- Lived:
- 1532–1623 (birth contested) · born at Rājāpur near Chitrakoot, or at Sōrōṁ (Soron) — the towns still argue · the life happened on the road between Ayodhyā, Chitrakoot and Banaras (Vārāṇasī), where he died at Assī Ghāṭ
- Field:
- poetry — Awadhi and Braj devotional verse; the Rāmcaritmānas, the Hanumān Chālīsā, and ten other works the tradition accepts as his
- The Big Idea:
- He took the Rāmāyaṇa out of Sanskrit and gave it to the street — in a metre so singable it memorizes itself — and north India has been reciting, singing and acting his version every year since.
- In their words:
- "What matters the people's tongue, what matters Sanskrit? Only the love must be true. If a rough blanket serves your need, why go buy brocade?" (a dohā the tradition treasures as his answer to the pandits)
- If you remember one thing:
- An abandoned child who begged for scraps grew up to write the book more Indians know by heart than any other — and he did it by refusing the prestige language of his profession and writing in the tongue his neighbours actually spoke.