The author of Ramcharitmanas is Goswami Tulsidas. He was born in a Brahmin family in the village Soron of Banda district near Allahabad. His father's name was Pandit Atmaram Dubey. He was born with all the thirty-two teeth and did not cry like ordinary infants but pronounced the name of Rama. Thus he was named Rambola.

Considering the child as an inauspicious sign, his parents abandoned him. He was brought up by a maid but soon he joined a group of Sanyaasis. In the company of the sages and hermits, he learnt to write. Then he migrated to Varanasi where one learned Brahmin Ramanand inducted him in his hermitage as his disciple. It is said that at the behest of Lord Shiva, Tulsidas wrote Ramcharitmanas in popular Hindi.

In Ramcharitmanas he has first eulogised lord Ganesha, because he clears all the obstacles. After that he has eulogised Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati who symbolize truth, faith and belief.

First light has been shed on the greatness of the name Rama, which shows that nothing can be achieved in life without penance and hard work.

Each and every character of the epic Ramcharitamanas is unique. Even the characters like Ravan and Kumbhakarn are unique in their own ways.

Ravan was the son of sage Visvashrava. Once Visvashrava went away to observe penance and returned after ten months. During those ten months his wife Kekasi had collected all the ten pieces of menstrual-clothings. When sage Visvashrava returned, she told him that if he were present during those months she would have conceived ten times.

Sage Visvashrava gave her a boon of conceiving a son who would be as powerful as ten people and who would actually have ten heads.

Kumbhakarn symbolises lethargy. Seeing his enormous physique, Brahma thought that if he remained awake for a year, the whole world would become short of foodgrains. So he gave him a boon of six months sleep.

Lord Brahma had blessed Ravan that he would not be killed by anybody other than man and monkey. Vibhishana was given a boon of being in the company of Lord Rama.

After being blessed with the boon Ravan became proud and arrogant. He started to torture all the creatures. When his cruelty surpassed all limits, the giant Maya gave his most beautiful daughter Mandodari as a bride to Ravan thinking that she would become the mistress of all the three worlds. He also presented Ravan with Lanka which was more beautiful than heaven.

Once Ravan called an assembly of all his family members, ministers and army chiefs.

Meghanaad, the son of Ravan, who had a thundering-like voice gave an order, to propagate evils and demerits. He also gave an order to kill such sages and hermits who were unbale to pay taxes.

Then Brahma, Shiva and the other gods prayed to Lord Vishnu. Lord Vishnu assured them about his imminent incarnation to kill Ravan. He also told them that he would take incarnation as Dashrath's son.

Dashrath and Kaushalya were sage Kashyap and Aditi in their previous birth during Satayuga. Both of them had performed a severe penance pleased by which Lord Vishnu appeared before them.

They expressed their desire to have him as their son, which Lord Vishnu accepted and assured them that their wished would be fulfilled in tretayuga.

The demon king Ravan was a great astrologer also. He could foresee the future and knew everything from the past and present. When he learnt that he would be killed by Dashrath's son, he observed a penance to please Brahma. Brahma appeared before him and granted him a boon that king Dashrth would remain issueless.

One day, before attending royal assembly king Dashrath saw his face in the mirror and noticed his greying hairs. Realising that he had grown old he began to worry about his inheritor.

He at once prayed sage Vashishtha to find some way to get a successor of his throne. After much contemplation Vashishth said that sage Shringi could help him with his expertise in the performance of a 'Putreshti Yagya.'