Ramcharitmanas (Devanāgarī: श्रीरामचरितमानस, IAST: ŚrīRāmacaritamānasa), also spelt as Ramacharitamanasa, is an epic poem in Awadhi dialect of Hindi, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Goswami Tulsidas (c.1532–1623). Ramcharitmanas literally means "Lake of the deeds of Rama". Ramcharitmanas is considered as one of the greatest works of Hindi literature. The work has been acclaimed as "the living sum of Indian culture", "the tallest tree in the magic garden of medieval Indian poetry", "the greatest book of all devotional literature" and "the best and most trustworthy guide to the popular living faith of the Indian people". The core of the work is considered by some to be a poetic retelling of the events of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, centered on the narrative of Rama, the scion of the family tree of Raghu of the Sun Dynasty and the crown prince of Ayodhya who is also considered in Hindu tradition as one of the Avataras of Vishnu. However, Tulsidas never alludes to Ramcharitmanas as being a retelling of Valmiki Ramayana. He calls the epic Ramcharitmanas as the story of Rama was stored in the mind (Mānasa) of Shiva before he narrated the same to His consort Parvati. Tulsidas claims to have received the story through his guru, Narharidas. Tulsidas was unconscious (Acheta, Devanāgarī: अचेत) and the story was stored in his mind (Mānasa) for long before he wrote it down as Ramcharitmanas. The epic poem is, therefore, also referred to as Tulsikrit Ramayana (literally, The Ramayana composed by Tulsidas).