(f
THE
HERITAGE OF INDIA
7 . f The Right Reverend V. S. Azariah,
Editors \ Bisho P of Dornakal.
I J. N. Farquhar, M.A., D.Litt. (Oxon.)
Already published.
The Heart of Buddhism. K. J, Saunders, M.A.
Asoka. Rev. J. M. Macphail, M.A., M.D.
Indian Painting. Principal Percy Brown, Calcutta.
Kanarese Literature. Rev. E. P. Rice, B.A.
The Samkhya System. A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L., D.Litt.
Psalms of Maratha Saints. Nicol Macnicol, M.A., D.Litt.
In the press.
Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints. Kingsbury and Phillips.
The Karma Mimamsa. A. Berriedale Keith, D.C.L., D.Litt.
Subjects proposed a?id volumes under preparatio?i.
SANSKRIT AND PALI LITERATURE.
Hymns from the Vedas. Prof. A. A. Macdonell, Oxford.
Anthology of Mahayana Literature. Prof. L, de la Vallee
Poussin, Ghent.
Selections from the Upanishads. F. J. Western, M.A., Delhi.
Scenes from the Ramayana.
Selections from the Mahabharata.
THE PHILOSOPHIES.
An Introduction to Hindu Philosophy. J. N. Farquhar, and
John McKenzie, M.A., Bombay.
The Philosophy of the Upanishads.
Sankara's Vedinta. A. K. Sharma, M.A., Patiala.
Ramanuja's Vedanta.
The Buddhist System.
FINE ART AND MUSIC.
Indian Architecture. R. L. Ewing, B.A., Madras.
Indian Sculpture.
Indian Music. H. A. Popley, B.A., Erode.
The Minor Arts. Principal Percy Brown, Calcutta.
Indian Coins. C. J. Brown, M.A., Lucknow.
BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT INDIANS.
Gautama Buddha. K. J. Saunders, M.A., Rangoon.
Ramanuja.
Akbar. F. V. Slack, M.A., Calcutta.
Tulsl Das.
Rabindranath Tagore. E. J. Thompson, M.A., Bankura.
VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
The Kurral. _H. A. Popley, B.A., Erode.
Hymns of the Alvars. J. S. M. Hooper, M.A., Madras.
Tulsl Das's Ramayana in Miniature. G. J. Dann, M.A.,
Patna.
Hymns of Bengali Singers. E. J. Thompson, M.A., Bankura.
Gujarati Hymns.
Sufi Hymns. Prof. R. Siraj ud Dln, Lahore, and W. R.
Wilson, I.C.S., Dera Ghazi Khan.
HISTORIES OF VERNACULAR LITERATURE.
Bengali. C. S. Paterson, M.A., Calcutta.
Gujarati.
Marathi. Nicol Macnicol, M.A., D.Litt., Poona.
Tamil. Francis Kingsbury, B.A., Bangalore.
Telugu. P. Chenchiah, M.A., Madras, and Raja Bhujanga
Rao, Ellore.
Malayalam. T. K. Joseph, B.A., L.T., Trivandrum.
Sinhalese. H. S. Perera, B.A., Kandy.
Urdu.
NOTABLE INDIAN PEOPLES.
The Rajputs.
The Syrian Christians. K. C. Mammen Mapillai, Alleppey.
The Sikhs.
VARIOUS.
Modern Folk Tales. W. Norman Brown, M.A., Ph.D.,
Philadelphia.
Indian Village Government.
Poems by Indian Women. Mrs. Macnicol, Poona.
Classical Sanskrit Literature.
Indian Temple Legends. K. T. Paul, B.A., L.T., Calcutta.
EDITORIAL PREFACE
" Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things."
No section of the population of India can afford to
neglect her ancient heritage. In her literature, philo-
sophy, art, and regulated life there is much that is
worthless, much also that is distinctly unhealthy ; yet
the treasures of knowledge, wisdom, and beauty which
they contain are too precious to be lost. Every citizen
of India needs to use them, if he is to be a cul-
tured modern Indian. This is as true of the Christian,
the Muslim, the Zoroastrian as of the Hindu. But,
while the heritage of India has been largely explored
by scholars, and the results of their toil are laid out for
us in their books, they cannot be said to be really
available for the ordinary man. The volumes are in
most cases expensive, and are often technical and
difficult. Hence this series of cheap books has been
planned by a group of Christian men, in order that
every educated Indian, whether rich or poor, may be
able to find his way into the treasures of India's past.
Many Europeans, both in India and elsewhere, will
doubtless be glad to use the series.
The utmost care is being taken by the General
Editors in selecting writers, and in passing manuscripts
for the press. To every book two tests are rigidly
applied : everything must be scholarly, and everything
must be sympathetic. The purpose is to bring the
best out of the ancient treasuries, so that it may be
known, enjoyed, and used.
K-L.S7W
THE HERITAGE OF INDIA SERIES
A HISTORY OF
HINDI LITERATURE
BY
F. E. KEAY, M.A.
(Church Missionary Society, Jubbulpore)
Author of
"Ancient Indian Education"
75 3'
ASSOCIATION PRESS
5, RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA .
LONDON: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE,
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS
PRINTED AT THE WESLEYAN MISSION PRESS,
MYSORE CITY, 1920.
CONTENTS
Page
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Map .. .. .. .. .. (Inset)
I. The Hindi Language and its Neighbours .. 1
II. A General Survey of Hindi Literature .. .. 8
III. Early Bardic Chronicles (1150-1400) .. .. 12
IV. Early Bhakti Poets (1400 1550) .. .. 19
V. The Mughal Court and the Artistic Influence
in Hindi Literature (15501800)
VI. Tulsi Das and the Rama Cult (15501800)
VII. The Successors of Kabir (15501800) ..
VIII. The Krishna Cult (1550-1800)
IX. Bardic and Other Literature (15501800)
X. -The Modern Period (from 1800)
XI. Some General Characteristics of Hindi Literature 100
XII. Present Position and Prospects of Hindi Literature 104
Bibliography .. .. .. .. ..108
Index .. .. .. .. .. ..110
PREFACE
The purpose of these volumes of The Heritage of
India Series on the vernacular literatures is to provide,
in each case, a clear and trustworthy outline of the
history of the literature. Necessarily, nothing more
can be compressed into a hundred pages ; and, when
one of the greater literatures comes under review, it
is impossible, within the limits, to do justice to the
whole. In this volume, great care has been taken to
sketch the historic movements down to the time of
Harischandra ; but no attempt has been made to give
a detailed account of more recent literature.
Amongst the many persons who have supplied in-
formation, or given other help, I must especially thank
the Editors of this x oeries ; the Rev. G. J. Dann, who
kindly read the book in manuscript and offered valuable
criticisms ; and the Rev. Dr. W. C. Macdougall and
Mr. M. T. Kennedy, who have carefully read through
the proofs. I am also much indebted to Mr. Kallu
Singh and Mr. Sakhawat Masih, masters of my own
school, for help in translating some of the extracts.
Frank E. Keay.
Jubbulpore : August > 1920.
I.
THE HINDI LANGUAGE AND ITS
NEIGHBOURS.
The Indo-Aryan Languages. The Indo-Aryan lan-
guages form one branch of the great Indo-European
family of languages, which are now spoken over
Europe and a large part of Western and Southern Asia.
Somewhere near the borderland of Europe and Asia
lived the people who spoke the original language from
which these various languages have been derived.
One great class of this people, called the Aryans,
migrated eastwards towards the Oxus, but as they
advanced further were split up into two sections, and
their language also developed on two different lines.
One of these two forms of language became the parent
of the Iranian family of languages (Medic, Pahlavi,
Persian, etc.). The other branch of the Aryan people
pushed on into the valley of the Kabul, and thence into
the plains of North India. The migration of these
peoples was spread over a long period of time. Those
who came into India are known as Indo-Aryans. The
Indo-Aryan language received a literary culture in quite
ancient times and its literary form became known as
Sanskrit, that is the "purified" language. This
polished literary dialect became fixed, but the ordinary
speech of the people, which is called Prakrit, that is
"natural," or " unartificial," gradually changed.
Diphthongs and harsh combinations were softened, but
the language still remained, like Sanskrit, synthetic.
The dialects of different areas began to differ more
and more from one another. Some of the older forms
of the Prakrits meanwhile, like Sanskrit, became fixed
2 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
and received literary culture, such for instance as Pali.
In the last stage of the Prakrits, before the modern
Indo-Aryan languages developed from them, they are
known as Apabhrams'as. These are the direct parents
of the modern vernaculars of North India, namely,
Hindi, Punjabi, MarathI, etc., which came into exis-
tence somewhere about 1000 a.d., though the date
differs considerably in the case of different languages.
These modern languages are no longer synthetic but
analytic.
Hindi. It is most important to understand clearly
what we mean by Hindi, as the word is often used
ambiguously. It is often, for instance, applied in a
loose sense to the vernacular speech of the whole of
North India between the Punjab and Sindh on the
West, and Bengal on the East. But the philological
researches of scholars, such as Sir George Grierson,
have shown that there are really four chief languages
in this area, namely, Rajasthani, Western Hindi,
Eastern Hindi, and Biharl, each having a different
parentage. Biharl really belongs to a group of lan-
guages of which Bengali is another member. West-
ern Hindi is closely connected in origin with Panjabl.
The word Hindi is also often used to denote modern
literary High Hindi in contradistinction to Urdu ; but
both High Hindi and Urdu were, as will be shown below,
developed from a dialect of Western Hindi. Hindustani
(or Hindostanl) is also a name used sometimes to denote
the vernaculars of all Hindustan, that is the country
between the Punjab and Sindh and Bengal, but is also
sometimes used to mean the simpler speech which is
the lingua franca of modern India, and of which both
Urdu and High Hindi are literary developments.
Scope of this Book. The literature whose history
will be described in this book will include Rajasthani,
Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, and Biharl literature
but not Urdu. It may seem at first sight somewhat
arbitrary to group together the literatures of these
languages which are believed to have been distinct in
development, and when Western Hindi, for instance, is
THE HINDI LANGUAGE and ITS NEIGHBOURS 3
more closely connected in origin with Punjabi, and
Bihar! with Bengali, than with the other languages
here grouped with them. Moreover Urdu, whose
literature is here excluded, is developed from a dialect
of Western Hindi. But the justification for grouping
these literatures together lies in this, that whereas
Punjabi and Bengali and Urdu have developed modern
literatures which are proceeding each on its own lines,
the languages whose literary history is contained in
this book have become closely connected in their
literary development. In the areas where they are
spoken "High Hindi" has come to be accepted as a
literary language by almost all those who do not use
Urdu, and though the older vernaculars are still used
for poetical compositions, not one of them is develop-
ing a separate prose literature of its own. Moreover,
though considered by scholars as distinct, they are
closely related languages which have mutually influ-
enced each other, and the literature of any one of
these vernaculars is to a large extent understood by
those who speak one of the others. These languages
are spoken by over a hundred million people.
As the literature dealt with in the following pages
is really connected with distinct though cognate lan-
guages it is more accurate to describe it, as Sir George
Grierson has done, as the " Modern Vernacular Litera-
ture of Hindostan." But for the sake of convenience
and to avoid circumlocution it will generally be referred
to here as "Hindi Literature." The bulk of it is
written in Western Hindi or Eastern Hindi. Bihari
literature is not very extensive and, except for the
lyrics of Vidyapati, not very important. Rajasthani
literature mostly consists of bardic chronicles.
Urdu as a literary language has an important point
of difference from Hindi in the metres it employs.
These follow Persian models, and the substance of
Urdu poetry is largely influenced by Persian themes.
Dialects. The chief dialects of Raj asthani are
MewatI, Marwarl, Jaipurl, and Malvi. Of these
Marwari is the chief literary dialect. It is also called
4 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Dingal, and in this connection is distinguished from
Pingal, the name given in Rajputana to the Braj Bhasha
dialect of Western Hindi, which was also used in this
area as a literary dialect.
Western Hindi has as its principal dialects, Bangaru,
to the west of the Ganges in the highlands of the
South-Eastern Panjab ; Braj Bhasha, the language
spoken in Muttra and the surrounding district, which
is the chief dialect of Western Hindi for poetry ;
Kanauji (very similar to Braj Bhasha), which is spoken
in the lower part of the central Doab and the country
to the north ; Bundell, in Bundelkhand and a good
portion of the Narbada valley in the Central Provinces ;
and another dialect spoken in the neighbourhood of
Delhi and Meerut. Delhi being for a long time the
headquarters of the Muhammadan conquerors of North
India, it was from the dialect of this district that the
lingua franca of the Mughal camp originated.
A great many words of Persian and Arabic origin were
introduced into this dialect as well as those of Panjabi
and Rajasthani, and the Persian character was used
for writing it. The word "Urdu" literally means
"Camp." Urdu was the camp language. Muham-
madan influence extended its use far and wide, and
it eventually became a literary language. Modern
"High Hindi" was developed from Urdu by the
exclusion of Persian and Arabic words and the
substitution of those of pure Indian origin, Sanskrit or
Hindi. The name Khari Boli {i.e. "pure speech")
is sometimes used by Indian scholars both for the
original dialect of Delhi and Meerut, and for the
modern High Hindi developed by Lallii Ji Lai ; but
they are not identical, as will be shown later in a
subsequent chapter when the circumstances of the
formation of modern literary Hindi are related.
The dialects of Eastern Hindi, from North to South
are Avadhi, Bagheli, and Chhattisgarhi. Of these the
chief literary dialect is Avadhi, spoken in the country
of Ayodhya (Oudh). Avadhi is also known as
Baiswari.
THE HINDI LANGUAGE and ITS NEIGHBOURS 5
Bi/iarlhas three principal dialects, namely Maithili,
Bhojpurl, and Magahi. Maithili is the chief literary
dialect, and practically all the works which have come
down to us are in this dialect. It is spoken in the
region which formed the old kingdom of Mithila, that is
in Bihar north of the Ganges.
The Hindi Alphabet and Written Character. The
alphabet used for Hindi and the other languages included
with it in this book is the same as that of Sanskrit, and
is arranged in the same way, that is on phonetic
principles. One or two of the Sanskrit letters are not
used however in Hindi. The written character is
generally what is the called the Devanagari (or Nagari),
which is also used for Sanskrit. But other forms are
also used. Mahajani (or Sarrafi) and Baniautl are only
used in business. They are both modifications of
KayathI (or Kaithi). This word is from Kayath, or
Kayasth, the name of the writer-caste amongst the
Hindus. KayathI character was originally derived
from the Devanagari by slight alterations which better
adapt it to the purpose of writing quickly. It is used
chiefly in the Eastern portion of the area with which
we are concerned, but even there is not so common as
Devanagari.
Vocabulary. The vast majority of words used in the
languages we are considering are those which have
come down from the original Indo-Aryan language
through the long development of the centuries. But
in the language of to-day there are often found words
which are direct borrowings from Sanskrit. These are
called Tatsama words ("the same as that") to dis-
tinguish them from Tadbhava words ("of the nature
of that"), which are those that have undergone change
in the long process of development. In many cases
Tatsama and Tadbhava forms of the same word or
root co-exist in the language, such as Yogy and Jog
("fit, worthy"). Words have also been borrowed
from Persian. We find these even in the works of the
great writers such as Tulsi Das, and though some
modern authors affect to write "pure Hindi," few
6 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
books can be found which do not contain some words
of Persian origin. Some Portuguese, and nowadays
many English words, have also found their way into
the language.
Hindi Prosody. There is probably no language in
which prosody has been more elaborately developed
than in Hindi. Its system is derived ultimately from the
principles which govern Sanskrit poetry. It does not,
like English, depend on accent, but, like the classic
poetry of Greece and Rome, is based on the quantity
of the syllables, long or short. But rhyme is also
used almost universally, and in Hindi poetry a rhyme
means that not only the last syllable of a line, but the
last two syllables at least, correspond with those of
another line. A good deal of liberty is allowed in
respect of orthography and even of grammatical con-
struction, but the rules for the various metres are very
complicated. The result however in the hands of a
skilful poet is the production of poetry the form and
rhythm of which has a wonderful charm probably not
surpassed in any language. The number of metres
recognized in books of Hindi prosody is very large.
A few only of the principal ones can be mentioned
here. A doha (or dohrd) is a couplet each line of
which contains twenty-four matras or instants, divided
up again into feet according to a recognized plan.
A Mdtra denotes the length of time occupied in
the utterance of a short vowel. Long vowels and
diphthongs are regarded as consisting of two matras.
The doha is the most popular and frequent of all
metres. The soratha is an inverted doha, that is the
second half of each line of the doha changes place
with the first half. The chaupal ranks with the doha
in popularity. It consists of four lines, each of which
has sixteen matras. Other much-used metres are
the kundalzya, the chhappai, the kdvya, the savaiya
and the kavitta. Many metres are specially used in
the composition of verses which are intended to be
sung. In these the same rhyme is often continued
throughout all the lines of the poem.
THE HINDI LANGUAGE and ITS NEIGHBOURS 7
The Family of Indo-Aryan Languages.
(The languages whose literature is described in this book are
printed in thick type).
(Modern
Languages)
Kashmiri
Kohistani
Lahndi
(Western Panjabl)
Sindhi
Gujarat!
Prakrits ......._. f Panjabl
(Vernacular) -J ^ auraseni j Western Hindi
Rajastham
Pahari
Eastern Hindi
(Bihari
Bengali
Oriya
Assamese
Marathi
Indo-Aryan /
Language
Sanskrit
(Literary)
(Apabhrams'as)
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Vrachadi
Gaurjari
Sauraseni
Avanti
Ardhamagadhi
Magadhi
Maharatri
II.
A GENERAL SURVEY OF HINDI
LITERATURE
After the death of King Harsha ( 646 or 647 a.d.),
who had built up a large Empire in North India, there
was a long period of confusion and disorder. The
unity of Indian History is lost until the Muhammadan
conquests again restored a government strong enough
to become a paramount power. During this period the
Rajput clans came into prominence and various Rajput
principalities took shape which were destined to play
an important part in subsequent history. These king-
doms were often at war with one another, but the in-
roads of the Muhammadans from the West frequently
united them to meet the common foe. Although Kabul,
the Punjab, and Sindh had previously fallen into the
hands of the Muhammadan invaders, the real conquest
of India did not begin till 1175 a.d. when Muhammad
Ghori commenced his attacks. In 1191 the Muham-
madan progress induced the Hindu Kings to compose
their quarrels and form a great confederacy under
Prithlraj (also called Prithvlraj or Rai Pithora), the
Chauhan ruler of Ajmer and Delhi. The Hindus were at
first victorious in a battle at Tarain, but in the following
year were defeated in the same place and Prithvlraj
was captured and killed. Delhi was soon occupied and
the Muhammadan advance continued till, under Muham-
mad-bin-Tughlak in 1340, it attained its maximum
extent. But though many Hindu kingdoms fell, and
many strongholds in Rajputana were captured, the
Rajput clans reasserted themselves and were never
completely subdued. Many new Kingdoms were set
GENERAL SURVEY OF HINDI LITERATURE 9
up, and later Muhammadan sovereigns often found it
more profitable to make alliances with the Rajput
monarchs than to attack them.
It was during this period that the modern ver-
naculars of India were taking shape, and the earliest
modern vernacular literature of Hindustan appeared in
the form of the bardic chronicles of Rajputana. The
stirring times in which they lived produced ample
themes for the royal bards, and the liberal patronage
of monarchs encouraged their labours. Though full
of panegyric and embellished with many legends, and
therefore not to be taken as sober history, their poems
nevertheless are a stirring record of the desperate
struggles between the Hindu kingdoms and their
Muhammadan invaders, and of the heroism and chivalry
which such a period called forth. The greatest name
in the literature of this period is that of Chand
Bardai, the bard of Prithvlraj. Contemporary with
Chand was Jagnayak, while a famous t bard of the
middle of the fourteenth century was Sarang Dhar,
who sang the prowess of the valorous Hammir,
Prince of Ranthambhor.
The rise of the worship of Rama, which took place
about the beginning of the fifteenth century, gave
another great impetus to vernacular literature. One
branch of Vaishnavas worshipped Vishnu under the
form of Krishna and this form of worship had long
been popular. Now, largely owing to the great
influence of Ramananda, others made Rama their prin-
cipal object of worship. A later development, due in
some measure to Muhammadan influence, and in which
Kabir was the first great teacher, was in the direction
of a non-idolatrous theism. All these various move-
ments were part of a great religious revival which
was widespread amongst the people, and all began to
use the vernacular for their literature. From this
time on the vernacular literature was mostly dominated
by religious ideals and almost entirely on the lines
which had been laid down by the Vaishnava reformers.
This period begins about 1400 and includes such
10 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
poets as Namdev, Kabir, Vidyapati, Mlra Bai and
Malik Muhammad. The earlier bards of Rajputana
wrote in a time of transition, using a language which
was still full of Prakrit forms, and this was the
period of the infancy of Hindi Literature. But
when the poets of this next period composed their
works, the language spoken was practically the
same as the vernacular speech of to-day ; and, as the
earliest authors in this language, they had to feel their
way, for in using the vernacular for their poems
they were making a great venture. This was the
period of the youth of Hindi Literature.
The golden age of the vernacular literature of
Hindustan begins about 1550. The Mughal sovereigns
not only established a strong rule, but were liberal
patrons of literature and art. Under Akbar ( 1556-1605),
Jahangir ( 1605-1627 )and Shah Jahan ( 1627-1658) the
Muhammadan rule in India reached its highest point of
outward magnificence and this was also the period of
the greatest glory in Hindi literature. It has often
been pointed out how it synchronizes with the Elizabe-
than age of English literature, and that at this very time
England and India first came into real contact with
each other. This period was marked by the introduc-
tion of an artistic influence into the literature, leading
to a greater polish in versification and form, and the
first attempts to systematize the art of poetry by
such writers as Kesav Das and others. This was
the age of the greatest stars of Hindi literature
Tulsi Das, Sur Das and Bihari Lai, as well as
of other great writers like the Tripathi brothers,
Dev Kavi and Senapati. It was the period when
the Sikh Gra?ith was compiled and when many new
sects were formed, like the Dadupanthls, which pro-
duced a great deal of religious verse of a high order.
