Tulsidas born as Rambola Dubey also known as Goswami Tulsidas;11 August 1511 – 30 July 1623) was a Smarta-Vaishnava Hindu saint and poet renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several famous works in Sanskrit and Awadhi, Braj, but is best known as the author of the Hanuman Chalisa and 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 Ayodhya. The Tulsi Ghat on the Ganges River in Varanasi is named after him. He founded the Sankatmochan Temple dedicated to Hanuman in Varanasi, believed to stand at the place where he had the sight of the deity. Tulsidas started the Ramlila plays, a folk-theatre adaptation of the Ramayana.

He has been acclaimed as one of the greatest poets in Hindi, Indian, and world literature. The impact of Tulsidas and his works on India's art, culture and society is widespread. It is seen to date in vernacular language, Ramlila plays, Hindustani classical music, popular music, and television series.