Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya[][2][3] (born Giridhar Mishra on 14 January 1950)[] is a Hindu religious leader, educationist, Sanskrit scholar,

polyglot, poet, author, textual commentator, philosopher, composer, singer, playwright and Katha artist based in Chitrakoot, India.[4] He is one of four incumbent Jagadguru Ramanandacharya,[] and has held this title since 1988.[5][6][7] Rambhadracharya is the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth, a religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot named after Saint Tulsidas.[8][9] He is the founder and lifelong chancellor of the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University in Chitrakoot, which offers graduate and postgraduate courses exclusively to four types of disabled students.[3][4][10][11][12] Rambhadracharya has been blind since the age of two months, had no formal education till the age of seventeen years, and has never used Braille or any other aid to learn or compose.[13] Rambhadracharya can speak 22 languages and is a spontaneous poet[] and writer in Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, Maithili, and several other languages.[14][15] He has authored more than 100 books and 50 papers,[3][16][17] including four epic poems,[] Hindi commentaries on Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas and Hanuman Chalisa, a Sanskrit commentary in verse on the Ashtadhyayi, and Sanskrit commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi scriptures.[18][19] He is regarded as one of the greatest authorities on Tulsidas in India,[20] and is the editor of a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas.[21] He is a Katha artist for the Ramayana and the Bhagavata. His Katha programmes are held regularly in different cities in India and other countries, and are telecast on television channels like Sanskar TV and Sanatan TV Jagadguru Rambhadracharya was born in a Saryupareen Brahmin family of the Vasishtha Gotra (lineage of the sage Vasishtha) in Shandikhurd village in the Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was born at 10:34 pm on Saturday, 14 January 1950 (Magha Krishna Ekadashi), during the Makar Sankranti festival, under the Anuradha constellation. [3][12][24][25] Born to mother Shachidevi and father Pandit Rajdev Mishra, he was named Giridhar by his great aunt, a paternal cousin of his paternal grandfather, Pandit Suryabali Mishra. The great aunt was a devotee of Mirabai, a female saint of the Bhakti era in medieval India, who used the name Giridhar to address the god Krishna in her compositions Giridhar lost his eyesight at the age of two months. On 24 March 1950, his eyes were infected by trachoma. There were no advanced facilities for treatment in the village, so he was taken to an elderly woman in a nearby village who was known to cure trachoma boils to provide relief. The woman applied a paste of myrobalan[disambiguation needed] to Giridhar's eyes to burst the lumps, but his eyes started bleeding, resulting in the loss of his eyesight.[12][24][25] His family took him to the King George Hospital in Lucknow, where his eyes were treated for 21 days, but his sight could not be restored.[24] Various Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Allopathic, and other practitioners were approached in Sitapur, Lucknow, and Bombay, but to no avail.[26] Rambhadracharya has been blind ever since. He cannot read or write, as he does not use Braille; he learns by listening and composes by dictating to scribes In June 1953, at a juggler's monkey dance show in the village, the childrenincluding Giridharsuddenly ran away when the monkey began to touch them. Giridhar fell into a