The end of the period however, during the eighteenth
century, coinciding with the time of the decay of the
Mughal Empire, was a time of decline in the high
quality of Hindi literature, and does not contain many
writers of first-rate excellence.
GENERAL SURVEY OF HINDI LITERATURE 11
At the beginning of the nineteenth century a new
influence came into Hindi literature through contact
with the culture of Europe. In the eighteenth century
the English had been struggling in India with the French
for mastery, but now that conflict had been decided and
the English supremacy was further established by the
break up of the old Mughal Empire and the weakening
of the Maratha power. English influence now began
to make itself more and more felt in Indian affairs, and
amongst other things the contact of India with the
culture of the West had the effect of stimulating many
new ideas, while the sense of security which freedom
from internal disorder gave, encouraged the native
genius of India to reassert itself. Hence there began
about this time a mighty literary renascence in India
which is still in progress. At the beginning of this period
Lallii Ji Lai laid the foundation of modern Hindi prose
and also created the literary dialect which was to be its
principal medium. The printing-press now began to
spread literature far and wide. The revival of Hindi
poetry was led by Hari^chandra, and this period saw
also the rise of the Hindi drama.
The principle adopted in this book in dividing up the
literature into periods is as follows. First of all the
infancy of Hindi literature, connected with the bardic
chronicles, is described ; and after that a new period is
dated from each point where an important new influence
begins to modify the literature. These periods begin
(1) about 1400, when the religious influence of the
Vaishnava movements began to affect Hindi literature ;
(2) about 1550, when a new artistic influence makes
itself felt ; and (3) about 1800, when the literature
began to be affected by the modern influence which came
from contact with the West. In each period the
literature that shows the new spirit in its fulness will
first of all be described and then the other forms in turn,
and something will be said as to how far each group or
each writer is influenced by the new ideas.
III.
EARLY BARDIC CHRONICLES (1150-1400)
The Earliest Poets. During the time when the
Rajput clans were establishing their power, and while
they were struggling with the Muhammadan invaders,
every court had its bards who celebrated in song the
valour and heroism of their patrons and their race.
These bards belonged to guilds, which were also castes,
and there are said to have been Charanas, Bhatas,
Sevagas and Pancholis. The Charanas and Bhatas
both claimed Brahmanic descent. The language used
at first by these bards must have been the local Prakrit,
but gradually the Prakrit developed into the modern
vernacular. A number of bards are mentioned by
tradition as having composed poems between 700 and
1150 a.d. The chief of these are Pushy a (or Punda),
Kedar, Ananya Das, Masaud, Qutub Ali and Akaram
Faiz. Their work, however, has not survived and it
is therefore impossible to say whether the language
they used is to be reckoned as Prakrit or as the modern
vernacular. A poetic chronicle of the ruling family of
Mewar, called the Khuman Rasa, which dates from the
sixteenth century, is said to have been founded on a
work written in the ninth century, but no fragment
of the original has survived. In 1143 a certain
Kumar Pal became king of Gujarat, his capital
being at Anhilwar. In 1159, under the influence of
the Jain scholar Hemachandra he became a Jain, and
at a rather late date Hemachandra wrote a romantic
poem in Prakrit entitled Kumara Pala Charitra. An
anonymous bardic chronicle, called by the same name,
in the early speech of the modern vernacular is
EARLY BARDIC CHRONICLES 13
said to date from the middle of the thirteenth
century, and is probably a free adaptation of the
Prakrit poem. Visala Deva (Bisal Dev) was the
king of Ajmer in 1001 a.d. when Mahmud of
Ghazni made one of his raids into India. He is
celebrated in a short poem called Bisal Dev Raso, the
date of which is unknown, but which has been con-
sidered by some to belong to the thirteenth century.
Till these poems are dated and their language thoroughly
examined by scholars, it is not possible to say what
evidence they give as to the date when the modern
vernacular became clearly distinguished from the
earlier Prakrit, and as even the Prithl Raj Raso,
which is dated in 1191, is said by such an eminent
authority as Sir George Grierson to be " abounding in
pure ApabhrarhSa Sauraseni Prakrit forms," it would
be rash in the absence of further evidence to place the
date of the emergence of the modern vernaculars of
Hindustan much earlier than the beginning of the
twelfth century.
Chand Bardai. Prithl Raj (also called Prithvi Raj
or Rai Pithora), who was born 1159 and killed in 1192,
was the Chauhan ruler of Ajmer and Delhi at the time
of the battles of Tarain, in the second of which he was
captured and afterwards slain. He was a great patron
of literature, and besides Ananya Das, mentioned above,
his court was also attended by the famous bard Chand
Bardai. Chand Bardai belonged to an old family of
bards, and the famous poet Sur Das is said by some to
have been one of his descendants. He came to the court
of Prithi Raj and was appointed as his minister and poet-
laureate. His poetical works were collected by Amar
Singh of Mewar in the seventeenth century, and it is
probable that they were then recast and partially
modernized though still full of archaic language.
Chand' s chief work is the Prithi Raj Raso. In
this famous poem of sixty-nine books and 100,000
stanzas he gives the life of his patron and the
history of the time in which he wrote. Chand Bardai
and his patron were both killed after the battle of Tarain
14 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
in 1192. Legend and fiction are mixed up with history
in the Prithl Raj Raso. The repeated conflicts related
to have taken place between Prithi Raj and Sultan
Shihabuddin seem to be quite unhistorical, and the
Mughals are brought on the stage thirty years before
they really appeared in Indian History. It is therefore
doubtful whether the document in its entirety is a con-
temporary poem, but the language used, which is
transitional in character and abounds in strange forms
which have long since ceased to be used, makes it seem
likely that the original core of the poem is certainly
the work of Chand Bardal, and that it is one of the
earliest poems in Hindi which have survived. Owing
to the difficulty of the language it is a poem not easy
to read even for scholars, but those who have studied
it have a high opinion of its literary merits. It is of
immense value from the point of view of linguistic
study.
The following lines are taken from the twentieth
book of Chand's epic. The fair PadmavatI, daughter
of Padam Sen, an opponent of Prithi Raj, had heard of
the nobility of Prithiraj, as he had of her beauty, and
when her marriage was arranged with another, she sent
a message by a parrot to Prithiraj to come and rescue
her. Prithiraj came with an army to seize her as his
bride :
" Watching the road in the direction of Delhi,
Happy was she when the parrot returned,
Hearing the news, glad were her eyes ;
The maiden was elated with the tokens of love,
She tore off the dirty clothes from her body,
Purified, and anointed, and adorned herself with robes,
Called for priceless jewels (for her person) from head to foot,
Arrayed with the tokens of the king of love.
Filling a golden tray with pearls,
Lighting a lamp she waved it round,
Taking her confidante with her, boldly the maiden
Goes as Rukmini went to meet^Murari ;
Worshipping Gauri, revering Sankar ;
Circumambulating and touching their feet.
Then on seeing King Prithiraj,
She smiled bashfully, hiding her face through shame.
Seizing her hand, putting her on horseback,
EARLY BARDIC CHRONICLES 15
The King, the Lord of Delhi, took her away.
The rumour spiead that, outside the city,
They are carrying off Padmavati by force.
Drums are beat, there is saddling of horse and elephant,
They ran, armed, in all directions.
1 Seize ! Seize ! ' shouted each warrior.
Rage possessed the heroes and their king.
When King Prithlraj was going in front
With all his army behind him,
There the horsemen advancing arrived ;
King meeting King, the warriors joined in battle,
When Prithlraj the King turns rein,
The heavens stand still, the world-serpent shakes.
The chiefs and heroes all look (awful) as death,
Eager for blood on rushes the King,
The bows let fly countless arrows,
The deadly blades draw blood.
From the sweat of the wounds of the heroes on the field,
A thick stream flows, and dyes the sand,
As warriors of the barat smote,
On the field fell heads and headless trunks of the foe.
The foe fell on the field of battle ;
Turning his face towards Delhi,
Having won the battle, went Prithlraj,
All the chiefs were glad.
He took Padmavati with him
Rejoicing, King Prithlraj." 1
Chand Bardal's son Jalhan is also said to have been
a poet and possibly some parts of the Raso were com-
posed by him.
J&gndiydiU.. Jag-nay a k (or Jagnik) was a contempor-
ary of Chand Bardai and attended the court of Paramardi
(Parmal) of Mahoba in Bundelkhand, who was a rival
of Prithiraj. His works have not _survived, unless we
have in the Mahoba Khand (or Alha Khand), which
has been described as a spurious canto of Chand's epic,
a poem which was written by Jagnayak. This poem
has been handed down by oral tradition and exists in
many recensions which differ from one another both in
language and subject matter. It is still sung by
professional singers in India and the language is
always modernized to suit the dialect of the reciter.
1 Translation by Mr. John Beames, in Vol. 38 of the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal (1869), pp. 152, 153.
16 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
The heroes of this poem are Alha and Udal (or
Udan). Portions of one recension have been trans-
lated into English ballad metre by Mr. Waterfield,
under the title of " The Nine-Lakh Chain or the Maro
Feud." A few stanzas will give some idea of this
poem. It relates Alha's victory over King Jambay :
The warriors staggered, they scattered and broke,
In hope their lives to save ;
When Jambay saw they fled, he spoke,
And his elephant onward drave.
11 Mahoba's champion, Devi's son,
Now settle thy cause with me ;
Alive from the field shall go but one,
So turn by turn strike we."
" I may not strike, by the Chandel law ;
Do thou strike first, O King ";
Then a good red bow did Jambay draw,
And fitted the notch to string.
The aim was good, the string did twang,
Fast did the arrow fly ;
Across the howda Alha sprang,
And the shaft went whizzing by.
Then his javelin flew as near they drew,
Now how may Alha bide ?
Queen Sarada's care at his right hand there
She turned the spear aside.
11 Now hear, Banaphar," Jambay spake,
M Twice hast thou foiled my blow ;
In peace thy way to Mahoba take,
For thrice thou 'scap'st not so."
But Alha there his breast made bare,
And did to the Raja cry ;
" No part of a Kshatri's trade it were,
From the battle trench to fly."
'* There are homes in heaven stand ready for all,
To-morrow if not to-day ;
And if in Maro this tide shall fall,
My name shall live for aye."
" One chance is left thee, King, to save,
And see thou miss no more " :
Then drew the King his shining glaive,
And thrice he smote full sore.
EARLY BARDIC CHRONICLES 17
No hurt on Alha's body happ'd,
His shield was lifted high ;
At length the sword of Jambay snapp'd,
Then wist he death was nigh.
* I have hewn down elephants with this blade,
And lopped their limbs away ;
Its master's need has it now betrayed,
My life is lost to-day ! "
'* Now, Raja, now my stroke take thou,"
And his elephant on he drove ;
Howda to howda, tusk to tusk,
Close met the champions strove.
Then Alha forward dash'd his shield,
With the boss he dealt a blow ;
The elephant's driver was hurl'd to the field,
And he waver'd to and fro.
Then Jambay drew his dagger keen,
Long time their steel they plied ;
On Alha's body no hurt was seen,
11 Now bind the foe," he cried.
Pachsawad whirl'd his iron chain,
Dashed the howda to the ground ;
Soon Alha lighted on the plain,
And fast his arms he bound. 1
Sarang Dhar. Sarang Dhar, a bard who flourished
in the middle of the fourteenth century, is said to have
been a descendant of Chand Bardal. He is the reputed
author of two poems known as the Hammir Rasa and the
Hamrriir Aavya, which are chronicles of the royal
house of Ranthambhor. The valour of Hammir in his
struggle against the emperor Ala-ud-din, at whose
hands he received his death, is very famous. Sarang
Dhar is also the author of an anthology of Sanskrit
lyric stanzas called the Sarngadhara Paddhati, which
was published in 1363.
These early bards had a long line of successors,
some of whom will be mentioned later on. Their
chronicles are valuable not only as literature, but as a
record of the times in which they lived. Like the old
1 Calcutta Review, Vol. 63 (1876), pp. 414 ff.
18 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
chronicles of other lands they contain much that is
legendary and unreliable as history, but the light which
they throw on the period in which they were written is
nevertheless of very great value.
Other Poets of this Period. One or two other writers
who are considered to belong to this period may also
be mentioned. These are Bhupati, who wrote at the
end of the thirteenth century, and Nalla Srngk, Mulla
Daud, and Amir Khusro, who flourished about the
fourteenth century. The latter was a Persian poet to
whom Hindi verses are also ascribed. There is also a
certain Gorakhnath who is regarded as the founder of
an order of Yogis, and as the author of both Sanskrit
and Hindi works. Some doubt has been expressed as
to his being a historical person at all, but it seems
likely that he was, and that he lived about 1200 a.d.
The Hindi works, which include one in prose, are
almost certainly not written by him. They are pro-
bably the works of his followers. They have been
placed by some as early as the middle of the fourteenth
century, but their date at present must be regarded as
very uncertain.
IV.
EARLY BHAKTI POETS (1400-1550)
The Vaishnava Revival. A new development in Hindi
literature was caused by the growth of the Vaishnava
movement in North India. The Muhammadan con-
quest had been a time of great difficulty for the Hindu
religion. Scholars had been dispersed, idols broken,
and temples cast down. But though Hinduism suffered
severely it was not destroyed, and a great impetus was
to be given to the Vaishnava form of the Hindu faith.
The Vaishnava religious movements of North India at
this time fall into three groups, Ramaite, Krishnaite,
and deistic. But all the various sects have many
points in common. A personal God, who is full of
love and pity for his devotees, is the object of worship,
and towards him devotion (bhakti) is demanded as the
most important requirement from those who would
obtain release. The movement as a whole was a revolt
against the cold intellectualism of Brahmanic philosophy
and the lifeless formalism of mere ceremonial. It was
essentially a popular religious movement, and this is
emphasised by its use of the vernacular, rather than
Sanskrit, in the vast amount of literature it produced.
This constitutes the importance of the movement from
the point of view of Hindi literature.
Ramananda's Predecessors. It is generally agreed
that it was Ramananda who gave the greatest impulse
to the religious revival in North India about this time r
but there were others who were his predecessors and the
harbingers of the movement. The Adi Grant h of the
Sikhs, compiled by Guru Arjun in 1604, has preserved
some of the earliest specimens we possess of Hindi
20 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
poetry of the bhakti movement. Among those devotees
(bhagats) of whose compositions fragments have
been preserved in the Granth, and who are earlier than
Ramananda, are Sadna and Namdev. The Granth
contains also a fragment of a certain Jaidev who has
sometimes been identified with Jayadeva, the author
of the Sanskrit Gita Govi?ida, who lived towards the
end of the twelfth century. But the identification is
more than doubtful and the date and the circumstances
of this Jaidev are unknown.
Sadna, who probably flourished about the beginning
of the fifteenth century, is said to have been born in
Sindh and to have been a butcher (kasai). He gave up
his trade and became a devotee. Only a couple of his
hymns are preserved in the Granth.
Namdev belonged to the Maratha country and was a
devotee of Vithoba at Pandharpur. He probably flourished
between about 1400 and 1430. By caste he was a tailor,
and according to the legends preserved about him he
showed great devotion in his boyhood, but afterwards
for a time lived an evil life in company with a band
of dacoits. He repented, however, and became a great
devotee. He is the author of a considerable number of
Marathi hymns, but he was a noteworthy religious
leader in the north of India also, and wrote many
verses in Hindi. A considerable number of hymns
composed by him are in the Granth. Namdev is a
most interesting figure and probably one of the first
leaders of the new religious revival which began about
this time in North India.
Ramananda, who lived probably from about 1400 to
1470, was an ascetic who somewhere about the year
1430 began to preach that the eternal God should be
worshipped under the name of Rama, that Rama alone
was the source of release from the evils of transmigra-
tion, and that this should be sought by fervent devotion
{bhakti) towards him. The way had already been
prepared by the preaching of others on similar lines,
and Ramananda evidently met with such success that
he took up his residence in Benares and made that the
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 21
headquarters of the new movement. He was undoubt-
edly one of the most important Hindu religious leaders
in North India, for not only is the sect of Ramanandis,
which acknowledges him as its direct founder, still
very large, but a great many other sects owe their
first impulse to the movement he initiated, or else
were founded by those who were originally his dis-
ciples or members of his sect. As a writer, however,
Ramananda does not hold an important place. Hymns
in Hindi purporting to have been written by him are
still preserved, one of them in the Adi Grant h. In
this hymn he seems to be declining an invitation to go
and worship Vishnu in a temple, on the ground that
God is all-pervading and that he has found God in his
heart. It must not be inferred from this, however,
that Ramananda forbade idolatry though he may have
criticised it. He preached a vivid faith in the reality
of the one personal God, spiritual and invisible, whom
he called Rama, but no break was made with idolatry,
the Hindu pantheon, or the old mythology. Nor did
Ramananda throw over the system of caste. It is
true that like other bhakti teachers before his day he
was willing to acknowledge that even outcastes, by
means of bhakti, could obtain release, and that
amongst his personal disciples there are said to have
been not a only a Sudra, a Jat, and an outcaste, but
even a Muhammadan weaver and a woman. But
there is no evidence that he modified the social rules
of caste in the slightest. From the point of view of
Hindi literature the significance of the movement
initiated by Ramananda was in depending for its
literature almost entirely on the vernacular. The
followers and successors of Ramananda practically
gave up the use of Sanskrit, and this of course gave
a great impetus to the development of Hindi literature.
Ramananda's Disciples. The immediate personal
disciples of Ramananda were, according to tradition,
twelve in number, and Hindi compositions of some
of these have been preserved. Pipa was the Raja
of Gagaraungarh and is said to have been born in
22 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
the year 1425. On becoming a disciple of Ramananda
he abdicated his sovereignty and became a mendicant.
Dhana, the Jat, is said to have been born in 1415. Sen
was a barber at the court of the Raja of Rewah. Of
these three disciples of Ramananda only a few hymns
have been preserved in the Adi Granth. Bhawana?id,
another disciple, is the reputed author of an explana-
tion in Hindi of the Vedanta system of philosophy in
fourteen chapters called the Amrit Dhar. Rai Das
was the chamar disciple of Ramananda, and attained
great celebrity as a devotee. More than thirty of his
hymns have been preserved in the Adi Granth. The
following, in which he describes his relation to God, is
a specimen :
14 If Thou art a hill, then I am Thy peacock ;
If Thou art the moon, then I am Thy chakor;
God, if Thou break not with me, I will not break with
Thee;
If I break with Thee, whom shall I join ?
If Thou art a lamp, then I am Thy wick ;
If Thou art a place of pilgrimage, then I am Thy pilgrim.
1 have joined true love with Thee ;
Joining Thee I have broken with all others.
Wherever I go there is Thy service ;
There is no other Lord like Thee, O God.
By worshipping Thee Death's noose is cut away.
Rav Das singeth to obtain Thy service." 1
Kabir. The greatest of the disciples of Ramananda,
whether as a poet or a religious leader, was the
Muhammadan weaver Kabir (1440-1518). According
to legend he was really the son of a Brahman widow,
who, in order to conceal her shame, exposed the infant
in the Lahar Tank near Benares, where it was dis-
covered by Niru, the Muhammadan weaver, and his
wife Nima, and brought up by them as their own child.
Another version gives an entirely miraculous account
of his birth. Even as a boy he is said to have given
offence both to Hindus and Muhammadans. The former
he angered by putting on a sacred cord though of low
caste, and the latter by using Hindu names for God
1 Macauliffe, " The Sikh Religion," Vol. VI. p. 331.
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 23
though he was a Muhammadan. He was taunted also
with being a nigura, that is one without a guru. Desir-
ing to remove this reproach he wished to become a
disciple of Ramananda, but feared that he might not
be accepted. He therefore had recourse to a stratagem.
Lying down upon the steps of the ghat which he knew
Ramananda visited, he hoped that in the dark the guru
might stumble over him, and that probably then no
words would rise so readily to his lips as the mantra of
his order. This hope was realised and Ramananda
uttered the words ' ' Ram, Ram. ' ' Kabir claimed that he
had been initiated and Ramananda admitted the claim.
After this initiation Kabir is said to have visited his guru
regularly, but though a disciple of Ramananda he went
far beyond his master in his teaching. Whether he was
originally a Muhammadan or not, there is no doubt that
Muhammadan influence can be traced in his ideas.
He was the founder of the deistic movement in India.
He uses the name Rama for God (as well as other
names such as Hari, Govind, Allah, etc.) and has
Vedantic ideas, but he rejected entirely the doctrine of
incarnations, and with no unsparing voice condemned
idolatry and most of the Hindu ceremonies and rites.
The influence of Kabir, both direct and indirect, has been
enormous. Not only is the sect of Kabirpanthis, which
claims him as its founder, still very numerous, but
many other sects owe to him the leading ideas of their
theology. Many of these sects will be mentioned
later on in connection with the literature which their
leaders produced. There are many legends but not
very much reliable information about the life of Kabir.
His interest in religious questions to the neglect of his
weaving seems to have brought him sometimes into
conflict with his family, but even more trouble came
to him from the opposition of both Hindus and
Muhammadans, who were offended in turn at his
denunciation of many of their practices. He seems to
have been persecuted by the Emperor Sikandar Lodi,
after being denounced by both Hindus and Muham-
madans as a troublesome person, and finally was
24 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
exiled from Benares by the Emperor's orders.
He went to live at Maghar in the Gorakhpur district,
where he ended his days.
The poems composed by Kabir are very numerous.
