Guru Parampara

Teacher to student, without a break

गुरु परम्परा

A parampara is a chain of teachers: every name on it learned from the one before and taught the one after. This is the chain of Shri Tulsi Peeth, and the claim it makes is a plain one - that it has not been broken between Bhagavan Shri Ram and the acharya seated today.

Why we publish this

Most of what a community like this passes on is never written down. The parampara is the exception. It is the one document that answers, name by name, where the teaching here came from - and it is meant to be read aloud, not filed away.

Until now it travelled as a printed sheet, handed round and photocopied. Putting it on the site does not improve it. It only keeps it legible, and within reach of anyone who wants to look.

The roll below carries 41 names, from Bhagavan Shri Ram to Jankisharan Maharaj Shri, the acharya of this community. The first 40 are given exactly as the community’s own printed document gives them - the same names, the same order, the same numbering, and nothing corrected. The last is the one that document does not carry: their own acharya, a disciple of the acharya seated at Shri Tulsi Peeth today.

श्रीतुलसीपीठस्य आचार्य परम्परा

The Acharya Parampara of Shri Tulsi Peeth

श्रीसीतानाथसमारम्भां श्रीरामानन्दाचार्यमध्यमाम्।
अस्मदाचार्यपर्यन्तां वन्दे श्रीगुरुपरम्पराम्॥
तुलसीं तुलसीपीठं सीतारामौ च लक्ष्मणौ।
मन्दाकिनी चित्रकूटं कामदं मारुतिं स्तुवे॥

Meaning

I bow to the lineage of gurus that begins with the Lord of Sita, has Shri Ramanandacharya at its middle, and reaches down to my own acharya. I praise Tulsi and the Tulsi Peeth, Sita and Rama and Lakshmana, the Mandakini, Chitrakut, and Maruti the wish-fulfiller.

1–3

The divine source दिव्य उद्गम

The parampara does not begin with a teacher. It begins with Bhagavan himself, with Bhagavati Janaki beside him, and with Hanuman - the first to receive and the first to serve.

1

श्री सर्वावतारी भगवान राघवेन्द्र सरकार

Shri Sarvavatari Bhagavan Raghavendra Sarkar

Shri Ram himself - the source from whom every avatar proceeds, and from whom this parampara begins.
2

श्री जगज्जननी पराम्बा परमेश्वरी भगवती जानकी जी (सीता)

Shri Jagajjanani Paramba Parameshvari Bhagavati Janaki Ji (Sita)

Mother of the world, inseparable from Shri Ram.
3

श्री अनन्त बलवन्त श्रीहनुमान् जी

Shri Anant Balavant Shri Hanuman Ji

The one of boundless strength - and the pattern of what a devotee is.

4–8

The rishis ऋषि परम्परा

From Brahma the teaching passes through the seers who gave the tradition its scripture - Vasishtha, Parashara, Vedavyasa, Shukadeva.

4

श्री चतुर्मुख ब्रह्मा जी

Shri Chaturmukh Brahma Ji
5

श्री वशिष्ठ जी

Shri Vasishtha Ji

Guru of the house of Raghu.
6

श्री पाराशर मुनि जी

Shri Parashara Muni Ji
7

श्री वेदव्यास जी

Shri Vedavyasa Ji

Who divided the Vedas and composed the Mahabharata.
8

श्री शुकदेव मुनि जी

Shri Shukadeva Muni Ji

9–22

The acharyas आचार्य परम्परा

Thirteen acharyas carry the Sri Vaishnava teaching forward - men known by the titles their scholarship earned them: Siddhanta-panchanan, Sarasvata-samrat, Siddha-samrat.

9

श्री अपर बादरायण श्रीपुरुषोत्तमाचार्य जी (बोधायन)

Shri Apar Badarayana Shri Purushottamacharya Ji (Bodhayana)
10

श्री यति सम्राट श्री गंगाधराचार्य जी

Shri Yati Samrat Shri Gangadharacharya Ji
11

श्री देशिक सम्राट श्री सदानन्दाचार्य जी

Shri Deshik Samrat Shri Sadanandacharya Ji
12

श्री सारस्वत सार्वभौम देशिकेन्द्र श्री रामेश्वरानन्दाचार्य जी

Shri Sarasvata Sarvabhauma Deshikendra Shri Rameshvaranandacharya Ji
13

श्री सिद्धांतपञ्चानन श्री द्वारानन्दाचार्य जी

Shri Siddhanta-panchanan Shri Dvaranandacharya Ji
14

श्री असद्वादिभयंकर अपरबोधायनाचार्य श्री देवानन्दाचार्य वेदान्तविद्यानिधि जी

Shri Asadvadi-bhayankar Apar-Bodhayanacharya Shri Devanandacharya Vedanta-vidyanidhi Ji
15

श्री सारस्वतसम्राट श्री श्यामानन्दाचार्य सिद्धांतभूषण जी

Shri Sarasvata-samrat Shri Shyamanandacharya Siddhanta-bhushan Ji
16

श्री अपर याज्ञवल्क्य श्री श्रुतानन्दाचार्य ज्ञाननिधि जी

Shri Apar Yajnavalkya Shri Shrutanandacharya Jnananidhi Ji
No 17 appears in the printed roll. The numbering is left exactly as it stands rather than closed up.
18