small dry well and was trapped for some time, until a teenage girl rescued him.[24] His grandfather told him that his life was saved because he had learned the following line of a verse in the Ramcharitmanas (1.192.4), from the episode of the manifestation of the god Rama At the age of five, Giridhar memorised the entire Bhagavad Gita, consisting of around 700 verses with chapter and verse numbers, in 15 days, with the help of his neighbour, Pandit Murlidhar Mishra. On Janmashtami day in 1955, he recited the entire Bhagavad Gita.[12][28][24][26][29] He released the first Braille version of the scripture, with the original Sanskrit text and a Hindi commentary, at New Delhi on 30 November 2007, 52 years after memorising the Gita.[30][31] When Giridhar was seven, he memorised the entire Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, consisting of around 10,900 verses with chapter and verse numbers, in 60 days, assisted by his grandfather. On Rama Navami day in 1957, he recited the entire epic while fasting.[12][24][26][29] Later, Giridhar went on to memorise the Vedas, the Upanishads, works of Sanskrit grammar, the Bhagavata Purana, all the works of Tulsidas, and many other works in Sanskrit and Indian literature Giridhar's Upanayana (sacred thread ceremony) was performed on Nirjala Ekadashi (the Ekadashi falling in the bright half of the lunar month of Jyeshtha) of 24 June 1961. On this day, besides being given the Gayatri Mantra, he was initiated (given Diksha) into the mantra of Rama by Pandit Ishvardas Maharaj of Ayodhya. Having mastered the Bhagavad Gita and Ramcharitmanas at a very young age, Giridhar started visiting the Katha programmes held near his village once every three years in the intercalary month of Purushottama. The third time he attended, he presented a Katha on Ramcharitmanas, which was acclaimed by several famous exponents of the Katha art When Giridhar was eleven, he was stopped from joining his family in a wedding procession. His family thought that his presence would be a bad omen for the marriage. [24][25] This incident left a strong impression on Giridhar; he says at the beginning of his autobiography:[32] I am the same person who was considered to be inauspicious for accompanying a marriage party. ... I am the same person who currently inaugurates the biggest of marriage parties or welfare ceremonies. What is all this? It is all due to the grace of God which turns a straw into a vajra and a vajra into a straw Although Giridhar did not have any formal schooling till the age of seventeen years, he had learned many literary works as a child by listening to them. His family wished him to become a Kathavachak (a Katha artist) but Giridhar wanted to pursue his studies. His father explored possibilities for his education in Varanasi and thought of sending him to a special school for blind students. Giridhar's mother refused to send him there, saying that blind children were not treated well at the school.[25] On 7 July 1967 Giridhar joined the Adarsh Gaurishankar Sanskrit College in the nearby Sujanganj village of Jaunpur to study Sanskrit Vyakarana (grammar), Hindi, English, Maths, History, and Geography. [33] In his autobiography he recalls this day as the day when the "Golden Journey" of his life began.[34] With an ability to memorise material by listening to it just once, Giridhar has not used Braille or other aids to study.[13] In three months, he had memorised and mastered the entire Laghusiddhntakaumud of Varadaraja.[33] He was top of his class for four years, and passed the Uttara Madhyama (higher secondary) examination in Sanskrit with first class and distinction

In 1971 Giridhar enrolled at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi for higher studies in Vyakarana.[33] He topped the final examination for the Shastri (Bachelor of Arts)[35] degree in 1974, and then enrolled for the Acharya (Master of Arts)[35] degree at the same institute.[13] While pursuing his master's degree, he visited New Delhi to participate in various national competitions at the All-India Sanskrit Conference, where he won five out of the eight gold medalsin Vyakarana, Samkhya, Nyaya, Vedanta, and Sanskrit Antakshari.[5][13] Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, presented the five gold medals, along with the Chalvaijayanti trophy for Uttar Pradesh, to Giridhar.[29] Impressed by his abilities, Gandhi offered to send him at her own expense to the United States for treatment for his eyes, but Giridhar turned down this offer, replying with an extemporaneous Sanskrit verse After completing his master's degree, Giridhar enrolled for the doctoral Vidyavaridhi (PhD)[37] degree at the same institute, under Pandit Ramprasad Tripathi.[13] He received a research fellowship from the University Grants Commission (UGC), but even so, he faced financial hardship in these years.[13] With great difficulty, he completed his Vidyavaridhi degree in Sanskrit grammar on 14 October 1981.[13] His dissertation was titled Adhytmarmyae Apinyaprayogn Vimara, or Deliberation on the non-Paninian usages in the Adhyatma Ramayana. On completion of his doctorate, the UGC offered him the position of head of the Vyakarana department of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. However, Giridhar did not accept; he decided to devote his life to the service of religion, society, and the disabled.[13] On 9 May 1997, Giridhar (now known as Rambhadracharya) was awarded the postdoctorate Vachaspati (DLitt)[35][37] degree by Sampurnanand Sanskrit University for his Sanskrit dissertation Adhyyy Pratistra bdabodhasamkaam, or Investigation into verbal knowledge of every Stra of the Ashtadhyayi. The degree was presented to him by K. R. Narayanan, then President of India.[38] In this work, Rambhadracharya explained each aphorism of the grammar of Panini in Sanskrit verses