It is probable that he himself did not commit them to
writing, but that they were remembered and treasured
up by his disciples. Various collections of poems
ascribed to Kabir have come down to us, but there is a
strong probability that there is much in these collec-
tions that is not his genuine work. One collection is to
be found in the Adi Granth of the Sikhs, which was
compiled in 1604. Another collection is contained in
the Bijak (literally "invoice," or " account-book," or
perhaps " a document by which a hidden treasure can
be located"). This work was produced in connection
with the Kabir Panth after the death of Kabir probably
as a book of instruction. It is often said to have been
compiled by Bhago Das, one of Kabir's immediate
disciples, about the year 1570. The Bijak is a collec-
tion of verses in various metres. The Ramainls are
short doctrinal poems. The abdas are similar but in
a different metre. The Chauntlsa is an exposition of
the religious signification of the consonants of the
Nagarl alphabet. In the thirty verses of the Vipra-
matlst an attack is made on the orthodox system of the
Brahmans. The KaharSs, Vasantas, Belts, Chanc harts,
Birhulls and Hindolas are religious verses in the metres
so named. The collection ends with over four hundred
Sakhis, or short apophthegms, each consisting of a
single doha, and the Sayar Bijak Ko Pad, which sums up
the whole matter. Neither the verses contained in the
Adi Granth nor those in the Bijak can be regarded in
their entirety as the work of Kabir. Besides these
there are a very large number of Sakhis (of which
over five thousand have been collected) and other
verses ascribed to Kabir which are still current in
India. At the Kabir Chaura, which is the headquarters
of the Kabir Panth at Benares, there is said to be
a collection of the works of Kabir, called the Khcts
Granth, which includes about twenty different books.
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 25
Many of these are evidently the works of disciples or
successors, though few of them have been published.
The dialect used in the compositions contained in the
Bijak is the old Avadhi dialect of Hindi. The poetry
of Kabir is rough and unpolished, and the style and
language make it not always easy to understand.
Words are often loosely strung together with very
little regard to grammatical accuracy, and the sentences
are often elliptical and full of colloquialisms. The
frequent play on words and the obscurity of many of
the similes used increase the difficulty. But in spite
of all this Kabir must be given a very high place in
Hindi literature. The amazing boldness with which
he attacked the religious practices of his day,
tolerating no shams and demanding reality in
all those who were seeking after God, and the
moral earnestness of his appeal to men to put the
things of God first, would in itself give his work an
outstanding importance. But besides this the stinging
satire which he has at his command, and his ability to
produce striking epigrams, and the fascinating rhythm
of his verse, all combine to give a wonderful power to
his poetry. He has been called the pioneer of Hindi
literature and the father of all Hindi hymns; but though,
in view of the predecessors we have already mentioned,
such a claim can hardly be allowed, it is certainly true
to say that it was he more than any others before him
who popularized Hindi religious literature and vastly
extended its influence, and Hindi literature of the same
type subsequent to Kabir owes to him a great debt.
Translations of his poems give very little idea of
the charm and force of his style, but a few extracts
may help to give some idea of the kind of literature he
produced. Here are one or two of the Sakhts ascribed
to him :
11 Everything is from God and nothing from His servant;
He can change a mustard-seed into a mountain and a mountain
into a mustard-seed."
" The house of God is distant, as is a tall palm ;
He who climbs to the top, tastes of heaven ; he who falls is ground
in pieces."
26 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
11 Consider the parable of the sieve ; it suffers the flour to pass, but
retains the husk ;
So men let pass what is good and swallow what is useless." 1
The lines below illustrate Kabir's theological stand-
point :
If God be within the mosque, then to whom does this world
belong ?
If Ram be within the image which you find upon your pilgrimage,
then who is there to know what happens without ?
Hari is in the East ; Allah is in the West. Look within your
heart, for there you will find both Karim and Ram ;
All the men and women of the world are His living forms.
Kabir is the child of Allah and of Ram : He is my guru, He is
my Pir." a
One more extract will illustrate the poetical merit
of Kabir's verse :
No one knew the mystery of that weaver : who came into the world
and spread the warp.
The earth and sky are the two beams : the sun and moon are two
filled shuttles.
Taking a thousand threads he spreads them lengthways: to-day he
weaveth still, but hard to reach is the far-off end.
Says Kabir, Joining Karma with Karma, woven with unwoven
threads, splendidly the weaver weaves. 8
The son of Kabir, named Kamal, is also said to
have been a poet, and his couplets to have been made in
refutation of the sayings of his father whom he seems
to have opposed. Hence arose the proverb, "An unlucky
family was Kabir's, in which the son Kamal was born."
Nanak. Of the many movements which owe their
inspiration to the teaching of Kabir none is more
important than the religion of the Sikhs, which was
founded in the Punjab by Nanak (1469-1538). It is
said that Nanak, when twenty-seven years of age, met
Kabir, and the influence of the latter is seen not only in
the large number of Kabir's compositions afterwards
included in the Sikh Granth, but in the doctrines of
Nanak, which are very similar to those of Kabir, and
1 Translations from Westcott's "Kabir and the Kabir Panth,"
pp. 95, 86, 93.
a Translation by Sir Rabindranath Tagore, "Kabir's Poems," 69.
8 Bijak. Ramaini 28. (Rev. Ahmad Shah's translation.)
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 27
undoubtedly owe a great deal to him, though Nanak
stands nearer to Hinduism than Kabir. Nanak made
journeys in several directions accompanied by his
disciple Mardana, who played the rebeck while Nanak
sang. His hymns and other poetical utterances were
in a mixture of Punjabi and Hindi. Although he is not
equal to Kabir as a poet, yet his verse is clear and
pithy, and not lacking in poetical excellence. Nanak
soon gathered a number of followers and one of his most
famous compositions is the Japji, a collection of verses
which he arranged for their daily use in praise and
prayer. Besides this he composed a very large number
of other verses which are included in the Sikh Gra,7ith.
The following is one verse from the Japji.
"There is no limit to God's praises; to those who repeat them
there is no limit.
There is no limit to His mercy, and to His gifts there is no limit.
There is no limit to what God seeth, no limit to what He heareth.
The limit of the secret of His heart cannot be known.
The limit of His creation cannot be known ; neither His near nor
His far side can be discovered.
To know His limits how many vex their hearts.
His limits cannot be ascertained ;
Nobody knoweth His limits.
The more we say, the more there remains to be said.
Great is the Lord, and exalted is His seat.
His exalted name is higher than the most exalted.
Were any one else ever so exalted,
Then He would know that exalted Being :
How great He is He knoweth Himself.
Nanak, God bestoweth gifts on whom He looketh with favour and
mercy." 1
The Krishna Cult. The followers of Ramananda,
as well as those of Kabir and Nanak, generally gave
the name of Rama to the Supreme God, though other
names were sometimes used. The followers of
Ramananda accepted Rama as an incarnation, and
permitted idolatry, but the doctrine of incarnation and
the use of images were both rejected by Kabir and
Nanak. It was indeed still bhakti to Rama which they
1 Japji, XXIV; Translation bv Macauliffe, "The Sikh Religion,"
Vol. I. 208.
28 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
preached, but to Rama as the invisible God, not as an
incarnation. There was however another group of
Vaishnavas who worshipped God under the form of
another incarnation, namely Krishna. Like the
Ramaite cult the worship of Krishna also had its
beginnings in the centuries before this period, but
about this time received a new impetus, which was
marked, as well as furthered, by the use of the
vernacular for its religious literature. Sometimes it
was the child Krishna who was especially thought of
as an object of worship, but more often it was that
aspect of Krishna's life which was concerned with his
relation to Radha and the other Gopis that received
most attention.
Radha-Krishnaite verse goes back to the Sanskrit
Gita Govinda of Jayadeva in the twelfth century, and as
early as the fourteenth century Krishna hymns appeared
in Bengali. Between 1450 and 1480 there flourished a
Gujarat! poet named Narsingh Mehta who wrote
Radha-Krishna lyrics in that language. He is also
credited with having composed similar verses in Hindi.
Vidyapati Thakur, who lived at Bisapi in the
Darbhanga district of Bihar in the middle of the
fifteenth century, is one of the most famous Vaishnava
poets of Eastern India. He was the founder of a
school of master-singers which afterwards spread all
over Bengal. Little is known of his life, but he was
the author of several Sanskrit works. His chief fame
however rests on his sonnets in the Maithili dialect of
Bihari. In these he uses the story of the love which
Radha bore to Krishna as an allegory to describe the
relation of the soul to God. Many of these were after-
wards adapted to Bengali and made popular by
Chaitanya, and Vidyapati has had many imitators.
His poems possess great literary merit and he has had
a great influence on the literature of the Eastern part
of India.
Umapati was probably a contemporary of Vidyapati,
and also wrote Krishnaite songs both in in Maithili
and in Bengali.
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 29
Mira Bai About the same time as Vidyapati, or
perhaps a little later, there flourished in the west of
Hindustan a writer whose poems helped to popularize
the Krishna eult in that region. This was Mira Bat
(fl. 1470) the most famous of Hindi poetesses. There
has been a great deal of confusion as to her date and
the details of her life. But it seems that she was a
princess of Rajputana who was married to Bhojraj, the
heir-apparent of Kumbha, Maharana of Mewar. Her
husband died before he came to the throne, and
Kumbha was put to death by another son Udekaran
(or Uda), who seized the throne in 1469. Mira
Bai, who was a devotee of Krishna even from her
childhood, seems already to have given offence to
the family of her husband by her refusal to con-
form to their particular form of Hindu worship, and
her frequent lavish expenditure in the entertainment
of sadkus, and when her brother-in-law Udekaran had
gained the throne, he persecuted her so much that she
fled from Chitor and became a disciple of Rai Das,
the chamar disciple of Ramananda. This must have
been about the year 1470. She is said to have been
especially devoted to that form of Krishna known as
Ranchhor, and a legend says that one day while
worshipping with great devotion she was taken up into
the image and disappeared. Rai Das, as a follower of
Ramananda, was a worshipper of Rama, and it is not
clear why Mira Bai chose him as her guru, or
whether Rai Das in any way modified her views,
but he is mentioned two or three times in the poems
ascribed to her. The lyrics of Mira Bai are occupied
with intense devotion to Krishna, though in some of
them she uses the name of Rama also for God. They
are written in the Braj Bhasha dialect and are
graceful and melodious verses. There are many
similar lyrics in Gujarat! which are also ascribed to
Mira Bai. The following is the translation of one of
her lyrics :
M God (i.e. Krishna) hath entwined my soul, O Mother,
With His attributes, and I have sung of them.
30 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
The sharp arrow of His love hath pierced my body through and
through, O Mother.
When it struck me I knew it not ; now it cannot be endured, O
Mother.
Though I use charms, incantations, and drugs, the pain will not
depart.
Is there any one who will treat me ? Intense is the agony, O
Mother.
Thou, O God, art near ; Thou art not distant ; come quickly to
meet me.
Saith MIra, the Lord, the mountain-wielder, who is compassionate
hath quenched the fire of my body, O Mother.
The Lotus-eyed hath entwined my soul with the twine of His
attributes." 1
Vallabhacharya. The spread of the worship of
Krishna, however, owed most to Vallabhacharya. He
was the son of a Brahman from South India and was born
at Benares in 1479. He established an image of
Krishna at Gobardhan in the Braj country, and from
this as his headquarters spread the doctrine of his sect
in many parts of India. He wrote many works in
Sanskrit, but nothing in Hindi, though the movement
he initiated has produced many Hindi writers. He
died in 1531 and was succeeded as leader of the sect by
his son Vitthalnath.
Vitthahiath, who lived from about 1515 to 1585, not
only became the leader of the sect which his father had
founded but is also credited with having been a Hindi
writer. Besides Hindi verses the genuineness of which
is doubtful, he is also said to have been the author of
a short prose work called Mandan dealing with the
story of Radha and Krishna, which must be one of the
earliest extant prose writings in Hindi. It is written in
Braj Bhasha. Four of the disciples of his father
Vallabhacharya, together with four of his own disciples
became the celebrated Ashta Chhap, who are mentioned
in a later chapter.
Divisions of the Bhakti Movement. During this period
(1400-1550) the various bhakti movements of Hindu-
ism fall into three groups, namely (1) those who
1 Translation by Macauliffe, " The Religion of the Sikhs," Vol.
VI. 356.
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 31
worshipped Rama as an incarnation and practised
idolatry, (2) those who worshipped God under the
name of Rama, but rejected idolatry and the doctrine
of incarnation, and (3) those who worshipped Krishna.
In each group during this period Hindi literature came
to be used and was one of the great factors which
helped to spread the various movements, while they
on the other hand helped to stimulate the growth of
Hindi literature. Almost the whole of subsequent
Hindi literature is impressed with one or another of
these forms of Vaishnava doctrine.
Malik Muhammad Jayasi. The bardic chronicles had
a much more local currency than the religious verse
described above, and outside Rajputana contributed
little to the development of vernacular literature, but
one remarkable poem of this period seems to show
how even the poetry of the bards had been affected by
the religious revival. This was the Padumavatl of
Malik Muhammad Jayasi who flourished about 1540.
Malik Muhammad was a Muhammadan devotee,
but was acquainted with Hindu lore, and profoundly
affected by the teaching of Kabir. He was much
honoured by the Raja of Amethi, who attributed
the birth of a son to the prayers of the saint, and his
tomb is still to be seen at Amethi. Besides the Padu-
mavatl, he wrote also a religious poem called the
Akharavat. In the Padumavatl he tells the story of a
certain Ratan Sen who, hearing from a parrot of the
great be.auty of Padumavati, or Padmini, journeyed
to Ceylon as a mendicant and returned to Chitor with
Padmini as his bride. Ala-ud-din, the ruling sovereign
at Delhi, also heard of Padmini and endeavoured to
capture Chitor in order to gain possession of her.
He was unsuccessful, but Ratan Sen was taken prisoner
and held as a hostage for her surrender. He was after-
wards released from captivity by the bravery of two
heroes. He then attacked king Dev Pal, who had made
insulting proposals to Padmini during his imprisonment.
Dev Pal was killed, but Ratan Sen, who was mortally
wounded, returned to Chitor only to die. His two
32 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
wives, PadminI and another, became satl for him, and
while this was happening Ala-ud-din appeared at the
gates of Chitor, and though it was bravely defended,
captured it. At the end of the poem Malik Muhammad
explains it all as being an allegory. Chitor is the
body of man, Ratan Sen is the soul, Padmini is wis-
dom, Ala-ud-din is delusion, the parrot is the guru,
and so on, and thus a religious character is given to
the story. Malik Muhammad's poem is based on the
facts connected with the actual siege of Chitor, which
took place in 1303, but he has considerably modified
the details and borrowed also from other stories.
The poem is written in the vernacular dialect of Malik
Muhammad's time tinged slightly with an admixture
of Persian words and idioms. It was originally
written in the Persian character. It is a work of great
originality and poetic beauty, and must be reckoned as
one of the masterpieces of Hindi literature.
The following translation of an extract from Malik
Muhammad's description of Ceylon will give some
idea of his excellence as a poet :
" When a man approacheth this land, 'tis as though he approacheth
Kailasa the mount of heaven. Dense mango-groves lie on every side,
rising from the earth to the very sky. Each tall tree exhaleth the
odours of mount Malaya, and the shade covereth the world as though
it were the night. The shade is pleasant with its Malaya breeze ; e'en
in the fiery month of Jyetha [May-June] 'tis cool amidst it. It is as
though night cometh from that shade and as though from it cometh the
greenness of the sky. When the wayfarer cometh thither suffering
from the heat he forgetteth his trouble in his blissful rest, and whoso
hath found this perfect shade, returneth ne'er again to bear the
sun-rays.
'* So many and so dense are these groves, that I cannot tell their
end. The whole six seasons of the year do they flower and fruit, as
though it were always spring.
11 The pleasant thick mango-groves bear fruit, and the more fruit
they bear, the more (humbly) do the trees bow their heads. On the
main branches and trunks of the jack trees, the jack fruit ripen, and
fair appeareth the barhal to him who looketh. The khirni ripeneth
sweet as molasses, and the black wild plum, like black bees (among its
leaves). Cocoanuts ripen and ripeneth the khurhur; they ripen as
though the orchards were in Indra's heaven. From the mahud doth
such sweetness exude, that honey is its flavour, and flowers its scent ;
and in these princes' gardens are other good fruits, good to eat, whose
EARLY BHAKTI POETS 33
names I knew not. They all appear with nectar- like branches, and he
who once tasteth them remaineth ever longing for more.
"Arecaand nutmeg, all fruits, are produced there luxuriantly.
On every side are thick groves of tamarinds, of palmyras, and of date-
palms.
11 There dwell the birds, singing in many tongues, and sporting
joyfully as they look upon these nectar-branches. At dawn the honey-
suckers are fragrant, and the turtle-dove cries out ' 'Tis thou and only
thou' (eka-i tu hi). The emerald parroquets sportively rejoice, and
the rock-pigeons cry kurkur and fly about. The hawk-cuckoo crieth
for its beloved, and the skulking warbler shouted tuhin khi. Kuhu kuhu
ever crieth the cuckoo, while the king-crow speaketh in many tongues.
1 Tyre, tyre ' [dahi, dahi] crieth the milkmaid-bird, while the green
pigeon plaintively telleth its tale of woe. The peacock's cry kun kun
sounded sweet to the ear, and loudly caw the crows.
** Filling the orchards, sitteth every bird that hath a name, and
each praiseth the Creator in his own tongue." 1
Other Poets of this Period. Two other poets of this
period may also be mentioned Narottam Das (fl. 1530)
wrote the Sudama Charitr and the Dhruv Charitr.
These works are stories in verse. He was also the
author of detached poems.
Kripa Ram (fl. 1540) was the author of a work
entitled Hit Tarahgini written in Braj Bhasha. Its
importance lies in its being the earliest extant work
in Hindi dealing with the art of poetry, and it shows
how the way was being prepared for the work of
Kesav Das.
1 Padumdvati, Canto II. 27-29; Translation by Sir George A.Grierson
and Pandit Sudhakara Dwivedi in Bibliotheca Indica of Asiatic Society
of Bengal ; New Series, No. 877, Vol. I. 15, 16.
THE MUGHAL COURT AND THE ARTISTIC
INFLUENCE IN HINDI LITERATURE
(1550-1800)
The New Influence in Hindi Poetry. Although the
religious language of the Muhammadans was Arabic, the
literary language they used in India, and the language
of the court, was Persian. This language possessed a
large literature, which had already developed a highly
artistic character before the Muhammadan power was
established in India. Many Hindus who were connected
with the court came to learn this language, and when
Urdu literature developed it was fashioned after
Persian models. Though Hindi developed on its own
lines, without any direct influence from Persian, it
seems not unlikely that the polished Persian verse
with which many Hindus became acquainted may have
suggested a higher artistic standard in Hindi literature
than there had been before. At all events about the
middle of the sixteenth century there appeared a new
artistic influence in Hindi literature, which was
developed under encouragement from the Mughal court.
Previous Muhammadan rulers had encourged litera-
ture, but it was Akbar who first extended patronage to
those who wrote in Hindi. The reign of Akbar (1556-
1605) was marked by its brilliance and splendour. Not
only was he successful in war and in establishing a
strong and, on the whole, good government, but he
\vao also a great patron of art and literature. Architec-
ture, music, painting and calligraphy were all encour-
aged. The Emperor established a large library of
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 35
books of various languages, and had translations
made from Sanskrit into Persian and the vernacular-
Poets were patronized and rewarded with great liber-
ality. The magnificence of such a reign, like the
glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth in England which
was contemporary with it, could not but exercise a
stimulating influence on all sides, and this was felt
in Hindi literature as well as in other directions.
Even those writers who lived far away from the
influence of the court were helped by feeling that they
could carry on their labours in peace under a govern-
ment strong enough to secure good order, and tolerant
towards Hindus as well as Muhammadans. Akbar
pursued a deliberate policy of protection and encourage-
ment of Hindu learning. The patronage extended by
him, and others in high position, to Hindu as well as to
Muhammadan writers, stimulated a great outburst of
literary activity, and encouraged improvement in the
standards of poetic art. The influence was of course
felt most by those writers who lived in close touch with
the court.
Poets at Akbar* s Court. Akbar himself is the reputed
author of a few detached verses in Hindi, in which he
signs himself Akabbar Ray. They were probably
composed in the Emperor's name by the court musician
Tan Sen. Some of Akbar's great ministers of state
were also authors. It was largely due to the influence
of Raja Todar Mai (1523-1589) in making Hindus learn
Persian that Urdu was developed and accepted as a
language. Besides translating the Bhagavata Purdna
into Persian, Todar Mai was the author of some Hindi
verses, the best being on morals (mtt) . Raja Birbal
(1528-1583) was a Kanauji Dube Brahman, and was at
first a poet at the court of the Raja of Jaipur. The
latter sent him to the court of Akbar, where his ability
soon brought him into favour. He was not only skilled
in business so that he soon rose to a high position, but
also possessed great musical and poetical talent. Akbar
gave him the title of Kavi Ray (poet-laureate) and he
received rapid promotion. He was famous as a poet for
36 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
his short verses of a witty and humorous character.
No complete work by him has survived, but many
verses ascribed to him are still current. When he
reached a high position he himself became a patron of
other poets. Raja Manohar Das (fl. 1577), another
of Akbar's courtiers, was also a poet. Maharaja Man
Singh (1535-1618) of Jaipur, one of Akbar's generals,
was a great patron of literary men, and is reputed to
have given as much as a lakh of rupees for a single
verse. Abul Faiz_ (or Faizi) was brother of Abul Fazl,
who wrote the Aln-i-Akbarl. Both were friends of
Akbar. Abul Faiz was not only a Persian poet but the
author of many Hindi couplets.
