vs Union of India and others". Allahabad High Court (Lucknow Bench). Retrieved 29 September 2011.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ Dinkar 2008, pp. 40–43.
  7. ↑ Nagar 2002, pp. 89–90.
  8. ↑ The Bible of Northern India:
    • Lochtefeld 2001, p. 559.
    • Macfie 2004, p. vii. "The choice of the subtitle is no exaggeration. The book is indeed the Bible of Northern India".
  9. 1 2 Dr. Ravindra, Agnihotri (11 September 2012). "३०० रामायण: कथ्य और तथ्य" [300 Ramayanas: Quotes and Facts] (in Hindi). Pravakta. Retrieved 21 November 2012. लगभग दो वर्ष पूर्व तुलसीपीठ चित्रकूट के जगतगुरु रामानंदाचार्य स्वामी रामभद्राचार्य (संपूर्णानंद संस्कृत विश्वविद्यालय के स्वर्णपदक विजेता, पी-एच. डी., डी.लिट.) ने जब आठ वर्ष के अनुसंधान के बाद तुलसी कृत रामचरित मानस के उपलब्ध पुराने संस्करणों से एवं हस्तलिखित पांडुलिपियों से मिलान करके वर्तमान प्रचलित संस्करण में 3000 (तीन हज़ार) अशुद्धियों की ओर ध्यान आकृष्ट किया (अशुद्धियाँ विभिन्न प्रकार की मिलीं, जैसे, नई पंक्तियाँ जोड़ दी हैं, अर्थ बदलने के लिए अनेक शब्द बदल दिए हैं आदि) और संशोधित संस्करण (2008) तैयार किया तो उनके कार्य की सराहना करने के बजाय अखिल भारतीय अखाड़ा परिषद् के महंत ज्ञानदास, राम जन्मभूमि न्यास के नृत्य गोपालदास जैसे तमाम साधु – संत विरोध में खड़े हो गए और न्यायालय तक पहुँच गए ... स्वामी रामभद्राचार्य जी को अपने कार्य को सही बताते हुए भी 'आस्थाओं को आहत करने के लिए' क्षमा मांग कर अपनी जान छुड़ानी पड़ी.
  10. ↑ Rambhadracharya (ed) 2006, pp. 1–27.
  11. ↑ Shukla, Ram Sagar (9 November 2009). "रामचरित मानस की भाषा और वर्तनी" [Language and Spellings in the Ramcharitmanas] (in Hindi). Webdunia Hindi. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  12. ↑ Apte, Vaman Shivram (1970). The Student's Sanskrit-English Dictionary: containing appendices on Sanskrit prosody and important literary and geographical names in the ancient history of India (2nd, reprint ed.). New Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 648. ISBN   9788120800458.
  13. ↑ Pandey 2008, p54. "Hindi : हनुमान चालीसा ... इसकी भाषा अवधी है। दोहा-चौपाई छन्द हैं। इसमें ४० चौपाइयाँ और २ दोहे हैं। [Hanuman Chalisa ... Its language is Awadhi. Metres are Doha and Chaupai. It consists of 40 Chaupais and 2 Dohas.]"
  14. ↑ Rambhadracharya (ed) 2006, pp. 13–14.
  15. ↑ Correspondent, Chitrakuta (15 February 2010). "संशोधन नही संपादन किया है:जगद्गुरु स्वामी रामभद्राचार्य" [I have done editing, not modification: Jagadguru Swami Rambhadracharya]. Jagran Yahoo (in Hindi). Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  16. ↑ "रामचरितमानस का संपादन किया, संशोधन नहीं" [It is an edition of Ramcharitmanas, not a modification]. One India Hindi (in Hindi). Indo-Asian News Service. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
  17. ↑ "'मैं प्रतिभाशाली हूँ, संपादन मेरा धर्म है'" [I am intelligent, editing is my duty]. Webdunia Hindi (in Hindi). Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, India. 28 December 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  18. 1 2 "हाईकोर्ट ने जगद्गुरु के मानस संपादन को जायज ठहराया" [High Court upholds the editing of Ramcharitmanas by Jagadguru]. Jagran Yahoo (in Hindi). 17 December 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2012.

Works cited

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.