Tulsidas (1497–1623), also known as Goswami Tulsidas, was a Ramanandi Vaishnava saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, but is best known as the author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana based on Rama's life in the vernacular Awadhi. Tulsidas spent most of his life in the city of Varanasi and Faizabad. The Tulsi Ghat on the Ganges River in Varanasi is named after him.