The most skilled Hindi poet amongst Akbar's great
ministers of state was Abdul Rahlm Khankhana
(1553-1627). He was the son of Bairam Khan through
whose aid Akbar, in his youth, had been established
on the throne. He was acquainted with Arabic, Per-
sian, Sanskrit and Hindi, and besides being a poet
himself was a great patron of poets, especially of Gang
Kavi. His Hindi verses, especially those on morals
(niti) are very much admired, and he was a poet of a
high order. Amongst the several works he produced
is the Rahlm Sat Sal in which some of his best poetry
is found.
Tan Sen (fl. 1560-1610) of Gwalior, a Hindu con-
vert to Islam, was the most celebrated musician at
Akbar's court and indeed of his age. After service at
other courts he was summoned by Akbar in 1563, and
the first time he performed Akbar is said to have given
him two lakhs of rupees. Besides being a singer he
also wrote poems in Hindi. He lived on into the
reign of Jahangir. Amongst his compositions are
the Sahglt Sar and the Rag Mala. Ram Das of
Gopchal, the father of the great poet Sur Das, was
another great singer of Akbar's court, regarded as
second only to Tan Sen. Among other Hindi poets
who attended Akbar's court were the two friends
Karnes for Karan) and NarhariSahay. The latter was
given by Akbar the title of Mahapatr, the Emperor
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 37
saying that other bards were vessels of virtue (Gun ka
patr), but that Narhari Sahay was a great vessel
( Mahdpatr).
A more famous poet connected with Akbar's court
was Gahga Prasad, who is more commonly known as
Gang Kavi. He lived probably from about 1533 to
1617. Very little is known of his life, and though he
was very much honoured in his day only about thirty
or thirty-five of his verses are still extant. On one
occasion Abdul Rahim Khankhana, who was his special
patron, is reported to have given him as much as
thirty-six lakhs of rupees for a single verse. He is said
to have excelled in the comic style and also in his
description of battles.
The Art of Poetry. Besides the many poets who were
closely connected with the court, the reign of Akbar
was the period when such great poets as Tulsi Das and
Sur Das flourished. These will be dealt with in later
chapters in connection with the religious movements
with which they were connected. But more closely in
touch with the court was a movement to systematize
the art of poetry itself. While great writers like
Tulsi Das and Stir Das were far beyond their contem-
poraries in the success they achieved in the handling of
metres and the polish of their verse, earlier poets had
often failed in this respect. But the artistic influence
which had been brought to bear on Hindi poetry now
became self-conscious in various works, themselves in
verse, which determined the canons of poetic criticism.
Kesav Das. Kripa Ram, who is mentioned in a
previous chapter, was probably the forerunner of this
movement, but the first great writer on the art of poetry
was Kesav Das Sanadhya Misra (1555-1617) of Orchha
in Bundelkhand. His first important work was the
Vigyan Gita, which he dedicated to his patron Raja
Madhukar Shah of Orchha. His most admired work is
his Kavi Priya, in which he describes the various literary
qualities which should mark a good poem and other
matters connected with the art of poetry. This work,
which has made Kesav Das an authority, on poetry, was
38 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
dedicated to a famous courtesan of those days named
Pravin Ray Paturi, who was also the authoress of
numerous short poems which have a great reputation.
The Ram Chandrika of Ke3av Das was inscribed to
Indrajit Singh, son of Madhukar Shah. It was KeSav
Das who, through Raja Birbal's instrumentality, got
Akbar to excuse Indrajit from a heavy fine he had
imposed upon him, and Keav Das was greatly honoured
by Indrajit. Ke3av also wrote the learned Rasik
Priya on poetical composition (sahitya) and the Ram
Alankritmanj art on prosody. These works on poetry
and kindred subjects were not only concerned with
giving rules, but also provided original illustrations,
so that each work is also a collection of verse of great
poetic merit. The poetry of Ke3av Das is not easy
reading, but there is no doubt of his being a poet of
very great skill, and his name is to be reckoned
amongst, the foremost. Very many commentaries on
his principal works have been written, and he has had
many imitators. The translation of a few of his lines,
which is all that we have space for here, can give only
a very inadequate idea of his poetry:
Ke&av says my [grey] hairs have done to me what my enemies
cannot do;
Maidens with a countenance fair as the moon, and eyes like deer,
now call me Baba [father].
* * * * *
Do not employ a Brahman who is greedy of fees; do not make a
fool your friend ;
Do not serve an ungrateful master ; do not praise poetry that is
full of defects.
* * * *
Keav says, When I see glancing eyes my good resolutions go, and
the opinion of the world is no longer heeded ;
My ears become deaf to instruction, and my eyes closed to all
discernment of right and wrong ;
The chariot-like motion of the good intentions of my mind becomes
stopped like a river that has ceased to flow.
May the Creator forbid that such a woman should fix her eyes on me.
* * * * *
Avoid a horse with an unsteady gait, a servant who is a thief, a
mind which is fickle, a friend without intelligence, a master
who is a miser.
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 39
Taking food in another's house, dwelling in dog-kennels,
travelling in the rainy season these things, says Kesav Das,
give a lot of trouble.
Keeping company with sinners, a woman under the control of
Cupid, a son of ill-fame these are hurtful to the mind.
Folly, old age, sickness, poverty, falsehood, anxiety these things,
says Keav, are a hell upon earth.
Some Contemporaries ffttesa.v Das. The brother
of Kes'av Das, whose name was Balbhadra San-
ctdhya Afisra, wrote several works which include a
commentary on the Bhagavata PurSna. His most
famous poem is a Nakhsikh, which is recognized as
a standard work. This is a form of literature which is
common amongst Hindi writers, and is closely connected
with works on the art of poetry. In a Nakhiikh every
part of the body of a hero or heroine from the toe-nail
(nakh) to the top-knot of the hair ( iikh) is described
with illustrative verses. Such a work was intended to
be used by other poets in want of ideas. A- similar
kind of work is a work on lovers, or a Nayak-Nayika
Bhed, in which various kinds of heroes and heroines are
described and classified with a minuteness which is
often pedantic and absurd. Other writers on the art of
poetry of this period were Bal Krishna TripaM
(fl. 1600) and Kasi Nath (fl. 1600), the former of whom
wrote a good prosody called Ras Chandrika.
Artistic Poets of the time of Jahangir and Shah
Jahan. The effects of the encouragement given to
Hindi literature by Akbar lasted long after his death.
Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (1627-1658) very
largely continued Akbar' s policy of encouraging poets.
Dara Shukoh, the son of Shah Jahan, was a great
patron of learning and literature with a strong leaning
towards Hinduism. Even in the time of Aurangzeb
(1658-1707), although he was unfavourable to Hindu
learning, the title of Kavi Ray continued to be given
to deserving poets.
Sundar (fl. 1631) was a Brahman who held the
title of Kavi Ray at the court of Shah Jahan. He
wrote a work on poetical composition called Sundar
Srihgar, and was also the author of a Braj Bhasha
40 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
version of the Singhasan Battisi, which was afterwards
translated into Urdu by Lallu Ji Lai.
Se?iapati was born about 1589 and died after 1649.
He was a Kanauji Brahman and a devotee of Krishna.
His principal work was the Kavitta Ratnakar, which is
dated 1649, and deals with various aspects of the art
of poetry as well as other matters. He excelled
in his description of nature, and is especially famous
for his description of the six seasons in which he is
considered to have excelled all Hindi poets with
the exception of Dev Datt. Another work of
his is the Kavya Kalpadrum. His poems were
probably written as detached verses and collected
afterwards. The following is from his description of
spring (basant):
11 During the sportive spring the palds trees are in full bloom, with
red flowers, parts of which however appeir from their blackness to
have been dipped in ink. Swarms of bees are going to them to gather
honey. The mild south wind is blowing fragrance in the gardens and
forests. The poet Senapati says, ' In the spring, by constantly looking
at these flowers the idea of writing poetry has been strongly brought
to my mind.' The red glow of the upper part of the flowers clearly
pourtrays the burning desire and yearning of a lover, while the
blackness of the lower part, like a fire burnt out completely and turned
to charcoal, suggests;.the pangs of separation."
The Tripathi Brothers. Ratnakar Tripathi was a
Kanauji Brahman who lived at Tikvampur in the
district of Cawnpore and had four sons, all of whom
became famous Hindi poets. They flourished in the
reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb in the latter half
of the seventeenth century and amplified and developed
the work of Kesav Das. The eldest was Chintamani
Tripathi y who was patronised by several rulers as
well as by the Emperor Shah Jahan. He is regarded
as one of the great authorities on the subject of poetical
composition (sahitya). Among his works are Chhand
Bichar, a treatise on prosody, Kavya Vivek, Kavi-kul
Kalpataru, and Kavya Praka's. He was also the
author of a Ramayan in kavitta and other metres.
The name of the youngest brother was Jata Sankar
or Nil Kanth Tripathi. Both Chintamani and Nil
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 41
Kanth were excelled as poets by the other two
brothers, Bhushan and Mati Ram.
Bhushan Tripathi visited the courts of several kings,
but his special patrons were Siv Raj (or Sivaji) of
Sitara and Chhatrasal of Panna. On one occasion the
latter monarch helped with his own shoulder to carry
the poet's palanquin, and Siv Raj bestowed lavish
rewards upon him, giving on one occasion five elephants
and twenty-five thousand rupees for a single poem.
The principal work of Bhushan is the Siv Raj Bhushan
which is an excellent account of rhetoric as used in
poetry, and each figure of rhetoric is illustrated by a
verse in honour of Siv Raj. It was composed between
1666 and 1673. Some of the works of Bhushan have
been lost. But besides the $iv Raj Bhushan there are
extant other verses in praise of Siv Raj and of
Chhatrasal. Bhushan is considered to have excelled
in the tragic, heroic, and terrible styles, and holds a
very high rank amongst Hindi poets. He is especially
famous for his keen interest in the progress and glory
of the Hindus, and this is one of the features of his
poetry which is very much admired. It was this
interest which attached him so much to Sivaji, the
Maratha hero, who did so much to weaken the
Muhammadan power. Here is a translation of one of
his verses :
"As Indra subdued Jambha, as the barav fire overcomes the sea, as
Ramachandra overcame the hypocrite Ravan, as the wind overpowers the
waters, as ambhu overcame Cupid, as Rama, the Lord of Brahmans,
overcame Sahasra B5.1, as fire overcomes the branches of a tree, as a
leopard overcomes a herd of deer, as a lion overcomes elephants, as
light overcomes darkness, as Krishna overcame Kanha, so, Bhushan
says, the lion Siv Raj overcomes the Muhammadans."
Mati Ram Tripathi lived first at the court of Maha-
raja Rav Bhau Singh of Bundi and afterwards at that of
Raja Sambhu Nath Sulanki. In honour of his first
patron he composed a work on rhetoric called Lalit
Lalam. Among the illustrative verses are many in
praise of his patron as well as love verses and others.
His work is considered to give a very clear and easily
understood account of the subject of rhetoric. It was
42 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
composed about 1664. The Chhand Sar Pingal is a
treatise on prosody composed in honour of Sambhu
Nath. The Ras Raj is a treatise on lovers containing a
Nayika Bhed and is considered to be a very excellent
work. Mati Ram also composed the Sat Sat Mati Ram.
As a poet he is famed for the purity and sweetness of
his language, the excellence of his similes, and for his
descriptions of the dispositions of men. Many of his dohas
are considered equal to those of Bihari Lai.
Other Poets of the time ol Shah Jahan. Raja Sambhu
Nath Singh of Sitara (fl. 1650) was the friend and
patron of Mati Ram and other poets. He was the
author of a Nayika BJied and a Nakhiikh which are
much admired. The latter is sometimes considered to
be the best work of its kind extant.
Sarasvaii (fl. 1650) was a Brahman of Benares,
learned in Sanskrit composition. At the instance of
Shah Jahan he took to writing poems in Hindi. His
chief work of this kind was the Kavindra Kalpa Lata,
in which there are many poems in praise of his patron
as well as of prince Dara Shukoh and the Begam
Sahiba.
Tulsl (fl. 1655) was only a mediocre poet himself,
but in 1655 he compiled an excellent anthology of
poetry, called the Kavi Mala, which includes poems
by seventy-five different authors from 1443 to 1643.
Another writer of this period was Vedang Ray
(fl. circ. 1650). He was the author of the Par si Prakas,
a work describing the manner of counting the months,
etc., by Hindus and Muhammadans, which was compiled
by the orders of the Emperor Shah Jahan.
Bihari Lai Chaube. The most celebrated Hindi
writer in connection with the art of poetry is Bihari
Lai Chaube (circ. 1603-1663). He is said to have been
born in Gwalior and to have spent his boyhood in
Bundelkhand. On his marriage he settled at Muttra
the home of the Braj Bhasha dialect, in which his
verses are composed. His patron was Raja Jai Singh
of Jaipur, who gave him a gold ashrafi for each do ha.
Bihari Lai's fame as a poet rests upon his Sat Sal
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 43
(1662), which is a collection of approximately seven
hundred do/ids and sorathds. The majority of the
couplets take the shape of amorous utterances of
Radha and Krishna, but each couplet is complete in
itself. They are intended to illustrate figures of
rhetoric and other constituents of a poem. As the
verses do not connect themselves into a story the order
of their arrangement can be changed and they have
come down in different recensions. The most famous
is that made for prince Azam Shah, the third son of
the Emperor Aurangzeb, and hence called the Azam
Shahi recension. A brief description of this work
will help to indicate the nature of Hindi works on
poetics. The vast amount of literature of this type
seems to indicate that in India the dictum that a poet
is born and not made would have to be reversed. In
the Azam Shahi recension there are first a few
miscellaneous verses. Then there are verses applic-
able to each of four kinds of hero (nfiyak), followed
by nearly two hundred verses which describe the
varieties and sub-varieties of heroine (ndyikd). Next
there are verses illustrating the various constituents
of poetic style (ras), its excitants and its ensuants,
among which verses about a hundred and seventy deal
with the pangs of love in separation. The third
section is a Nakhsikh, and ends with verses descriptive
of the six Indian seasons. In the fourth part there
are moral apophthegms and allusive sayings and
a collection of verses illustrating sentiments appro-
priate to various occasions. In the last part besides
the conclusion and other verses there are verses
illustrating the different styles (ras) of poetry, which
are considered in India to be nine in number. These
are hdsya (comic), karund (pathetic), raudra
(furious), vlra (heroic), bhaydnaka (terrible),
bibhatsa (disgustful), adbhuta (marvellous), sdnta
(quietistic), and srihgdra (erotic). Only the first
eight are referred to in this part of the Sat Sat, as the
last (sringdra) had already been dealt with at length
in an earlier part of the recension.
44 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Bihari Lai was not the originator of this form of
composition. Similar works had appeared in Sanskrit,
one of which is called Sapta Satika, the Sanskrit
equivalent of the Hindi Sat Sal (" seven centuries," i.e.
of verse). Tulsi Das had written a Sat Sal before the
time of Bihari Lai, as well as other Hindi poets. But
Bihari Lai undoubtedly achieved very great excellence
in this particular line, and his work has had a large
number of commentators (as many as thirty in number)
and many imitators. Hari Prasad (fl. circ. 1775) of
Benares translated the Sat Sal into Sanskrit. Each
couplet had to be complete in itself, and yet in such a
small space the poet must give an entire picture.
Conciseness of style was therefore an absolute necessity,
and besides this all the different artifices of Indian
rhetoric had to be illustrated in turn. The work of
Bihari Lai is a triumph of skill and of felicity in expres-
sion. He is perhaps at his best in his description of
natural phenomena, as when he describes the scent-
laden breeze under the guise of a way-worn pilgrim
from the south. Naturally a work of this kind abounds
in obscurities and on account of the peculiarity of its
style is very difficult to translate. In the following
verse Bihari Lai gives a riddle:
At even came the rogue, and with my tresses
Toyed with a sweet audace with ne'er a 'please'
Snatched a rude kiss then wooed me with caresses.
'Who was it, dear ? ' ' Thy love ? ' 'No, dear, the breeze.' *
Jaswant Singh. Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Jodh-
pur (Marwar) figures in history as an opponent of
Aurangzeb. He was born in 1625 and died in 1681.
In 1634, while still a boy, he came to the throne. In
literature his chief fame rests on his Bhasha Bhushan>
a work on rhetoric in 261 dohas. This work, which was
founded on a Sanskrit one, has had a large number of
commentators. Though Kesav Das was the first great
Hindi writer on this subject he is considered heretical
in some points, and for those who do not follow Kesav
1 Translation from Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. II, p. 423.
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 45
Das, the Bhasha Bhushan is the great text-book.
Jaswant Singh was the author of several other poems
which are connected with the Vedanta philosophy.
Dev Kavi. Dev Datt, more commonly known as
Dev Kavi (circ. 1673-1745) was a Sanadhya Brahman
who was born at Etawah. At the age of sixteen he
recited his first effort before Prince Azam Shah. In
search of a patron he visited many places in India but
seems to have been dissatisfied with each in turn. His
most famous patron was Raja Bhogi Lai. His various
wanderings enabled him to give accurate descriptions
of the inhabitants of different parts of India. He was
a prolific writer and is credited by some with having
composed as many as seventy-two different works.
Only about thirty of these are extant. They include
a play called Dev Maya Prapahch and works on the art.
of poetry. Amongst his most famous works are the
Jatibilas, the Rasbilas, and the Premchandrika. Most of
his verse is of an erotic character, but from the point
of view of form and language he is to be reckoned
amongst the greatest Hindi poets. He wrote in Braj
Bhasha, and his verse is adorned with all the recognised
ornaments of style. In his handling of rhymes, his
use of attributes, his drawing of comparisons, his know-
ledge of the sayings current amongst men, and his
description of heroines who represent women typical
of various parts of India, he is considered to have shown
the greatest skill.
Here are some translations of his verses :
14 Call me a wicked person, noble or ignoble, call me poor, or one
who is to be blamed, call me a woman of ill-fame whether in this
world, the world of men, or in the best of worlds I dwell, nevertheless
I am separate from all these worlds ; whether my body is destroyed, or
the gods and gurus are destroyed, or my life is destroyed, I will not
give up my obstinacy. He who dwells in Brindiaban, wearing a crown
and yellow garments, with him I am madly in love.*'
* * * * *
** The work of a man of noble race, the gentility of a nobleman,
the wealth of a generous man, a woman of good character, the honour
of giving, generosity like that of Sur Das, the lustre of virtue, a woman
who walks like an elephant, water in the hot weather, the sunshine of
October, the smiling lightning accompanied by clouds during the
46 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
month of November, the full moon, the morning sun, the days of the
winter season, the nights of spring Dev says these are most excellent. "
Later Writers on the Art of Poetry. The reign of
Aurangzeb (1658-1707J was marked by the beginning
of the decay of the Mughal Empire. It was also the
time when a period of decadence in Hindi poetry set in.
This however was not felt at first as is shown by the
names mentioned above. But towards the end of
Aurangzeb's reign, and still more after his time in the
eighteenth century, the decline becomes evident.
While the number of poets still continues to be great
there are no names of such outstanding importance as
marked the time of Akbar and his immediate successors,
and most of the writers are only imitators of greater
poets who preceded them. The severe Aurangzeb
was unfavourable to the arts and to Hindu learning,
but the court patronage of poets was not entirely
withdrawn, and many poets attended his court and also
that of his son Bahadur Shah (1707-1712). The follow-
ing are some of the writers on the art of poetry and
kindred subjects from the time of Aurangzeb down to
the end of the eighteenth century :
Kulpati Misra (born circ. 1620) was a Chaube
Brahman of Agra and a nephew of Bihari Lai Chaube.
He attended the court of Maharaja Ram Singh of
Jaipur. His chief work, which is dated 1670, is the
Ras Rahasya, a work on poetics.
Ram Jt (born 1646) was the author of a Nayika
Bhed as well as other works.
Mandan (born 1643), of Bundelkhand, wrote several
works on poetical composition.
Sukh Dev Misra (fl. circ. 1680), of Kampila, attended
several courts. The Raja of Gaur gave him the title
of Kaviraj . He wrote works on prosody, poetical
composition and other subjects and is considered a poet
of very great merit.
Newaj (fl. circ. 1700) was a Brahman who lived at
the Court of Raja Chhatrasal of Panna. He was the
author of a play called the Sakuntala Natak as well as
of many detached verses.
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 47
Kalidas Trivedx (fl. circ. 1700), of Banpura in the
Doab, was for many years in attendance at the court of
Aurangzeb, and afterwards at that of the Raja of
Jambu. He is considered to be an excellent poet.
Among other works he compiled an anthology, called
Kalidas Hajara, which contains a thousand poems
selected from the works of over two hundred poets
from 1423 to 1718.
Alam (fl. 1703) was a Brahman who fell in love
with a Muhammadan woman named Shekh Rangrezin,
who was a dyer by trade. He became a Muhammadan
and married her. Shekh Rangrezin also wrote poetry.
Alam was in the service of Muazzam Shah, son of
Aurangzeb. His poetry is considered to be very
beautiful.
Sripati (fl. 1720) is counted as one of the authorities
on poetical composition. His most famous work is the
Kavya Saroj. He wrote several other works also.
Suraii Mtera (fl. 1729), of Agra, wrote a commen-
tary on the Sat Sal of Bihari Lai, and also one on the
Rasik Priya of Kesdv Das. He also wrote works on
rhetoric and other subjects, including a Nakhiikh.
Gah j an (fl. 1729), of Benares, was a Brahman who
was in the service of Qamruddin Khan (the Vazir of
the Emperor Muhammad Shah) who gave the poet
liberal rewards. At the orders of his patron Ganjan
wrote a work on poetics in which there are many
verses in praise of the Vazir. It is considered to be a
work of great merit.
Guru Datt Singh (fl. 1734) was Raja of AmethL
He wrote under the name of Bhilpati. His principal
work was an excellent Sat Sal in imitation of that of
Bihari Lai.
