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RELIGIOUS SECTS
Besides these legendary tales of this celebrated writer, whose works exercise more influence upon the great body of Hindu population than the whole voluminous series of Sanskrit composition, we have other notices of him collected from his own works, or preserved by tradition, that differ in some respects from the above. From these it appears, that Tulasi Dás was a Brahman of the Sarvárya branch, and a native of Ilújípur', near Chitrakúta; when arrived at maturity, he settled at Benares, and held the office of Diwán to the Rájá of that city: his spiritual preceptor was JAGANNÁTH Dás, a pupil, as well as NÁBHÁJI, of AGRADÁS: he followed this teacher to Govardhan, near Brindávan, but afterwards returned to Benares, and there commenced his Hindi version of the Rúmáyana, in the year of Samvat 1631, when he was thirty-one years of age. Besides this work, which is highly popular, Tulasi Dás is the author of a Sat Sai", or collection of one hundred stanzas on various subjects: of the Rám Gunávali, a series of verses in praise of Ráma, of a Gítávali, and Vinaya Patriká, poetical compositions of a devotional or moral tendency, and of a great variety of Hymns—as Rágas, Kavits, and Padas, in honour of his tutelary deity and his consort, or Ráma and Sitá. Túlasi Dás continued to reside at Benares, where he built a temple to Sítá
* [The word Sat Sai = Farat rather implies a collection of seven - hundred stanzas or ślokas, such as e. g. the Devimáhatmya. See Sabdakalpadruma s. v.]