श्री चिदानन्दाचार्य सिद्धांतवाचस्पति

Shri Chidanandacharya Siddhanta-vachaspati
19

श्री पूर्णानन्दाचार्य जी सिद्धांतसार्वभौम

Shri Purnanandacharya Ji Siddhanta-sarvabhauma
20

श्री श्रियानन्दाचार्य जी सिद्धान्तविजयी

Shri Shriyanandacharya Ji Siddhanta-vijayi
21

श्री प्रतिपक्षि भयंकर श्री हर्यानन्दाचार्य सिद्धशिरोमणि जी

Shri Pratipakshi-bhayankar Shri Haryanandacharya Siddha-shiromani Ji
22

श्री दुर्वादध्वान्तमार्तण्ड श्री राघवानन्दाचार्य जी सिद्धसम्राट

Shri Durvada-dhvanta-martand Shri Raghavanandacharya Ji Siddha-samrat

The guru of Shri Ramanandacharya.

Jagadguru Ramanandacharya जगद्गुरु रामानन्दाचार्य

The turning point. Ramanandacharya opened the path of bhakti to everyone regardless of birth, and taught in the people’s own language rather than in Sanskrit alone.

23

श्री रामावतार हिन्दू धर्मोद्धारक यतिचक्रचूड़ामणि श्रीआनन्दभाष्यकार जगद्गुरु भगवान श्रीमदाद्यरामानन्दाचार्य महाप्रभु

Shri Ramavatar, Hindu Dharmoddharak, Yati-chakra-chudamani, author of the Anand Bhashya, Jagadguru Bhagavan Shrimad Adya Ramanandacharya Mahaprabhu

Who threw open the door of bhakti to every caste and every language, and whose disciples - Kabir, Ravidas, Pipa, Sena, Dhanna - carried that message across the subcontinent.

24–42

To the present acharya वर्तमान आचार्य तक

From Ramanandacharya the succession runs unbroken - through Goswami Tulsidas - to the acharya seated at Shri Tulsi Peeth today, and on to his disciple, the acharya of this community.

24

श्री कपिलावतार श्रीयोगानन्दाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Kapilavatar Shri Yoganandacharya Ji Maharaj
25

श्री गयानन्दाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Gayanandacharya Ji Maharaj
26

श्री तुलसीदास जी महाराज

Shri Tulsidas Ji Maharaj

Goswami Tulsidas, who gave the Ramcharitmanas to everyone who could not read Sanskrit.
27

श्री नथूरामाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Nathuramacharya Ji Maharaj
28

श्री चौगानीदेवाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Chauganidevacharya Ji Maharaj
29

श्री उधामदानी देवाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Udhamdani Devacharya Ji Maharaj
30

श्री खेमदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Khemdasacharya Ji Maharaj
31

श्री रामदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Ramdasacharya Ji Maharaj
32

श्री लक्ष्मणदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Lakshmandasacharya Ji Maharaj
33

श्री देवदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Devdasacharya Ji Maharaj
34

श्री भगवानदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Bhagwandasacharya Ji Maharaj
35

श्री बालकृष्णदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Balkrishnadasacharya Ji Maharaj
36

श्री वेणीदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Venidasacharya Ji Maharaj
37

श्री श्रवणदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Shravandasacharya Ji Maharaj
38

श्री रामवचनदासाचार्य जी महाराज

Shri Ramvachandasacharya Ji Maharaj
39

श्री अखिलजगदोद्धारक विद्वद्मार्तण्ड पण्डितप्रवर श्रीरामवल्लभाशरण जी महाराज

Shri Akhil-jagad-uddharak, Vidvad-martand, Pandita-pravar Shri Ramvallabha Sharan Ji Maharaj
40

परमपूज्य पण्डितप्रवर श्री ईश्वरदास जी महाराज

Parampujya Pandita-pravar Shri Ishwardas Ji Maharaj
41

धर्मचक्रवर्ती पद्मविभूषण श्रीचित्रकूट तुलसीपीठाधीश्वर वैष्णवसार्वभौम जगद्गुरु रामानन्दाचार्य स्वामी श्रीश्रीरामभद्राचार्य जी महाराज (वर्तमान तुलसीपीठाधीश्वर)

Dharmachakravarti, Padma Vibhushan, Tulsi Peethadhishwar of Shri Chitrakut, Vaishnava-sarvabhauma, Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Shri Shri Rambhadracharya Ji Maharaj (the present acharya of Shri Tulsi Peeth)
42

श्री जानकीशरण महाराज श्री

Shri Jankisharan Maharaj Shri

disciple of Shri Rambhadracharya Ji Maharaj

The acharya of this community, and the composer of many of the bhajans sung here. He recites श्री अद्वैत राघव श्रीनाथाय नमः.

A parampara stays a list until somebody sits down inside it. Every gathering here opens with the invocation the lineage is named in, and the people reciting it are ordinary and easy to meet.

Recite the full Manglacharan What this lineage taught About Jankisharnam