Tosh Nidhi (fl. 1734) lived at Singraur in the
district of Allahabad. He wrote the Sudhanidhi and
other works on poetics including a Nakhsikh, which
are much admired.
Dalpati Ray, a merchant, and Bansidhar, a Brahman
(fl. 1735 J, both of whom lived at Ahmedabad, wrote in
collaboration the Alahkar Ratnakar. It was inscribed
48 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
to Raja Jagat Singh, of Udaipur, and is a kind of
commentary on the Bhasha Bhushan of Raja Jaswant
Singh.
Som?iath (fl. 1737) was a Brahman who was patro-
nised by a son of the Raja of Bharatpur. Among other
works he wrote the Piyiish Nidhi, which is considered
to be a standard work on the art of poetry.
I? as Lin (fl. 1740), whose real name was Sayyad
Gulam Nabi, of Bilgram, in the district of Hardoi,
wrote several works on poetics which include a
Nakhsikh called Ahg Darpan.
Uday Nath Trivedi (fl. 1740), of Banpura in the
Doab, was the son of Kalidas Trivedi. He was the
poet-laureate at the court of the Raja of Amethi, and
wrote on the subject of poetics. His son Dulah
Trivedi f fl. 1750) also wrote on the same subject.
Bairi Sal (fl. 1768) wrote on the subject of rhetoric.
His Bhasha Bharan is considered to be a standard work
of great excellence.
Kishor (fl. 1768) was an excellent poet whose
various detached verses are collected in the Kishor
Sahgrah. He is considered to be very successful in his
description of the six seasons.
Datt or Dev Datt (fl. circ. 1770) was the author
of the Lalitya Lata, a work on rhetoric which is said
to resemble the Lalit Lalam of Mati Ram.
Chanda?i Ray (fl. 1773) attended the court of the
Raja of Gaur. He wrote many esteemed works on the
art of poetry. He had twelve pupils, all of whom
became successful poets.
Ratan Kavi (born circ. 1741) wrote works on
poetics, which include the Fateh Shah Prakds and the
Fateh Bhushan. He is considered to be a poet of great
merit. His examples are mostly verses in praise of his
patron Fateh Shah of Bundela.
Manx Ram Misra (fl. 1772) has given in the fifty-
six verses of his Chhand Chhappani a very concise and
well-written account of the art of poetry. This poem,
which somewhat resembles the Sanskrit Sutras, is
considered to be very excellent.
THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 49
Bodha Flrozabadi (fl. circ. 1773-1803) was connected
with Panna. He was the author of the Ishg?idmd and
some detached verses which are much admired. He
was a poet of love, and his verses were written mostly
in praise of a courtesan named Subhan.
Jan Gopal (fl. 1776) was the author of the
Samarsar, a work which is said to be full of poetic
feeling.
DevB Nandan (fl. 1784-1800) wrote the Sringar
Charitr, which is a Nayak-Nayika Bhed, and other
much-praised works connected with the art of poetry.
Than Ram, or Than (fl. 1791), a Bhat, was the
author of a work on poetics called Dalel Prakds.
Bern (fl. 1792-1817) wrote works on poetics, rheto-
ric, etc. His best verses are said to be verses of satire.
Bhaun (fl. 1794 ), a Bhat, who was skilled in all the
graces of poetry, wrote in Braj Bhasha works connected
with the poetic art.
Bhikari Das (fl. 1734-1750) was a Kayasth of
Pratapgarh, in Bundelkhand. He is more generally
known by the name of Das. His patron was Hindupati,
brother of Raja Prithvipati. He , borrowed phrases
from other poets, especially from Sripati, but is con-
sidered nevertheless to be an excellent poet. Besides
many works connected with the art of poetry he also
translated the Vishnu Pur ana into Hindi verse.
Guman Misra (fl. 1744) attended the court of
Akbar Ali Khan. He translated the Naishadha of ri
Harsha and wrote several works on poetics.
Raghu Nath (fl. 1745), of Benares, was the father
of Gokul Nath, who is celebrated as the translator of
the Mahabharata into Hindi. Raghu Nath was a
writer on the art of poetry, his works being much
admired. They include a commentary on the Sat Sal
of Bihar! Lai.
Kumar Mani Bhatt (fl. 1746) was a very skilled
poet, who wrote a good work on poetics called Rasik
Rasal.
Sambhu Nath Misra (fl. 1749) attended the court of
Bhagwant Ray Khichi, Raja of Asothar. He wrote
4
50 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
several much-admired works on poetics and was the
preceptor of Siv Arsela and other poets.
Siv Arsela (fl. circ. 1750) wrote on poetical com-
position and prosody.
Jagat Singh (fl. circ. 1770) belonged to the family
of the Raja of Goncla and Bhinga and was a pupil of
Siv Arsela. He wrote on prosody and rhetoric.
Thakur (fl. circ. 1750) excelled especially in the
savaiya metre, and his works are mostly in the erotic
style. His most famous work is the Thakur Satak. He
also wrote a commentary on the Sat Sal of Bihari Lai.
Hari Char an Das (fl. 1778) was a Brahman, of
Krishnagarh (Marwar). He wrote commentaries on the
Kavi Priya and Rasik Priya of Kesav Das, as well as
on the Sat Sal of Bihari Lai, and was the author of other
works also.
VI.
TULSI DAS AND THE RAMA CULT
(1550-1800)
Tulsi Das. The most celebrated name in Hindi
literature is undoubtedly that of Tulsi Das, whose
Hindi Ramayan has had great and deserved fame not
only in India but throughout the whole world. The
details of his life, apart from legends, are very scanty.
He is said to have been_ born about 1532, and his
father's name is given as Atma Ram and his mother's
as Hulasi. His own name was at first Rambola, but
when he became a devotee he took the name of Tulsi
Das. The place of his birth is not known with certainty.
According to some he was born at Hastinapur ;
according to others at Hajipur, near Chitrakiit. But
the tradition which is most generally accepted is
that he was born at Rajpur, in the district of Banda.
He was a Kanauji Brahman, and it is said that his
guru was Narharidas, who was sixth in preceptorial
succession from Ramananda, He himself tells us, in
the introduction to the Ramayan, that he studied at
Sukar-khet, or Soron. When he was a young man it
is said that he loved his wife very much, and one day,
when she had gone home to her father's house, Tulsi
Das was greatly troubled on account of separation
from her. He therefore hastened after her, although
it involved crossing a swollen river in the dark. His
wife, however, rebuked him, saying that if only
he would have as great devotion to Rama, the earth
would become gold. These words acted as a call to
Tulsi Das. At daybreak he left home, and became a
devotee of Rama, taking up his abode at Benares.
52 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
There he spent the greater part of his life, though
he also visited other places, such as Soron, Ayodhya,
Chitrakiit, Allahabad, and Brindaban. Many legends
are told about him, but scarcely anything that is
reliable. Nabha Das, the author of the Bhaktamala,
is said to have been his friend, and Sur Das is also
supposed to have visited him. He was not directly
connected with the court, though Raja Man Singh and
Abdul Rahim Khankhana are said to have befriended
him, and no doubt he was affected by the artistic
influence in literature which was characteristic of the
age in which he lived. Tulsi Das died at Benares
in 1624.
The great masterpiece of Tulsi Das is the Ramayan.
This is the name by which it is generally known,
but he himself called it the Ram-charit-manas, the
" Lake of the deeds of Rama." It was commenced in
1575, according to his own statement in the prologue.
The story of Rama had been told long before by the
Sanskrit poet Valmiki, who lived probably in the
fourth century B.C., and it has been a frequent theme
of Indian poets in the various languages of India. The
Ramayan of Tulsi Das is not, however, a translation
of that of his Sanskrit predecessor. The general
outline of the story is the same, but there is a
great deal of difference in treatment. It is only
in the broadest outline that the two agree. Not only
are there different episodes in each, but even in the
main story the incidents are differently placed and
often have quite a different complexion. The main
difference, however, between the work of Valmiki and
that of Tulsi Das is in their theological outlook. In
books II to VI of Valmiki's poem Rama appears as
a man and only a man, except in one passage which has
been interpolated into the sixth book. The first book,
in which Rama and his brothers are regarded as partial
incarnations of Vishnu, is considered by scholars as
a later addition. In the poem of Tulsi Das, however,
Rama appears throughout as an incarnation of the
Supreme God. The same theological position as that
TULSI DAS AND THE RAMA CULT 53
of Tulsl Das was also characteristic of a Sanskrit work
by an unknown poet called the Adhyatma Ramayan,
the date of which is not earlier than the fourteenth
century a.d. It is not unlikely that it was this work
which was the real precursor of Tulsl Das's Ramayan.
Besides their theological attitude they have other
points in common, but even a casual acquaintance with
the two poems will make it clear that the work of
Tulsl Das is far superior in poetic merit.
Tulsi Das was in line with that tendency of the
bhakti movement, which we have already noted in
a previous chapter, in using the vernacular for his great
poem. But he knew he would meet with his critics,
especially amongst the Sanskrit pandits, who would affect
to despise his work as a concession to the uneducated
multitude. There is quite a long passage in the intro-
duction to the Ramayan in which he vindicates his style
against the critics. " My lot,'' he writes, "is low, my
purpose high ; but I am confident of one thing, that the
good will be gratified to hear me though fools may
laugh. The laughter of fools will be grateful to me
as they have no taste for poetry nor love for Rama
I am glad that they should laugh. If my homely
speech and poor wit are fit subjects for laughter, let
them laugh ; it is no fault of mine. If they have no
understanding of true devotion to the Lord, the tale will
seem insipid enough ; but to the true and orthodox
worshippers of Hari and Hara the story of Raghubar
will be sweet as honey." The wonderful acceptance,
however, which the poem of Tulsi Das has received has
been its greatest vindication. Amongst all classes of
the Hindu community in North India, with the excep-
tion perhaps of a few Sanskrit pandits, it is to-day
everywhere appreciated and venerated whether by rich
or poor, old or young, learned or unlearned, and it has
sometimes been called the Bible of the Hindu people
of North India.
One most commendable feature of the Ramayan is
its pure and lofty moral tone, in which it compares
very favourably with the literature put forth by some
54 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
of the devotees of Krishna. In one passage, in which
Tulsi Das has been explaining why he calls his poem
the "Lake (or ''pond") of Rama's deeds," he says,
" Sensual wretches are like the cranes and crows that
have no part in such a pond nor ever come near it ; for
here are no prurient and seductive stories, like snails
or frogs and scum on the water, and therefore the
lustful crow and greedy crane, if they do come, are
disappointed." This claim made by Tulsi Das was a
just one, and it is this feature of his poem which has
given it so much value in holding up a high moral ideal
before its readers.
The dialect which Tulsi Das uses is the old Bais-
wari, or AvadhI, dialect of Eastern Hindi, and through
his influence Ramaite poetry since his day has gener-
ally been in this dialect. He uses, however, many
words from other dialects, especially from Braj Bhasha.
His language abounds in colloquialisms, and Tulsi Das
has little scruple in altering a word, or adopting a
corrupt pronunciation, to make it fit into his metre or
rhyme. Like other Indian poets he makes use of many
conventional similes and stereotyped phrases. The
gem which is supposed to be in the serpent's head, and
the mythical power of the swan to separate milk from
the water with which it has been mixed, and his con-
stant use of such phrases as "lotus-feet," are exam-
ples. But there are many other passages which show
that Tulsi Das was a true observer and lover of nature.
In one place he speaks of King Dasrath, in his great
distress, writhing * like a fish in the scour of a turbid
river," a passage which, Mr. Growse tells us, puzzled
commentators until someone discovered that this was
a true phenomenon of nature. Tulsi Das's love of
nature comes out in many such passages as the
following, taken from the Aranya Kand ;
"The Lord went on from there to the shore of the deep and
beautiful lake called Pampa ; its water as clear as the soul of the
saints ; with charming flights of steps on each of its four sides ; where
beasts of different kinds came as they listed, to drink of the flood, like
crowds of beggars at a good man's gate. Under its cover of dense
lotus-leaves the water was as difficult to distinguish as is the unembodied
TULSl DAS AND THE RAMA CULT 55
supreme spirit under the veil of delusive phenomena. The happy fish
were all in placid repose at the bottom of the deep pool, like the days
of the righteous that are passed in peace. Lotuses of many colours
displayed their flowers ; there was a buzzing of garrulous bees, both
honeymakers and bumble-bees ; while swans and waterfowl were so
noisy you would think they had recognised the Lord and were telling
his praises. The geese and cranes and other birds were so numerous
that only seeing would be believing, no words could describe them.
The delightful voice of so many beautiful birds seemed as an invitation
to the wayfarers. The saints had built themselves a house near the
lake, with magnificent forest-trees all round the champa, the
mdlsari, the kadamb and tamdla, the pdtala, the kathal, the dhdk and
the mango. Every tree had put forth its new leaves and flowers and
was resonant with swarms of bees. A delightful air, soft, cool and
fragrant, was ever in delicious motion, and the cooing of the cuckoos
was so pleasant to hear that a saint's meditation would be broken by it.
The trees, laden with fruits, bowed low to the ground, like a generous
soul whom every increase of fortune renders only more humble than
before.'' 1
The story is divided into seven chapters, or kdnds,
named respectively Bal, Ayodhya, Aranya, Kishkindha,
Sundar, Lanka, and Uttara. Of these the second,
which describes the scenes at Ayodhya that led up to
Rama's banishment to the forest, is considered the best.
The characters are consistently drawn, and many of the
scenes are full of deep pathos. The grief of Dasrath,
the filial piety meekness, generosity and nobility of
Rama, the wifely devotion of Sita, the courage and
enthusiasm of Lakshman, the unselfishness of Bharat,
as the genius of Tulsi Das has described them, cannot
but awaken a response in the heart of the reader.
The object which Tulsi Das had in mind, however,
was not merely to tell in beautiful verse a wonderful
story, but to use it as a vehicle for preaching the
supreme value of the worship of Rama. Though Tulsi
Das accepted, like other leaders of the Vaishnava
movement, the pantheistic teaching of the Vedanta, it
was tempered by belief in a personal God, whom he
identified with the incarnation Rama. His poem is a
passionate appeal to men to devote themselves to
the worship of this God. The theological digressions
1 Translation by Mr. F. S. Growse.
56 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
which Tulsi Das sometimes makes, and the frequent
hymns he inserts, may be to some extent a drawback
to the literary value of the Rdmayan, but they are
excused by the purpose which Tulsi Das had in view.
In these hymns the powers of Tulsi Das as a poet are
manifest, and even those who do not accept his reli-
gious ideas cannot but admire the spiritual earnestness
which the hymns display. The following is from the
Bal Kdnd:
" To the King of heaven be all glory given, refuge of creation in
distress and care,
Priests and kine befriending, hell's brief triumph ending, best
beloved of Lakshmi, Ocean's daughter fair.
Heaven and earth's upholder, who, than all men bolder, dares to
scan the secret of thy strange mysterious way ?
Ever kind and loving, humble souls approving, may thy gracious
favour reach now to me, I pray.
Spirit all-pervading, fleshly sense evading, hail Mukund immortal,
lord of blissfulness supreme.
Ever pure and holy, whom the Queen of Folly has no power to
tangle in her world-deluding dream.
Glory, glory, glory, theme of endless story, sung by saints and
sages in an ecstasy of love.
Daily, nightly gazing on the sight amazing, source of every
blessing, Hari, lord of heaven above.
Triune incarnation, who at earth's creation, wert alone presiding,
and other aid was none ;
Though in prayer unable, and my faith unstable, O great sin-
destroyer, hear our hapless moan.
Life's alarms dispelling, all disasters quelling, comfort of the
faithful, be our succour now ;
All the gods implore thee, falling low before thee, with unfeigned
submission of body, soul, and vow.
Lord God Bhagavana, Ved and eke Purana, Sarada and Seshnag,
and all the saintly throng,
Find the theme too spacious, only know thee gracious ; hasten then
to help us in our hour of wrong.
In all grace excelling, Beauty's chosen dwelling, ark on life's dark
ocean, home of all most sweet,
God and saints and sages, now this tempest rages, fly in consterna-
tion to clasp thy lotus feet." 1
The Rdmayan is undoubtedly a great poem, worthy
to rank amongst the great classical masterpieces of the
world's literature. It is not indeed without its literary
1 Translation by Mr. F. S. Growse.
TULSl DAS AND THE RAMA CULT 57
defects, and other Hindi poets, such as Sur Das, may
have excelled Tulsl Das in the polish of their verse
and their handling of metres. But the Ramayan of
Tulsl Das will always hold its place as the work of
a great literary genius. The importance of its in-
fluence, too, cannot be exaggerated. Tulsl Das founded
no sect, and indeed added nothing to the theology
of that school of Hinduism to which he belonged,
but there is no doubt that the Ramayan has been the
most potent factor in making Vaishnavism the accepted
cult of the vast majority of Hindus in North India
to-day.
A brief mention must be made of the other literary
works of Tulsl Das. All of them have the object of
popularizing the worship of Rama. In the Ram
Gltavall Tulsi Das tells the story of Rama in verses
which are adapted for singing. The Dohavah, or Doha
Ramayan, is a collection of dohas and is not so much an
epic poem as a moral work. Sir George Grierson thinks
that it is probably a collection of dohas from other
poems of Tulsi Das, made by a later hand. The
Kavittavali, or Kavittsamba?idh, also deals with the
story of Rama and is written in kavitta metre. The
Vinay Patrika is a collection of hymns to Rama and
is a work which is very much admired. The Sat Sal
is a similar work to that which Bihari Lai wrote fifty
years later, but is connected with Rama instead of with
Krishna. It contains seven hundred emblematic dohas.
It is dated 1585. A great many other works also are
ascribed to Tulsi Das, but with regard to the genuine-
ness of some of them there is a great deal of doubt.
Although the Ram-charit-manas is undoubtedly his
greatest work his poetic powers are also exhibited in
the other works which he composed.
The Bhaktamala. It marks the greatness of the
achievement of Tulsi Das that amongst Ramanandis,
or other worshippers of Rama as the incarnation of the
Supreme, there seem to be fewer Hindi works of out-
standing importance than in other sections of the
Vaishnava movement, and this is no doubt due to the
58 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
dominating influence of Tulsi Das's great work.
There are, however, some writers who must be men-
tioned. The Bhaktamala was the work of Nabha Das
(fl. 1600), who was also known as N dray an Das. He was
the disciple of Agra Das, who according to some was a
leader of the Vallabha movement of Krishna worship,
but by others is said to have been a disciple of Rama-
nanda. Nabha Das was a Dom by caste, and it is said
that when he was a child he was exposed by his parents
during a time of famine to perish in the woods.
Agra Das found him and brought him up. It was at
the suggestion of his preceptor that Nabha Das, when
he arrived at maturity, wrote the Bhaktamala, probably
somewhere between 1585 and 1623. The Bhakta?ndld,
or " Roll of the Bhagats," is a poem in old Western
Hindi, written mainly in the chhappai metre. It gives
an account of the principal Vaishnava devotees,
whether worshippers of Rama or of Krishna, though it
deals chiefly with those who were worshippers of Rama.
Nabha Das himself seems to have been a Ramanandi.
The style is very obscure and compressed. Gener-
ally one stanza only is given to each devotee, and
in this his chief characteristics are described in the
briefest possible manner, with allusions to different
legendary events in his life. The Bhaktamala holds
a very important place in Indian religious history.
It would, however, be almost unintelligible but for the
commentary which always accompanies it. This was
written in the kavitta metre by Priya Das in 1712.
In this commentary further legends are added. There
have also been other later commentators, and their
work is often printed together with the original text
of Nabha Das and the gloss of Priya Das. The
Bhaktamala has been fully translated and adapted in
all the chief vernaculars of India.
Maluk D&s.Maluk Das, who lived in the reign of
Aurangzeb, was the founder of a sect which is closely
connected with the Ramanandis. The Maluk Dasis
worship Rama as an incarnation of the Supreme and
also use images. The main difference between this
TULSI DAS AND THE RAMA CULT 59
sect and that of the Ramanandls seems to be that the
teachers of the Maluk Dasis are not ascetics, but, like
their founder, laymen. Maluk Das was a trader by
occupation, and is said to have been born at Kara, in
the district of Allahabad, and to have died at Jagan-
nath. Monasteries of his followers at Kara and other
places are still in existence. The works ascribed to
Maluk Das include the following : Das Ratna ("The
Ten Jewels ") ; Bhaktavatsal, which deals with Krish-
na's regard for his devotees ; Ratna- khana, which is a
dissertation on the soul and God. He is also the
reputed author of a large number of detached verses
and apophthegms which are still quoted amongst the
people. A famous one is translated as follows, and
has been compared with the teaching of St. Matt. vi. 26 :
M The python doth no service, nor hath the fowl of the air a duty
to perform (to earn its living);
Quoth Maluk Das, For all doth Rama provide their daily
bread."
The idea of the couplet is based on the belief current
in India that the python (ajagara) is unable to hunt
for its food, but has to wait with its mouth open for
its prey to walk into it.
Other Works connected with the Worship of Rama.
A disciple of Tulsi Das, who was also his constant
companion, was Bent Madhav Das (fl. 1600). He is
said to have written a biography of his master called
Gosai7i Charitr, and was also the author of other
works, including a Nakhsikh. Besides the Ramayan
(or Ram-charit-manas) and other works of Tulsi Das
dealing with the story of Rama, there appeared
during this period several other works connected with
the same subject. Chintamani Tripathi (fl. 1650), who
is mentioned in the previous chapter as a writer on the
art of poetry, also wrote a Ramayan in kavitta and
other metres.
Man Das (born 1623), of Braj, wrote a Hindi poem
entitled Ramcharitr, which is founded on two Sanskrit
works, the Ramayana of Valmlki and the Ha?itima?i
Nataka.
