- Ramayana was written by sage Valmiki, who was a contemporary of Shri Ram. RamCharitManas was written by great Awadhi poet Goswami Tulsidas. Tulsidas lived in the 15th century AD (1511–1623).
- Ramayana was written in the Sanskrit language. RamCharitManas was written in Awadhi language.
- The word Ramayana is made of two words – Ram and Aayan (Story), thus the meaning of Ramyana is “Ram’s story”. The word RamCharitManas is made of three words – Ram, Charita (good deeds) and Manas (lake), thus the meaning of RamCharitManas is “Lake of good deeds of Ram“.
- Ramayana has been written in ‘Shlokas’ format while RamCharitManas has been written in ‘Chaupais’ format.
- Ramayana is the story of Shri Ram. RamCharitManas is the retelling of the Ramyana. Tulsidas has acknowledged Valmiki in his book.
- According to Ramayana, Hanuman is a human, who belongs to Vanar tribe. Vanar is made of two words – Van (forest) and Nar (man). The tribes living in the forest were referred as Vanar in Ramyana. In RamCharitManas, Hanuman is depicted as a monkey and ‘Vanar’ is used to refer to his species of Monkeys.
- According to Ramayana, King Janaka never organized Sita Swayamvar as a mass function. Instead, whenever some mighty person used to visit Janaka, He used to show them Shiva Dhanusha (Bow of Shiva) and ask them to lift it. Once Vishwamitra visited Janaka with Ram and Lakshmana. Janaka showed the bow to Ram. Lord Ram lifted the bow and he was married to Sita. As per RamCharitManas, Swayamvar was organized by King Janaka for Sita and there was a contest to lift the bow of Shiva. Sita was supposed to choose that person as her husband, who could lift the bow without breaking it. Nobody could lift the bow until Ram came to lift it.
- As per Ramayana, the kidnapping of Sita was real. She was kidnapped by Ravana by forcefully dragging her to his chariot. Ram rescues Sita and asks her to prove her purity to the world by taking ‘Agni Pariksha‘. As per RamCharitManas, real Sita was never kidnapped. Ram foresees the abduction of Sita and creates the clone of Sita and sends the real Sita to Agni Deva. The ‘Agni Pariksha‘ was just a way to exchange clone of Sita with real Sita.
- In Ramayana, Ram is depicted as “Maryada Purushottam”, which means the best of men with excellent conduct. He is shown as a human with exceptional virtues. In RamCharitManas, Ram is depicted as the incarnation of God. His actions described as God’s righteous ways to remove evils and establish Dharma.
- The story of Ramayana ends with the return of Ram and Sita from exile and his ascension of the Ayodhya throne. The story of RamCharitManas ends with the birth of twin sons Lava and Kusha to Ram and Sita. It never mentions the death of Lakshmana or how Sita was disappeared.