Ramcharit Manas Introduction

The Ramcharit Manas manuscript was housed in the All India Kashi Raj Trust, Ramnagar Fort in Varanasi, at the time of its documentation in 1977. Commissioned by Maharaja Udit Narayan Singh of Banaras – the erstwhile name of Varanasi, (r. 1795–1835), it was produced between 1796 and 1814 in seven volumes: Balakanda, Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kishkindhakanda, Sundarakanda, Lankakanda, and Uttarkanda. The manuscript comprises nearly 550 illustrations. Each folio paired a full-page painting on the recto with handwritten Devanagari text on the verso, presenting Tulsidas’s Ramcharit Manas in its metrical structure of dohas, chaupais, and chhands.

In 1977, at the suggestion of performance studies scholar Richard Schechner, Maharaja Vibhuti Narayan Singh permitted the complete manuscript to be photographed by the Center for Art and Archaeology of the American Institute of Indian Studies. Since then, the manuscript has been disassembled and folios have entered private and institutional collections. In 2023, the Museum of Art & Photography reunited several folios in an exhibition, including those in its collection. Current folio locations listed in the subject labels follow Book of Gold: The Kanchana Chitra Ramayana of Banaras by Kavita Singh and Parul Singh.