60 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Ishwari Prasad Tripathi (fl. 1673) wrote the Ram
Bilas Rdmayan, which is a translation of Valmiki's
poem.
Bal All (fl. circ. 1692) was the author of two works
both in praise of Rama and Sita and entitled Nehprakas
and Slta Ram Dhydnmahjari. Ja?ik Rasiki Saran (fl.
1703) wrote the Avadh Sagar, which is a poem in
honour of Rama. Bhagwant Ray (fl. 1750) was the
ruler of Asothar, in the district of Fatehpur, and for
several years resisted the attacks of the Mughal
Emperor, till he was killed by treachery in 1760.
He was the author of a Rdmayan. Another work
dealing with the story of Rama was the Ram Bilas
of Sambhu Nath (fl. 1750). Tulsi Sahib (1763-1843)
was the eldest son of the Raja of Poona, but was un-
willing to succeed to the throne. He therefore left his
kingdom and renounced the world, and becoming a
wandering ascetic finally settled in Hathras. Besides
many hymns, he wrote a work called the Ghat-
Ramayan. He claimed that in a previous birth he
was none other than the great Tulsi Das himself, and
had in that birth composed the Ghat-Ramdyan, but as it
aroused a great deal of opposition it was not published
to the world but the Ram- char it-manas was substituted
in its place. His work differs in style and language,
as well as in subject matter, from that of his more-
renowned namesake, and is decidedly inferior in
character.
Madhu Sudan Das (fl. circ. 1782), who was a
poet of considerable merit, was the author of the
Ramasvamedh, in which he describes the horse-sacrifice
made by Rama. Like Tulsi Das he was a devotee of
Rama, and his poetry resembles that of the great
master.
Maniyar Singh, also called Yar (fl. circ. 1785),
was another devotee of Rama who was a skilful poet.
He was a Kshatriya, of Benares. His works include
the Saundarya Lahart y the Sundarkand, and the
Hanuman Chhabbisi, all of which deal with some of
the legends regarding Rama and Hanuman.
TULSI DAS AND THE RAMA CULT 61
Ganesh (fl. 1800), who was patronised by the Raja
of Benares, besides other poetical works, composed
in Hindi verse a translation of part of Valmiki's
Ramayana.
VII.
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR
The Kabirpanthis. The great influence which the
teaching of Kabir exercised is shown by the large
number of sects which owe their origin to the ideas
which he promulgated. These sects have their
literature in the vernacular. The Kabirpanthis, who
trace their direct origin to Kabir, have two divisions.
One has its centre at the Kablr-chaura in Benares, and
is also associated with Maghar where Kabir died. The
other has its centre in Chhattisgarh in the Central
Provinces. Each of these divisions is ruled by a
mahant, and each has its literature. The descent of the
Benares mahants is traced back to Surat Gopal, and that
of the Chhattisgarh mahants to Dharm Das. These are
sometimes said to have been personal disciples of
Kabir, but probably lived a little later. Although the
Kabirpanthis have as a whole kept free from the
worship of images, Hindu influence has in various ways
found its way back into the sect. Kabir rejected the
doctrine of divine incarnation, but he himself is often
now regarded as an incarnation of the Supreme.
Hindu practices which he condemned, such as the use
of the rosary, have been introduced. Except the works
ascribed to Kabir himself the large amount of literature
belonging to this sect has been scarcely examined by
those outside the sect. The Bijak, already mentioned
in connection with Kabir, was probably compiled about
fifty years after his death. Two other works belonging
to this sect may also be mentioned. These are the Sukh
Nidhan, which probably belongs to about the middle of
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR 63
the eighteenth century, and the Amar Mill, which is
probably as late as 1800. A Kablrpanthi who flourished
about 1800 and wrote some pithy verses in kundaliya
metre was Paltu Sahib.
The Sikhs. It has already been mentioned in a
previous chapter that the religion of the Sikhs, founded
by Nanak, was greatly influenced by the teaching of
Kablr. Nanak was followed by nine gurus most of
whom were poets. The sacred book of_the Sikhs,
called the Granth Sahib (or sometimes the Adi Granth r
i.e. " Original Granth,' ' to distinguish it from the later
Granth of the Tenth Guru), was compiled in 1604 by
Guru Arjun (1563-1606), who was the sixth Guru of the
Sikhs. It contains the compositions of Guru Nanak,
Guru An gad, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjun,
Guru Teg Bahadur (the ninth Guru) and a couplet of
Guru Govind Singh (the tenth Guru). The com-
positions of these last two Gurus were added after the
first compilation. Besides the writings of these Gurus,
the Granth also contains panegyrics of the Gurus by
the bards who attended on them or admired their
characters, and hymns of several bhagats, such as
Namdev, Kablr and others, whose teachings corrobo-
rated that of the Gurus. The hymns are not arranged
in the Granth according to their authors but according
to the thirty-one Rags, or musical measures, to which
they were composed. All the Gurus, except the last,
adopted the name of Nanak as their nom de plume. At
the beginning of the volume is placed the Japji, which
was composed by Nanak, and then follow the So-Daru y
the So-purkhu, and the Sohila, which are extracts from
later parts of the books. All these pieces were in-
tended for devotional purposes, and therefore placed at
the beginning of the book. After the Rags at the end
of the volume is the Bhog, or conclusion, which con-
tains slokas and panegyrics. The whole forms a
lengthy volume, the ideas which it contains being
repeated in endless variation. For the Sikhs it is a
hymn-book and prayer-book as well as a manual of
theology. The language varies in different parts, but
64 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
for the most part the hymns are written in old dialects
of Hindi with some admixture of Panjabi. A hymn of
Guru Nanak was given in a previous chapter. The
following is one of the hymns of Guru Arjun :
11 On the way where the miles cannot be counted,
The name of God shall there be thy provision ;
On the way where there is pitch darkness,
The name of God shall accompany and light thee ;
On the way where nobody knoweth thee,
The name of God shall be there to recognise thee ;
Where there is very terrible heat and great sunshine,
There the name of God shall be a shadow over thee ;
There, saith Nanak, the name of God shall rain nectar on thee."
The tenth Guru, whose name was Govind Singh,
held office from 1675 to 1708. It was he who devel-
oped the Sikhs into a great military order called the
Khalsa and organized them to resist the Muhammadans.
Under him many Hindu ideas were introduced into the
religion of the Sikhs. Govind Singh composed many
verses mostly in Hindi (Braj Bhasha), but some also
in Persian and Panjabi. These works, together with
the translations and other verses of some in the Guru's
employ, were collected in the year 1734, after Govind
Singh's death, by Bhai Mani Singh into one volume,
which is called the Granth of the Tenth Guru to distin-
guish it from the Adz Granth. It is used for the
promotion of valour and other purposes, but it is not
regarded by the Sikhs as having the same authority
as the Adi Granth. Besides the Japji, or hymns, in
praise of God, and many other religious verses, it
contains the Vichitr Ndtak, which is an account
of the life and mission of Govind Singh, and other
poems calculated to stir up the martial valour of the
Sikhs.
The Dadupanthis. The founder of the sect of
Dadiipanthls was Dadu (1544-1603), who was born at
Ahmedabad, but spent most of his life in Rajputana.
According to common report he was a cotton-carder
by caste, but the tradition of his followers that he
1 Translation by Macauliffe, " The Sikh Religion," Vol. III. 202.
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR 65
was a Brahman is probably correct. His spirit of
forgiveness and kindness (daya) was so great that he
was called Dadu Dayal. His teaching is very similar
to that of Kabir, but is not so much affected by
Muhammadan ideas. Much of the Hinduism against
which Dadu protested has found its way back into the
sect. Dadu rejected, for instance, the teaching of the
Vedanta, caste, and idolatry, but some of his modern
followers are Vedantists, and only twice-born Hindus
are allowed to read the Bant, and the sect has no
dealings at all with outcastes. Moreover, D&du's Bdni
is worshipped with idolatrous rites. Dadu's teaching
was spread by fifty-two disciples. His doctrines
are contained in the Bdnl, a book of about five
thousand verses. It is divided into thirty-seven
chapters dealing with such subjects as the Divine
Teacher, Remembrance, Separation, The Meeting,
The Mind, Truth, The Good, Faith, Prayer, etc. The
verses of Dadu are very attractive and have a musical
rhythm, and hymns which are included amongst them
are set to music and used both for public and private
worship. The following is a translation of a few of
Dadu's verses :
" Receive that which is perfect into your hearts to the exclusion of
all besides ; abandon all things for the love of God, for this Dadu
declares is the true devotion.
" Cast off pride, and become acquainted with that which is devoid
of sin. Attach yourselves to Rama, who is sinless, and suffer the thread
of your meditations to be upon him.
'* All have it in their power to take away their own lives, but they
cannot release their souls from punishment ; for God alone is able to
pardon the soul, though few deserve His mercy.
11 Listen to the admonitions of God, and you will care not for
hunger nor for thirst ; neither for heat, nor cold ; ye will be absolved
from the imperfections of the flesh.
M Draw your mind forth, from within, and dedicate it to God ;
because if ye subdue the imperfections of your flesh, ye will think only
of God.
" If ye call upon God, ye will be able to subdue your imperfec-
tions, and the evil inclinations of your mind will depart from
you ; but they will return to you again when ye cease to call upon
him.
"Dadu loved Rama incessantly; he partook of his spiritual
essence and constantly examined the mirror, which was within him.
5
66 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
"He subdued the imperfections of the flesh, and overcame all
evil inclinations ; he crushed every improper desire, wherefore the light
of Rama will shine upon him." 1
The sect which Dadu. founded has a very large
literature in Hindi. Dadu's two sons were poets, and
all his fifty-two disciples are reported to have com-
posed verses, as well as many later followers. The
most important poet amongst his disciples was Sundar
Das the younger (fl. 1620-1650), who is also called
Busar. By the Dadupanthis he is regarded as one of
the best Hindi poets, worthy to rank amongst the
highest names in Hindi literature. He was a volumi-
nous writer. Amongst his most admired works are his
Savaiyas (sometimes called the Sundar Bilas) and the
Gyan Samudra. Nischal Das, a later Dadupanthi poet,
introduced Vedantic ideas into the teaching of the sect.
The Lai Dasis. Lai Das, who died in 1648, was the
founder of a sect known as the Lai Dasis. He belonged
to Alwar, and came from a predatory tribe called the
Meos. Like other teachers whose doctrines can be
traced to Kabir's influence he emphasized the value of
the repetition of the name of Rama. His teaching
and hymns are contained in a work called the Bani.
The members of the sect often sing the hymns to
music.
The Sadhs. The sect of the Sadhs was founded in
1658 by Blr Bkan, and is found chiefly in the upper
part of the Doab. Bir Bhan claimed to have received
his doctrines from a superhuman instructor in the
form of verses (sabdas) and couplets (saktiis). These
were collected into a volume called the Adz \Upadesa
("Original Instruction"). These verses, together with
those of other teachers like Kabir, Nanak and Dadu,
are recited at the meetings of the sect.
Dharni H^s.Dharnl Das was born in 1656 and
lived at the village of Manjhi in the district of Chhapra.
He was a Kayasth by caste, and became a devotee.
He founded a sect which still survives. He is the
1 Translation by G. R. Siddons, in the Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, Vol. VI. (1837).
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR 67
reputed author of two Hindi works, the Satya Prakas
and the Prem Prakas.
Some Sufi Poets. A Muhammadan who wrote Hindi
verses was Yari Sahib (1668-1723). He seems to
have been a Sufi, and lived and taught at Delhi-
Some of his disciples also wrote Hindi verse, such as
Kesav Das and Bulla Sahib, both of whom flourished
about 1730. A disciple of Bulla Sahib was Gulal Sahib y
and the latter had a disciple called Bhikha Sahib. Both
of these flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and both are the reputed authors of Hindi
verse. Two other Hindi writers who may have been
connected with the same, or a similar movement, are
Dariya Sahib of Bihar, and Dariya Sahib of Marwar.
Both of these were Muhammadans and flourished in the
first half of the eighteenth century. Another Muham-
madan writer of Hindi verse who also lived in the first
half of the eighteenth century was Bulle Shah, and was
probably a Sufi.
The Charan Dasis. Charan Das (1703-1782) belonged
to the Dhusar caste of Baniyas. About the year 1730
he founded a sect at Delhi, which still exists. He
had many disciples who spread his teaching, and he
admitted as disciples not only men but women also.
His teaching is very similar to that of Kablr, and
emphasizes such doctrines as the value of the repetition
of the name of God, the importance of the word
(sabda), the need of devotion (bhakti), and the neces-
sity of having a guru. Idolatry was denounced by
Charan Das, but has crept back into the sect. The
guru holds a very important place in the sect and is
regarded as divine. Like similar sects it has a large
literature in Hindi, and great stress is laid on this
amongst its members, the use of Sanskrit being
discouraged. The sect possesses translations in Hindi
of the Bhagavata Purana and the Bhagavad Glta y
which are said to have been made, at least in
part, by Charan Das himself. Charan Das also com-
posed many other Hindi works which are much
esteemed by his followers. Two of his women
68 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
disciples were poetesses. These were Sahajo Bai and
Daya Bai. They are said to have been sisters and to
have belonged to the same caste as CharanDas. Their
verses are of considerable merit and full of devotion.
The Daya Bodh of Daya Bai was composed in 1751.
The Siv Narayanis. Siv N dray an was a Rajput
who lived near Ghazipur. In 1734 he founded a sect
which worships God as Brahman without attributes,
and rejects idolatry. Siv Narayan is himself regarded
as an incarnation by his followers. Outward con-
formity to the observances of Hindus and Muhammadans
is permitted and people of all castes are admitted as
members. It is said that the Emperor Muhammad
Shah (1719-1748) became a member of the sect. The
founder was a voluminous writer and is credited with
having composed sixteen books of Hindi verse.
The Garib Dasis. The guru of Garib Das (1717-
1782) is said to have been Kabir, which, although an
anachronism, seems to show that the sect he founded
sprang from the Kabirpanthis. This sect, which
is still in existence, consists only of sddhus, who must
belong to the twice-born castes. The book which he
composed, called the Guru Granth Sahib, contains 24,000
sakhls and chaupais. Of these, however, 7,000 are said
to be sakhls of Kabir. Garib Das lived at the village of
Chhurani in the Rohtak district of the Panjab.
The Ram Sanehis. The sect of Ram Sanehis was
founded by Ram Charan (born 1718), who lived in
Rajputana. He was at first an idolater, but gave up
the worship of idols and founded the sect of Ram
Sanehis, or " Lovers of Ram," The sect is now repre-
sented merely by an order of sddhus. His sayings
and hymns have been collected into a Bant. The
third leader of the sect, named Dulhd Ram, who
became a Ram Sanehi in 1776, composed about 10,000
sabdas and 4,000 sakhls. He died in 1824.
The Satnamis and Jagjivan Das. The sect of the
Satnamis seems to have been founded before the
middle of the seventeenth century, but the circumstan-
ces of its origin are unknown. It was reorganised
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR 69
about 1750 by Jagjivan Das, who lived at Kotwa,
between Lucknow and Ayodhya. As the name of the
sect implies, they adore the True Name alone, the
one God, who is without attributes, but the Hindu
pantheon is recognised and the Hindu incarnations
regarded as the manifestations of God. Jagjivan Das
is said to have been a Kshatriya by caste, but the
sect has spread mostly amongst the outcastes.
The Hindi verses of Jagjivan Das are in several
works, which include the Pratham Grayith, the
Mahapralay, and the Gyan Praka's. A disciple of
Jagjivan named Dulan Das, who lived in the district of
Rai Bareilly, was also a Hindi poet. Other successors
of Jagjivan who wrote Hindi verse were Jalall Das
and Devi Das. A development of the Satnami sect
occurred in Chhattisgarh, in the Central Provinces,
under a certain Ghazi Das, between 1820 and 1830. He
introduced the ideas of the sect amongst the chamars
of that district though he did not acknowledge his
indebtedness to Jagjivan.
The Pran Nathis. Pran Nath lived at Panna in
Bundelkhand at the beginning of the eighteenth century,
under the patronage of Raja Chhatrasal. He was the
founder of a small sect in which not only Hindu and
Muhammadan but also Christian influences were at
work. By caste Pran Nath was a Kshatriya, but he
was versed in Muhammadan as well as in Hindu learn-
ing, and he endeavoured to reconcile the two religions.
The members of his sect are sometimes called Dhamis,
from Dham, a name they give to the Supreme spirit.
They eat in common, but continue to observe the Hindu
or Muhammadan practices of their own families. The
works of Pran Nath are fourteen in number, all in
verse, but none of them of very great length. Though
the grammatical structure is purely Hindi, the vocabu-
lary is very largely Arabic or Persian, and the language
is very uncouth.
General Characteristics All the writers who are
mentioned in this chapter wrote in that poetic style
which is classified by Indian authorities as quietistic
70 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
(sdnta ras). Much of their verse is smooth and rhyth-
mical, and the artistic influences which had come into
Hindi literature were no doubt felt by them to a certain
extent. But their interest was religious rather than
literary, and few of them rank high amongst Hindi poets.
If their verses are less rugged than those of Kabir, they
are also often lacking in the vigour and charm which
characterise his work. The subjects dealt with in these
voluminous works are not very extensive. The need of
a guru and the respect due to him, the value of the
repetition of the name of God, the supreme importance
of devotion (bhakti), the delusions of may a, the value
of truth, the duty of living a righteous and sober life,
these and a few kindred topics are repeated over and
over again, in different ways, at interminable length,
in a manner which to the ordinary reader is apt to be
tedious. Nevertheless there are many striking pas-
sages to be found which are full of beauty and inculcate
valuable lessons. During the greater part of this
period the North of India was passing through a time
of great political change. The reign of Aurangzeb
(1658-1707) was a long struggle against disintegrating
forces, and after him the political disorder grew worse.
Internecine strife and rebellion were frequent. The
invasions of Nadir Shah (1739) and afterwards of Ahmad
Shah Durrani (1756) were a time of terrible disaster.
The Marathas also were constantly attacking the Mughal
Empire, which by the end of this period ceased to
exist except in name. It was a time of frequent
calamity, of persecution' and tyranny ; but during this
period many thoughtful men sought peace of heart in
piety and quietism, and it was in such circumstances
that much of the religious verse referred to in this
chapter was produced. In these poems the writers not
only expressed their own aspiration and feeling after
God, but gave forth many beautiful thoughts which
were a solace to others in times of distress, and an
incentive to them to live nobly and to seek after the
highest ends. The sects whose literature is described in
this chapter all owe something to Kabir, in some cases
THE SUCCESSORS OF KABIR 71
the influence being direct and in others indirect. They
all stand, in theory at least, for a non-idolatrous theism,
and a great many of their theological conceptions are
the same as, or similar to, those which Kabir taught.
VIII.
THE KRISHNA CULT
(1550-1800)
The Ashta Chhap. Vallabhacharya and his son
Vitthalnath, who have been mentioned in a previous
chapter as the early leaders of the Vallabhacharl sect
at Gobardhan, near Muttra, each had four disciples, all
of whom were Hindi poets. They are known as the
Ashta Chhap, or the Eight Seals, or Diestamps, because
the poems they produced are regarded as standards
for that dialect of Western Hindi in which they wrote.
This dialect was the Braj Bhasha, named after the
district in which they lived, namely Muttra and Brinda-
ban and the surrounding country. Since their time
almost all Hindi poetry connected with the Krishna
Cult has been composed in Braj Bhasha, and it has
also come to be looked upon as the poetic dialect of
Hindi par excellence, though Tulsi Das and most of the
worshippers of Rama wrote in Eastern Hindi. The
disciples of Vallabhacharya who are included in the
Ashta Chhap were Sur Das, Krishna Das Pay Aharl,
Parmanand Das and Kumbhan Das. Those of Vitthal-
nath were Chaturbhuj Das, Chhit Svaml, Nand Das
and Govind Das. All these flourished about the middle
or second half of the sixteenth century.
Krishna Das Pay Aharl seems to have been a rival
of Sur Das, though not equal to him in poetical merit.
He was, however, the writer of graceful and melodious
stanzas. His best known work is called the Prem-
sattvanirilp. Krishna Das had several pupils who
became poets. According to some one of them was
THE KRISHNA CULT . 73
Agra Das (fl. 1575), who was in turn the preceptor of
Nabha Das, author of the Bhaktamala.
Nand Das holds, next to Sur Das, the highest place
as a poet amongst those who are included in the Ashta
Chhap. He was a Brahman, and some have believed
him to be a brother of the great Tulsi Das. There is a
proverb about him which says, Aur sab gariya, Nand
Das jariya, "All others are simply founders (or melters),
but Nand Das is the artificer (who joins the pieces of
metal into a composite whole). " He was the author
of several larger works as well as of detached verses.
One of his compositions is a poem in imitation of the
Sanskrit Glta Govinda, called Pane had hyayt.
Sur Das. The greatest of all the Ashta Chhap, how-
ever, was Sur Das. The particulars of his life are very
scanty and uncertain. It is said that he was a Brahman
and the son of Baba Ram Das, who was a singer at the
court of the Emperor Akbar. At the age of eight he
went with his parents to Muttra, and became the pupil
of a devotee. Afterwards he removed to Gau. Ghat,
between Agra and Muttra, where he became a disciple
of Vallabhacharya. In the commentary which he him-
self wrote to some of his emblematic verses he says that
he was a descendant of the famous bard Chand Bardal,
that his father's name was Ram Chandra, and that his
grandfather, Hari Chandra, lived at Agra. Some,
however, consider him to be a Brahman and regard the
verse where this information is given as spurious. His
father lived at Gopchal and had seven sons, six of whom
were killed in battle with the Muhammadans. He alone,
blind (either literally or figuratively) and worthless,
as he says, remained alive. He had a vision of Krishna,
and thereafter "all was darkness" to him, which may
mean he became blind. He went to live at Braj, and
became one of the Ashta Chhap. Tradition places his
birth in 1483 and his death in 1563, but these dates
are uncertain. All the traditions agree as to his
blindness, either from birth, or from a later period of
his life, and he is often referred to as " the blind bard
of Agra."
