CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Diya TV) — The Tulsi Jayanti awards were held outside India for the first time Aug. 19, bringing the annual celebration of Tulsidas and the Ramcharitmanas to Harvard University.
The ceremony took place at Sanders Theatre on the birth anniversary of Goswami Tulsidas, the 16th-century poet and author of the Ramcharitmanas. It was part of spiritual leader Morari Bapu’s nine-day Ram Katha, Manas Guru Prasad.
Bapu began the Tulsi Jayanti program in 2010 in Talgajarda, Gujarat, where the awards had been held annually until this year. The awards recognize scholars, spiritual figures and others who contribute to the study and preservation of traditions linked to Tulsidas and the Ramcharitmanas.
Harvard also hosted a three-day scholarly program from Aug. 16-18 featuring academics from the United States, Europe and Japan. The sessions examined Ramayana traditions across Tamil, Persian, Thai and Javanese cultures.
University of California, Berkeley professors Sally J. Sutherland Goldman and Robert Goldman jointly received the Valmiki Award. Osaka University professor Madoka Fukuoka also received the award.
The Vyas Award went to Columbia University professor John Stratton Hawley, U.S.-based scholar Ashwin Bhai Kantilal Rajgor and Indian spiritual orator Devi Chitralekha.
University of Texas at Austin professor Rupert Snell and community leader Piyush Bhai Mehta received the Tulsi Award. Harvard professor Diana L. Eck received the Ratnavali Award for her work in comparative religion and Indian studies.
Eck’s research focuses on Hinduism, religious pluralism and sacred geography in India.
During the ceremony, Bapu thanked the scholars and spiritual teachers for helping preserve and carry forward the tradition.
Paavan Popat, lead organizer of the Ram Katha, said the Harvard program aimed to introduce the tradition to wider international audiences and highlight the universal values of truth, love and compassion.
The 2026 event marked the first time the Tulsi Jayanti awards were held in the United States, bringing together scholarship, spirituality and cultural study around the Ramcharitmanas and the broader Ramayana tradition.
