Goswami Tulsidas was a great poet of the Bhakti era who composed the Ramcharitmanas in the Awadhi language. Many episodes of his childhood and life are told in tradition.
According to folk tales, he longed to see Shri Ram. In Kashi a spirit told him that Hanuman came every day in the form of an old leper to listen to the Ram katha and sat until the very end.
After the katha Tulsidas clasped the old man’s feet. It is said that, pleased with his resolve, Hanuman showed his true form and told him the way to see Shri Ram at Chitrakoot.
At the ghat in Chitrakoot, tradition says, Tulsidas saw Shri Ram applying a tilak. A well-known couplet recalls this episode: crowds of saints gathered at the Chitrakoot ghat, Tulsidas ground the sandalwood and Raghuvir applied the tilak.