74 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Sur Das excelled in many styles of composition. A
large number of episodes and passages from the
Bhagavata Purana were reproduced by him in exquisite
verse, and he was the writer of a great number of lyrics
in connection with the worship of Krishna and Radha,
which were collected together in the Sur Sagar and
the Sur avail. The Sahityalaharl contains emblematic
verses (Drisktakilt), for which Sur Das himself wrote
an explanatory commentary. He also wrote in Hindi
the story of Nala a?id Damayantl. Altogether he is
credited with having composed as many as 75,000 verses.
Sur Das holds a very high place in literature. Some
Indian authorities would give him the foremost place
amongst Hindi poets, though most persons would reserve
that honour for Tulsi Das. An often quoted couplet
referring to Hindi poetry says, "Sur is the sun, Tulsi
the moon, Kegav Das is a cluster of stars, but the poets
of to-day are like so many glow-worms giving light
here and there." Sur Das is undoubtedly a poet of
great power. He is considered to excel in his use of all
the ornaments of style recognized by the authorities on
Hindi poetry and in his use of images and similes. An
anonymous poet of Akbar's court said with regard to
him, " Gang excels in sonnets and Birbal in the kavitta
metre ; Kes'av's meaning is ever profound, but Sur
possesses the excellency of all three."
A few specimens of his work are given here :
All days are not alike ;
One day King Hari&chandra had in his power wealth like Mount
Meru ;
The next day he went to live in the house of a Chandal, and
removed clothes from the burying-ground.
One day a man is a bridegroom, attended by a bridal company,
and in every direction flags are placed ;
The next day he has to live in the forest, and there stretches forth
hands and legs.
One day SIta is crying in a very terrible forest ;
The next day having become re-united with Ramchandra, both
go about in s balloon of flowers.
One day Raja Yudhishthir was reigning with Sri Bhagwan
(Krishna) as his follower ;
The next day (his wife) Draupadi is made naked, and Dusasan
takes away her clothes.
THE KRISHNA CULT 75
The doings of the former birth appear; O foolish mind, give up
anxiety ;
Sur Das says, " How far can I describe the qualities? True are
letters written by the Creator (on the forehead) ."
* * * * *
Without Gopal these bowers become like enemies.
In those days (when he was here) these creepers seemed very cool,
Now they have become a heap of fiery flames.
In vain the Riverjamuna is flowing, and the birds twitter ;
In vain the lotuses are blooming, and the black bee hums ;
Sur Das says, " Looking for the lord, my eyes have become red
like the ghunghchl seed. "
*****
Night and day my eyes shed tears ;
It is always the rainy season with me, since Syam went away.
The collyrium does not stay on my eyes, my hands and my
cheeks have become dark,
The cloth of my bodice never gets dry, because the heart in the
midst of it is running like a stream of water.
My eyes have become rivers, my limbs tired, and the fixed stars
are moving away.
Sur Das says, " Braj is now being submerged (in tears), why
do you not deliver it ?"
The Chaurasi Varta. An important work which
belongs to this period is the Chaurasi Varta (or
"Eighty-four Tales"), reputed to have been written
by Gokulnath (fl. 1568), the son of Vitthalnath. It is
earlier in date than the Bhaktamala, and whereas the
Bhaktamala contains accounts of devotees of various
Vaishnava sects, the Chaurasi Varta is devoted exclu-
sively to stories, mostly legendary, of the followers
of Vallabhacharya. It lays a great deal of stress on
the erotic side of the Krishna legends. From the point
of view of the literature it is very important as being
written in prose, of which it is one of the earliest
specimens. It is written in a very clear and easy style,
and although written three hundred and fifty years ago
the language used differs very little from the modern
Braj dialect.
Other early Vallabhacharis. Two or three other
early members of the Vallabhachari sect who were
Hindi poets must also be mentioned. Bhagwan Hit
(fl. circ. 1574) is said to have been a disciple of
76 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Vitthalnath. He was the author of some Krishnaite
lyrics of considerable merit. Raskha?i (fl. 1614)
was a Muhammadan at first and his name was then
Sayyad Ibrahim. He became a worshipper of Krishna
and wrote verses in his honour which are said to be
full of devotion and sweetness. A disciple of Raskhan
was Qadir Baksh, who also wrote Hindi poetry.
The Radha-Vallabhis. A new sect was founded in
Brindaban about 1585 known as the Radha-Vallabhis.
In this sect Radha is placed above Krishna as an object
of devotion. Its founder was Hari Vamsa (also called
Hit Haribans, or Hit Jt) . His father was a Gaur Brah-
man named Vyasa, who was in the service of the
Muhammadan Emperor. Hari VarhSa wrote in Sans-
krit the Radha- sudha-?iidhi, which consists of 170 coup-
lets. His principal work in Hindi is the Chaurasi Pad
(or Premlata). The erotic side of the Krishna cult is
very prominent in these works and they are full of
sensuous imagery, but Hari Vama possesses great
skill as a poet and holds a high place in Hindi literature.
A few stanzas are here given :
M Whatever my Beloved doeth is pleasing to me ; and whatever is
pleasing to me, that my Beloved doeth. The place where I would be
is in my Beloved's eyes ; and my Beloved would fain be the apple of
my eyes. My Love is dearer to me than body, soul, or life ; and my
Love would lose a thousand lives for me. Rejoice, Sri Hit Hari Vans !
the loving pair, one dark, one fair, are like two cygnets ; tell us who
can separate wave from water ?
11 O my Beloved, has the fair spoken ? this is surely a beautiful
night ; the lightning is folded in the lusty cloud's embrace. O friend,
where is the woman who could quarrel with so exquisite a prince of
gallants ? Rejoice, Sri Hari Vans ! dear Radhika hearkened with
her ears and with voluptuous emotion joined in love's delight.
44 Come Radha, you knowing one, your paragon of lovers has
started a dance on the bank of the Jamuna's stream. Bevies of
damsels are dancing in all the abandonment of delight ; the joyous
pipe gives forth a stirring sound. Near the Bansi-bat, a sweetly pretty
spot, where the spicy air breathes with delicious softness, where the
half-opened jasmine fills the world with overpowering fragrance,
beneath the clear radiance of the autumnal full moon, the milkmaids
with raptured eyes are gazing on your glorious lord, all beautiful from
head to foot, quick to remove love's every pain. Put your arms about
THE KRISHNA CULT 77
his neck, fair dame, pride of the world, and, lapped in the bosom of the
Ocean of delight, disport yourself with Syam in his blooming bower." 1
Many members of this sect have been Hindi poets,
amongst whom we may mention Nagari Das, who
flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, Dhruv
Das (fl. circ. 1630), who was a very voluminous writer,
and Sri Hit. Brindaba?i Das Jl Chacha (fl. 1743) . All
these were poets of some merit, especially the last,
who wrote many verses of great beauty in praise of
Krishna.
The Hari Dasis. Another sect at Brindaban is that
of the Hari Dasis. It was founded by SvamI Hari
Das, who lived at the end of the sixteenth century
and the beginning of the seventeenth century.
His teaching seems to be closely akin to that of
Chaitanya. Besides works in Sanskrit he left poems
in Hindi. The best known are the Sadharan Siddha?it
and the Ras Ke Pad. Hari Das possessed considerable
merit as a poet. Here are a few stanzas of the
Sadharan Siddhant :
11 Set your affection on the lotus-eyed, in comparison with whose
love all love is worthless ; or on the conversation of the saints : that
so the sin of your soul may be effaced. The love of Hari is like the
durable dye of the madder ; but the love of the world is like a stain
of saffron that lasts only for two days. Says Hari Das, Set your affec-
tion on Bihari, and he knowing your heart will remain with you
for ever.
11 A straw is at the mercy of the wind, that blows it about as it
will and carries it whither it pleases,. So is the realm of Brahma, or
of Siva, or this present world. Says Sri Hari Das : This is my conclu-
sion, I have seen none such as Bihari.
11 Man is like a fish in the ocean of the world, and other living
creatures of various species are as the crocodiles and alligators, while
the soul like the wind spreads the entangling net of desire. Again,
avarice is as a cage, and the avaricious as divers, and the four objects
of life as four compartments of the cage. Says Hari Das, Those
creatures only can'escape who ever embrace the feet of the son of bliss.
" Fool, why are you slothful in Hari's praises ? Death goeth
about with his arrows ready. He heedeth not whether it be in season
or out of season, but has ever his bow on his shoulder. What avail
heaps of pearls and other jewels and elephants tied up at your gate ?
Says Sri Hari Das, Though your queen in rich attire await you in her
1 Translation from Mr. F. S. Growse's Mathura, pp. 196 ff.
78 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
chamber, all goes for nothing when the darkness of your last day
draweth nigh."
Hari Das was succeeded as leader of the sect by
Vitthal Vipul, and the latter by Biharini Das. Both
these were Hindi poets, Biharini Das being a very volu-
minous one. In his numerous verses he uses the most
erotic language to express the intensity of his religious
devotion. Sital (fl. 1723), who was a leader of the sect,
was also a skilful poet. Sahachari Sara?i (fl. 1763) also
belonged to the Hari Dasls. Amongst his works is the
Lalit Prakas, which contains sayings of Hari Das, the
founder of the sect.
Other Writers of Krishna Verse. Gad a Dhar Bhatt
(fl. 1565) was a Krishnaite belonging to the sect of
Chaitanya and wrote verses uf considerable merit
in Krishna's honour. Bihari Lai Chaube, whose work
has been described in a previous chapter as a writer on
the art of poetry, was also connected with the Krishna
Cult. Most of the verses in his famous Sat Sat deal
with some phase or other of the story of Krishna. Other
writers on the art of poetry also wrote Krishnaite
verse.
Taj, who flourished in the first half of the seven-
teenth century, was the wife of a Muhammadan, but
was a worshipper of Krishna. She wrote some much
admired verses in his honour.
Bhishma (fl. circ. 1650) translated the famous tenth
chapter of the Bhagavata Purdna into Hindi verse,
under the title Bal Mukund Llld.
Bakhshi Hahsraj (fl. 1732) was a Kayasth of Panna,
who was a skilful poet. He wrote the Saneh Sagar,
which is an account of Radha and Krishna, as well as
some other works.
Man, a Brahman of Baiswara, wrote in 1761 a trans-
lation of the Krishna Khanda entitled Krishna Kallol.
A famous work in connection with the Krishna
Cult is the Braj Bilds (1770). It was the work of
Braj Bast Das, of Brindaban, and contains a description
1 Translation from Mr. F.S. Growse's Mathura, p. 210.
THE KRISHNA CULT 79
of Krishna's life during his residence at Brindaban.
Braj Basi Das belonged to the sect of Vallabhacharls.
Sundari Kunwari Bat (fl. 1760 to 1798) was a
princess of the Rathor family, and daughter of Raj
Singh, Maharaja of Rupnagar and Krishnagarh. She
was married to Bal Bhadra Singh, Maharaja of
Raghavgarh. Many of her family were poets, and this
lady wrote a large number of poems full of religious
devotion, many of which are in honour of Krishna.
Manchit Dvij (fl. circ. 1779), of Bundelkhand, was
the author of Surbhxdanllla, which is an account of the
childhood of Krishna, and Krishnayan, which is a life of
Krishna. His poems are considered to be of a very
high standard of poetic excellence.
Bibi Ratan Kunwar, of Benares, was born about
1842. She was the grandmother of Raja Siv Prasad,
who helped to develop Hindi literature in the nine-
teenth century. In the Prem Ratna she has given an
account of the devotees of Krishna, and in addition she
was the authoress of many other verses.
General Remarks on Krishnaite Literature. A great
deal of the poetry connected with the Krishna Cult
deals with the amours of Krishna with the Gopis
(milkmaids) of Braj, and especially with Radha. The
great Hindu teachers of bhakti threw a mystical
glamour over these stories. Krishna was to them the
Supreme Deity, from whom all creation was but
a sportive emanation, and who was full of love to his
devotees. Radha and the other Gopis stood for human
souls, of whom Radha especially typified the devotee,
ready to offer her whole self in devotion to God. In
the literature connected with this form of the bhakti
movement the writers often use the most erotic language
and sensuous imagery to describe the soul's devotion,
under the picture of Radha' s self-abandonment to her
beloved. Many of the verses could not be translated
into English. Yet the writers of these lyrics of
passionate devotion were often men of real religious
earnestness, quite free from any impure motives in
composing them. That literature of this kind has,
80 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
however, a very dangerous tendency has too often
been shown in the history of the Krishna movement.
Many of the writers mentioned in this chapter
were poets of very high merit. The artistic influences
which had come into Hindi literature are to be seen
in a very marked degree in their work. Muttra,
which was the centre of the movement, was in close
proximity to the Mughal court, and Sur Das is said
by tradition to have had some connection with the
court. But, through whatever channel the influence
came, there is no doubt that the poets of Braj felt very
strongly the tendencies towards the perfection of the
poetic art, and the excellency and fame of their poetry
was so great that from their time onwards Braj Bhasha
came to be regarded as the chief poetic dialect of
Hindi.
IX.
BARDIC AND OTHER LITERATURE
(1550-1800)
Bards of Mewar. The succession of bards in the
various kingdoms of Rajputana and other parts of
Hindustan was continued right down to modern times,
and Mewar was one of the states where great en-
couragement was given to them. A chronicle of the
time of Rana Jagat Singh, of Mewar, who reigned from
1628 to 1654, called the Jagat Bilds, was written by an
unknown bard. The successor of Jagat Singh, Rana
Raj Singh (1654-1681), who was the famous opponent
of Aurangzeb, was a great patron of poets. The
chronicle of his time, called Raj Prakd's, was also
written by an anonymous bard. At the suggestion of
Rana Raj Singh his poet-laureate, Man (fl. 1660),
wrote the Raj Dev Bilds, which describes the struggle
between Aurangzeb and Raj Singh. Another poet who
lived at his court was Saddsiv (fl. 1660), who wrote his
patron's life under the title Raj Ratnakar. The son
of Raj Singh was Rana Jai Singh (1681-1700) and he
also was a patron of poets. A work which he had
written by poets at his court was the Jai Dev Bilds,
which is a series of lives of the kings whom he had
conquered. Another author of a bardic chronicle of
Mewar, entitled Raj Pattand, was Ran Chhor, whose
date is doubtful.
Bards of Marwar. In Marwar also great patronage
was given to poets. Maharaja Siir Singh is said in
one day to have distributed six lakhs of rupees to
six poets at his court. His son Gaj Singh was also
a patron of poets, as well as his grandson Amar Singh.
6
82 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Amar Singh quarrelled with his father and was
exiled. He went to the court of the Emperor Shah
Jahan, but in revenge for a slight he attempted to
murder the Emperor, and was cut down after killing
a number of courtiers. Among the poets patronised
by Amar Singh were Banwdrl Lai, who wrote a
panegyric of his patron, and Raghu Nath Ray, both
of whom flourished about 1634. Maharaja Ajlt Singh,
of Jodhpur in Marwar (1681-1724), had a work written
entitled the Raj Rupakakhyat, which contains a history
of his family from the commencement of the solar race
to 1724. Karan was the poet and bard of Jodhpur at
the time of Maharaja Abhay Singh (1724-1750), son of
Ajit Singh. In his poem, called the Surya Prakas, he
wrote a history of the period from 1638 to 1731 in 7,500
lines. Maharaja Vijai Singh, who reigned at Jodhpur
from 1753 to 1784, was himself a poet, and he also had
a work written, entitled the Vijai Bilas, which gives an
account in 100,000 couplets of the war between Vijai
Singh and his cousin Ram Singh.
Bards at Other Courts. Other courts also had their
poets. The rebellion of Jagat Singh, of Mhow, against
Shah Jahan was celebrated by a bard named Gambhir
Ray (fl. 1650). In honour of Rav Ratan (fl. 1650),
great-grandson of Raja Uday Singh, an anonymous
bard wrote a history called Rav Ratan Raysa. Jai
Singh Sawai, of Jaipur (reigned 1699-1743), was not
only a patron of poets but wrote his own autobio-
graphy, entitled Jai Singh Kalpadrum Jai Singh
Sawai's brother-in-law, Buddh Rav, Raja of Bundl,
was also a poet and a patron of poets. Jodhraj
(fl. 1728) was a Brahman, who wrote the Hamniir Kavya
at the orders of the Maharaja of NImrana, which deals
with the same incidents formerly described by the bard
Sarang Dhar, who lived in the fourteenth century.
Ghan Syam Sukla (fl. circ. 1680) attended the court of
the Raja of Rewah and wrote in his praise. He also
attended the court of the Raja of Benares. His
poems are considered to be of great merit. Harikesh
(fl. 1731) attended the court of Raja Chhatrasal, of
BARDIC AND OTHER LITERATURE 83
Panna. He excelled in the heroic style. Sudan
(fl. 1750) was a Brahman, who was patronised by
Suraj Mai, a son of the Maharaja of Bharatpur. He
wrote the Sujan Charz'tr, which is an account of the
battles in which Suraj Mai took part. Sudan is con-
sidered to be an excellent narrative poet, especially
in his account of the preparations for a battle, but
he was not equal to Lai Kavi in his description of
the battle itself. A bard who wrote in the Maithili
dialect of Bihari was Lai Jha (fl. 1780), one of the most
famous poets of Mithila. He was the author of a poem
called Kanarpi Ghat Laral, which is a description of
the battle of Kanarpi Ghat, in which his patron Maha-
raja Narendra Singh, of Darbhanga, was victorious.
Lai Kavi. At the court of Raja Chhatrasal (1646-
1731), who ruled at Panna, in Bundelkhand and was
himself a poet, much encouragement was given
to men of letters. The most famous of these was
Lai, generally known as Lai Kavi. His full name
was Gorelal Purohit. Besides writing a treatise on
lovers, he wrote in Braj Bhasha verse a celebrated
work entitled Chhatra Praka's. It gives an account of
the wars and order of succession of the ancient Rajas
of Bundelkhand, and the life of Chhatrasal and
that of his father are related with great detail. Lai
Kavi achieved great excellence as a narrative poet,
especially in his description of a battle. The follow-
ing is the account in the Chhatra Praka's of Raja
Chhatrasal's bravery at the battle of Deogarh :
** Raja Chhatrasal, valiant in war, dreadful in battle, famed for
heroic achievements, active, vigorous, and powerful as a tiger, pene-
trated into the midst of the Deogarh Raja's army ; while thousands of
balls and arrows discharged at him fell like rain around. Firm and
undaunted, redoubling his efforts he furiously attacked the numerous
troops by whom he was surrounded. Entirely disregarding balls and
bullets, he inflicted and received wounds in the enemy's ranks. The
foe was confounded. The gods were amazed at the fighting of Chhatra-
sal ; and, while repelling the attack of thousands, and scattering
death and destruction around, Kali delighted to see his sword-dance.
His progress no one could stop ; for, as soon as an antagonist had
raised his sword, Chhatrasal, by superior dexterity, inflicted a wound ;
and he was equally skilful in the use of the spear. Separated from his
84 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
troops, and surrounded by foes, he fought his way from one flank of
their army to the other. Wherever he went, victory followed. Disre-
garding severe wounds, he renewed the attack, fighting with such
impetuosity and fury, that the enemy, believing him to be Kal Rudra,
took to flight, and abandoned the field. Chhatrasal obtained lasting
fame and renown: for the enemy fled like deer from a tiger. The
kettle-drums sounded strains of victory, and Bahadur Khan ordered
the camp to be pitched." 1
Other Literature of the Period. Besides the litera-
ture we have already mentioned in this and the
preceding chapters, there were many other writers on
a variety of subjects during the period. There are
works dealing with the philosophy of the Vedanta,
works connected with the Jain religion, works on
morals (niti), comic verses, and a great many other
topics, including text-books on such subjects as lexi-
cography, agriculture, astronomy, and veterinary sur-
gery. A few of the authors may be mentioned here :
Nath Kavi (b. 1584), who dwelt in Braj, wrote
poems on the seasons and other subjects.
Mubarak All (b. 1583), of Bilgram in the district of
Hardoi, was the author of a large number of short
verses which are still current.
Nazir (fl. before 1600), of Agra, was a versatile
poet of considerable fame whose verses are very
popular and often quoted, though many of them are
said to be indecent.
Bandrsi Das (b. 1586) was a follower of the Jain
religion. He lived at Jaunpur and died sometime after
1641. His works are full of religious teaching and he
is much admired as a poet. In his most famous work
he gives an account of his own life.
Sri Dhar (b. 1623), of Rajputana, was the author of a
work in honour of Durga and entitled Bhawa?ii Chhand.
Ghasi Ram (fl. circ. 1623) was a poet of considerable
merit, who wrote on love, morals and other subjects.
Puhakar (fl. 1634) was a Kayasth who lived during
the time of Jahangir. He was in prison for some
offence and while there composed the Ras Ratan.
1 Translation by W. R. Pogson, A History of the Boondelas.
BARDIC AND OTHER LITERATURE 85
When Jahangir heard of this he pardoned him. The
poem is in the form of a story.
Damodar Das (fl. circ. 1660) belonged to the sect
of the Dadupanthis. He translated the Markandeya
Purdna into Rajasthani. This work is of interest as
being in prose instead of verse.
Chhatra (fl. 1700), a Kayasth of Anter village in
Gwalior, was the author of the Vijai Muktavall. This
is an abstract of the Mahabhdrata in Hindi verse.
Sabal Singh (b. 1670) belonged to a ruling family.
He also was the author of a condensed metrical
translation of 24,000 verses of the Mahabharata.
Baital (b. 1677) attended the court of Vikram
Sahi. He wrote moral and occasional verses and,
though no complete work of his is extant, his verses are
much admired.
Devi Das (fl. 1685) belonged to Bundelkhand.
Under the patronage of Raja Ratan Pal Singh, of
Karauli, he wrote a much admired work on morals called
Prem Ratnakar. He was also the author of numerous
other works.
Motl Ram (b. 1683) was the author of the Braj
Bhasha version of a story called Madhonal, which was
afterwards translated into Urdu by Lallu Ji Lai.
Bhu Dhar Das (fl. 1724) was a Jain who wrote
works connected with the Jain religion, including the
Jain Satak and the Parsva Pur an. He is considered
to possess considerable power as a poet.
Ghagh (b. 1696), of Kanauj, wrote on the subject of
agriculture. His aphorisms have a wide currency in
North India.
Gahga Pali (fl. 1719) was the author of a poem
dealing with the different philosophical doctrines of the
Hindus. It is called Vigya?i Bilas, and is written in
the form of a dialogue between a guru (teacher) and
his chela (disciple). A mystic life based on the
Vedanta philosophy is advocated.
Kripa Ram (fl. 1720) was an astronomer at the
court of Raja Jai Singh Sawai, of Jaipur, and wrote a
work in Hindi on astronomy.
86 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Giri Dhar (b. 1713), of the Doab, wrote verses on
morals (niti) and occasional pieces which are much
admired. He used the kundaliya metre of which some
critics consider him to be the greatest master. His
verses abound in colloquialisms and many of them have
become proverbs.
$ri Nagari Das (fl. 1723) was Maharaja of Krishna-
garh in Rajputana. His real name was Savat Singh, but
he adopted the name of Nagari Das as his nom de plume.
He was a poet of considerable merit besides being a
king of great valour.
Nur Muhammad (fl.1743) was the author of the
Indrdvati. It is a love story similar to the Padumdvati
of Malik Muhammad. It is considered to be a well-
written poem.
Manbodh Jha (fl. 1750), also known as Bholan Jhd,
of the district of Darbhanga, was one of the most
celebrated poets in the Maithili dialect of Biharl. He
wrote a version of the Harivamsa of which only ten
sections have been preserved. These, however, are
very popular.
Nidhdn (fl.1751) and Day a Nidhi (b. 1754) each
wrote a treatise on veterinary surgery under the title
&alihotr.
Ram Chandra was a Brahman who flourished at the
end of the eighteenth century. He wrote a work in
five books in honour of the feet of Parvati, entitled
Char an Chandrikd. It is considered to be a work of
great poetic merit.
X.
THE MODERN PERIOD
(From 1800)
A new influence came into Hindi literature at the
beginning of the nineteenth century through contact
with the culture of the West. The eighteenth century-
had been largely a time of literary dearth, but a renas-
cence now began. The East India Company, which had
commenced its career in India as a trading company,
had now come into possession of a vast Empire and
was beginning to feel its responsibilities towards those
whom it was called upon to govern. This responsibility
was being continually urged by many in the British
Parliament. Amongst other responsibilities that were
recognised was the duty of fostering and helping the
culture and education of the peoples under the rule of
the Company. The introduction of the printing-press
helped to diffuse literary culture. The spread not only
of vernacular but of English education could not but have
a vast effect upon the life and thought of India. Just
as in the case of the revival of learning in Europe the
study of the Latin and Greek classics not only led to a
stimulation of thought, but also helped to revive the
literature of the European vernaculars, so also in India
the study of English has been accompanied by a great
renascence of the vernacular literature of India. The
peace and security which the British rule brought to
India, after the long period of internecine strife and
disorder through which the country had been passing,
also gave the genius of Hindi literature the opportunity
of reasserting itself, and of recovering from the decay
into which it had fallen in the eighteenth century. This
88 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
period is marked by the creation of a new Hindi literary
dialect and of Hindi prose.
Lallu Ji Lai. At the commencement of the nineteenth
century the head of the Fort William College at
Calcutta was Dr. John Gilchrist. With the help of
the other European officers of the College, such as
Captain Abraham Lockett, Professor J. W. Taylor,
and Dr. Hunter, he gave a great impetus to the
cultivation of vernacular literature. Text-books suitable
for the study of the European officials were collected,
and a group of vernacular scholars gathered together
and encouraged to produce new literature. Most of
the work was in connection with the Urdu language,
but Lallu Ji Lai, who also wrote Urdu, and Sadal
Misra, did for Hindi what was being done by other
scholars for Urdu. The works which they produced, if
not the first prose works in those languages, were the
first literary standards, and established prose as a
recognised form of literature. Lallu Ji Lai was a
Brahman whose family had come originally from Gujarat,
but had long been settled in North India. Under the
direction of Dr. John Gilchrist he and Sadal Misra
were the creators of modern "High Hindi." Many
dialects of Hindi were, as we have seen, spoken in
North India, but the vehicle of polite speech amongst
those who did not know Persian, was Urdu. Urdu,
however, had a vocabulary borrowed largely from the
Persian and Arabic languages, which were specially
connected with Muhammadanism. A literary language
for Hindi-speaking people which could commend itself
more to Hindus was very desirable, and the result
was produced by taking Urdu and expelling from
it words of Persian or Arabic origin, and substitut-
ing for them words of Sanskrit or Hindi origin. The
name Khari Bolt (" pure speech") is sometimes used
for the dialect of Delhi and Meerut, which was the
language from which Urdu sprang, as well as for the
modern Hindi literary dialect. It seems to be implied
that Lallu JI Lai was only restoring the Delhi and
Meerut dialect to its original purity and using it for
THE MODERN PERIOD 89
literary purposes. This, however, was hardly the
case, for though Urdu sprang originally from this dialect
it had also assimilated many words of Panjabi and
Rajasthani as well as those of Arabic and Persian
origin. The Hindi of Lallu Ji Lai was really a new
literary dialect. This "High Hindi," or "Standard
Hindi " as it is also called, has had however a great
success. It has been adopted as the literary speech of
millions in North India. Poetical works still continue
to be written in Braj Bhasha, or Avadhl, or other old
dialects, as High Hindi has not been much used for
poetry. But whereas before this time prose works
in Hindi were very rare, from now onwards an extensive
prose literature began to be produced. The first work
in this new dialect, and one which is regarded as a
standard, was Lallu Ji Lai's Prem Sdgar, which is a
version of the tenth chapter of the Bhdgavata Purdna.
It was founded on a previous Braj Bhasha version of
Chaturbhuj Mira, and was begun in 1804 and completed
in 1810. The R&jniti (1809), which is also much
admired for its language, was an adaptation of the
Hitopadesa and the Pahchatantra, and is in Braj Bhasha.
The Singhdsan Batiisi and the Baitdl Pachisi are col-
lections of stories in mixed Urdu and Hindi. Besides
other works in Hindi and Urdu, Lallu Ji Lai also wrote a
commentary on the Sat Sal of Bihari Lai called Ldl
Chandrikd, and gathered a collection of poems in Braj
Bhasha called Sab ha Bilds. Sadal Mi'sra (fl. 1803) was
the author of the Nasketopdkhyan, which gives in Hindi
prose the well-known story of Nachiketas.
Serampore. In connection with the revival of Hindi
literature mention must also be made of the work being
done about this time by William Carey and his colleagues
Ward and Marshman at Serampore. Amongst the
many translations of the Christian Scriptures made by
these missionaries were some in the dialects of North
India. The Hindi version was Carey's own work. The
first portions of his Hindi New Testament were pub-
lished in 1809 and the Hindi translation of the whole
Bible was completed in 1818. Besides translations of
90 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
the Scriptures, Carey and his colleagues also printed
editions of many vernacular works, amongst them
being the Ramayan. Most of these editions perished
in a fire which destroyed the printing-press at Seram-
pore in 1812. In 1818 Carey began to publish a
newspaper in Bengali, which was the first newspaper
printed in any oriental language, and was the fore-
runner of the many newspapers now issued from the
vernacular press. All this work of Carey and his co-
workers helped greatly in the development of vernacular
literature.
Raja Siv Prasad. The new literary dialect which
Lallu Ji Lai produced has not been without its critics.
As it includes many Sanskrit words it is a speech not
easy to be understood except by the learned. It tends
to fall into the same extreme as Urdu. Raja Siv
Prasad (1823-1895) is especially remembered as one who
tried to popularise a literary speech midway between
the Persian-ridden Urdu, and the Sanskrit-ridden High
Hindi, which he believed to be nearer the colloquial
speech of the people. The controversy is by no
means settled yet. Raj Siv Prasad was the grand-
son of the poetess Bibi Ratan Kuhwar. In his youth
he was Vakil to the Maharaja of Bharatpur, but after-
wards he entered the English service. He rose to the
position of Nur Munshi and became an Inspector in the
Department of Public Instruction. He was eventually
granted the hereditary title of Raja. Besides trans-
lations and other works, all of which show the modern
influence, he was the author of a great many text-books
for schools.
The Printing- Press. The outstanding feature of the
development of Hindi literature in modern times has
been the production of a very large number of works
in prose. This has been very much facilitated by the
use of the printing-press. It was at the College press
at Fort William that printing was first used for Hindi
works, but at first the expense hindered its rapid
development, and the ungraceful characters of the
type were not regarded with favour. The work
THE MODERN PERIOD 91
of Carey and others at Serampore has already been
mentioned. In 1837 a lithographic press was set up
at Delhi, and from that date onwards the publication of
books in Hindi has been increasing continually. The
introduction of lithography was soon followed by the
publication of Hindi newspapers and magazines, of which
there are now a large number. All kinds of books have
been turned out from the press translations of English
books, books and pamphlets dealing with religious
and social questions, novels, educational text-books,
and books on many other subjects ; but it cannot be
said with regard to most of them that a high literary
standard has yet been reached, and experience alone will
show how many of them are worthy to rank as standard
works of Hindi literature. Hindi prose literature is
still feeling its way, and its standards are not yet fixed.
One book which has had probably a greater circulation
than any other Hindi work in modern times (whether
as a whole or in portions) is the Hindi translation of the
Bible, and owing to its large circulation is bound to have
an important influence on the life of the people. The
printing-press has also been used to produce many of
the older works of Hindi literature, which are now
accessible to the general public in a way which was
before impossible.
Harischandra. That the new influence from the
West revived rather than checked the cultivation of
Hindi poetry is illustrated in the case of Babu Haris-
chandra (1850-1885), of Benares, who is often called
Bharatendu ("The moon of India"). He was edu-
cated at Queen's College, Benares, and was a prolific
and successful writer of poetry in many styles, having
commenced to write at the age of sixteen. He wrote
altogether about a hundred and seventy-five different
works. Among these are eighteen plays, and Haris-
chandra was the real founder of the modern drama in
India. In his plays some of his best work is to be
found, and they exhibit his great desire for the progress
of India and the development of its intellectual
freedom.
92 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Hari^chandra wrote also on various subjects includ-
ing history, patriotism, religious devotion, and love.
He was also the author of many humorous verses. His
historical works include the Kashmir Kusum, or
history of Kashmir, and the Charitavali, a series of
lives of great men both Indian and European. Next
to his plays his love poems are considered to be
the best part of his work. Love and mirth are pro-
minent characteristics of his poetry, which is full of
power. He must be reckoned amongst the great
writers of Hindi literature. He used chiefly the Braj
Bhasha dialect. Haris'chandra also did much to cultivate
interest in Hindi poetry. To accomplish this he started
a magazine called Harischandrika, in which he published
a number of old texts with much other matter. He
also produced anthologies of Hindi poetry such as the
Su?ida?i Tzlak, which contains poems in the savaiya
metre from the works of sixty-nine poets, and the Kavi
Bachan Sudha, which is a collection of poems dealing
with the rainy season.
As an example of the poetry of HariSchandra the
following translation is given :
O warriors, having put on your arms, arise for the fight, and fly the
flag of victory ;
Draw your sword from the scabbard, and join the battle.
Having girded up your loins, put your arrow to your bow ;
Put on your saffron-coloured garments and the bracelet of battle
(as sign of a vow to conquer or die) ;
If the Aryans be united, and think of their own dignity,
They will give up quarrels amongst themselves, and support the
honour of their race.
Then the strength of the mean Amirkhan cannot be great.
When a lion is roused, can a dog stand in battle against him ?
Even an ant trampled underfoot bites, although it is only insig-
nificant.
These are visible enemies, woe to those who ignore them.
Woe to those who, being Aryans, have a love to those who are
barbarians.
Woe to those who have any dealings with them.
Warriors, arise, and having put on all your weapons, plunge into
the battle.
Write with a pen of steel the strength of the Aryans on the heart of
both (conquerors and conquered) .
THE MODERN PERIOD 93
The Hindi and Bihari Drama. The Hindi drama is
of very recent origin. Some earlier writers produced
what are called ?idtaks, or plays. Among these were
Dev (fl. 1700), the author of Dev Maya Prapanch;
Newaj (fl. 1700), who wrote the Sakuntala; Braj Basi
Das (fl. 1770), who wrote the Probodh Chandroday,
and some others. But their works were either without
entrances and exits of the characters, or lacking in
other essentials of dramatic poetry. The first real
play in Hindi was the Nahush Ndtak, written by Gopal
Cha?id (alias Girt Dhar Das) in 1857. It deals with
Indra's expulsion from his throne by Nahush and his
subsequent reinstatement. Next came the Sakuntala
(1862) of Raja Lakshman Si?igh (1826-1899), which is
very famous and much admired. Harischandra then
began to write dramas, his first being Vidya Sundar.
He wrote eighteen altogether. Other writers of Hindi
drama were Srlnivas Das, Tola Ram, Gopal Ram,
Kasi Nath Khattrl, Purohit Gopl Nath, Laid Slid
Ram, besides many others. The first Hindi play was
performed in 1868.
In Bihar the dramatic tradition is very much older.
Vidydpati Thdkur, who belongs to the middle of the
fifteenth century, is reputed to be the author of two
plays. Lai Jha (fl. 1780) wrote a play called Gaurl
Parinay. In the early part of the nineteenth century
Bhdnu Nath Jha wrote the Prabhavati Haran and later
Harsh Nath Jha wrote the Ushd Haran. The Bihari
drama, however, differs from the Hindi in one very
important feature, for the characters speak in Sanskrit
and Prakrit, and only the songs are written in the
Maithili dialect.
Anthologies. The revival of interest in Hindi litera-
ture and its appeal through the printing-press to a wider
public is illustrated by the large number of anthologies of
Hindi verse which have appeared in this period. Besides
those of Lallu JI Lai and Harischandra, which have
already been mentioned, the following may be noted :
The Rdg-Sagarodbhdv Rag Kalpadrum contains
selections from the works of more than two hundred
94 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
poets. It is a very voluminous work and was compiled
by a Brahman named Krishnanand Vyas Dev, and
completed in 1843.
The Pas Chandroday , which is a collection of poems
by two hundred and forty-two poets, was compiled in
1863 by Thakur Prasad Tripathl.
The Dig- Vijai Bhushan was compiled in the year
1869 by a Kayasth, of Balirampur in the district of
Gonda, named Gokul Prasad. It contains selections
from the works of a hundred and ninety-two poets.
The &iv Singh Saroj was compiled from former
anthologies by Siv Singh Sengar. The second edition
of this very valuable work was published in 1883.
Gokul Nath. A famous work belonging to this period
was the translation of the Mahabharata into Hindi verse.
This was begun by Gokul Nath (fl. 1820), of Benares,
being undertaken at the instance of Raja Udit Narayan,
of Benares. Gokul Nath was the author of other works,
including the Govind Sukhad Bihar and the Chet Chand-
rika, in the latter of which he has described the family
history of Raja Chet Singh, of Benares, who was his
patron. His greatest achievement, however, was the
translations of the Mahabharata. In this work he was
assisted by his son Gopi Nath and his pupil Mani Dev.
The Patronage of Courts. The modern influence on
Hindi literature did not spread all at once, and in many
places the old state of affairs still continued for some
time. The work of the printing-press did not penetrate
into all regions immediately, and poets still looked to
the rulers of states to help them by their patronage.
At the courts of Panna and Charkhari in Bundelkhand,
of Rewah in Baghelkhand, of Nagpur, Benares,
Ayodhya, and other principalities, poets and bards were
still welcomed and encouraged, and several rulers were
themselves poets. Maharaja Man Singh of Jodhpur
(fl. 1810) was the author of various works chiefly in
Rajasthani. Cha?idra Sekhar Bajpeyi (1798-1875), who
was at the courts of Darbhanga, Jodhpur and Patiala,
excelled in the erotic and heroic styles and was the
author of the Hammir Hath and other works. Maharaja
THE MODERN PERIOD 95
Hindupati, of Panna, was the patron of Mohan Bhatt, as
well as of Rap Sahi and Karan (fl. circ. 1800), the latter
being a writer on the art of poetry. Mohan Bhatt
attended other courts also. His son was a well-known
poet named Padmakar Bhatt (see below), who also visited
various courts. The Rajas of Charkhari, named Khuman
Singh, Vikram Sahi, and Ratan Singh, were all great
patrons of poets. Vikram Sahi (1785-1828) was himself
a successful poet. Among his works is a Sat Sal, in
imitation of Bihari Lai's great work. The poets who
attended his court include Baitdl, Man, and Bal Dev
(all fl. 1820). Bihari Lai, Avadhes, Rdv Rand, Gopdl,
Ram Din Tripdthi (all fl. 1840) attended the court of
Raja Ratan Singh. Surya Malla (fl. 1840), who was
at the court of the Raja of Bundi, wrote a long work
called the Ban's Bhaskar, which in the form of illustra-
tive verses gives an account of the Kingdom of Bundi.
In Baghelkhand, at the court of Rewah, poets were also
encouraged both by Maharaja J ai Singh (fl. 1764-1834)
and his son Visvandth Singh (1789-1854). Both these
kings not only patronised poets but were themselves
authors. ViSvanath Singh wrote in Sanskrit and Hindi.
In Hindi he composed commentaries on the Bijak
of Kabir and on the Vinay Patrikd of Tulsi Das, as
well as a work entitled Ram Chandra kl Sawdrl. The
poetical traditions of this royal family were also main-
tained by VisVanath's successor, Raja Raghu Raj
Singh (1823-1879), who came to the throne in 1858.
He was the author of a much admired translation of the
Bhdgavata Purdna and of a history of Hanuman,
entitled Sundar Satak, besides many other works.
Maharaja Man Singh (fl. 1850) , of Ayodhya, was another
monarch who was both a poet and a patron of poets.
The Art of Poetry. Many of the poets who attended
the courts of kings were writers on the art of poetry,
and this particular form of composition continued to
receive great attention. Gurdhi Pdnde (fl. 1803) wrote
an excellent work on the same lines as Kegav Das's
Kavi Priya. Benl Pravln Bdjpeyl (fl. 1817), a Brahman
of Lucknow, whose poetry is full of excellent verses,
96 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
wrote several works connected with the art of poetry.
One of the most famous of writers of this period was
Padmakar Bhatt (1753-1833), of Banda. He attended
the courts of various rulers and was richly rewarded for
his poetry. He is the reputed author of about seven
works, mostly concerning the art of poetry, which are
very much praised. One of his outstanding qualities
is his skilful use of alliteration. His best work is
considered to be the Jagadvinod (1810). At the end of
his days he is said to have devoted his life to the
worship of the Ganges, and wrote a book entitled
Ganga Laharl. His grandson, Gada Dhar Bhatt
(fl. 1860), was also a poet and wrote on rhetoric.
A contemporary and rival of Padmakar was Gwdl,
of Muttra, who wrote works on the art of poetry.
His most famous work is the Yamuna Laharl. About
the same time or a little later flourished also Ram
SahayDas (1820), of Benares, and Pajnes (1843), of
Panna. The former, who was a poet of considerable
merit, took Bihari Lai as his model. Pratap Sahi
(fl. 1828) was a devotee of Rama and the author of
several works connected with the art of poetry. In
the cleverness of his language he is said to resemble
Mati Ram. Bihari Lai Tripathl (fl. 1840) belonged
to a family which has produced many poets, being a
descendant of Mati Ram Tripathl. Navln (fl. 1842)
wrote several works of high standard on poetics.
Gahesh Prasad Farukhabadl (fl. 1847-1877) was a
Kayasth, of Farukhabad, who wrote a Nakhsikh and
other works. Giri Dhar Das (fl. 1843) was the father
of Harischandra. His real name was Gopal Chandra.
He wrote about forty different works. Sardar (1845-
1883), of Benares, and Narayan Ray flourished in the
second half of the nineteenth century. The former
was the author of several works on the art of poetry,
including commentaries on the works of Kesav Das
and on the Sat Sal of Bihari Lai, and a commentary
on some of the emblematic couplets of Sur Das. The
Sringar Sahgrah, another poem of Sardar, is a
popular work on rhetoric, dealing with all branches of
THE MODERN PERIOD 97
the art of poetry. Narayan Ray was a pupil of Sardar.
A much admired work in the Marwari dialect is the
Raghundth Rupak of Ma?isa Ram, which was written
about the beginning of the nineteenth century. It is
a prosody in which the illustrative examples are so
arranged that they give a continuous history of the life
of Rama.
Bihari Poets. A few Bihari poets of the nineteenth
century may be mentioned, all of whom wrote in the
Maithili dialect. Bhdnu Nath J ha (fl. 1850) and Harsh
Nath Jha (born 1847) both attended the court of the
Maharaja of Darbhanga. Bhanu Nath's best known
work is a play entitled Prabhavati Haran. Harsh
Nath wrote many songs as well as plays. A popular
account of the famine of 1873-74, entitled KavittaAkall,
was written by Phaturi Lai, a Kayasth of Tirhut.
Chandra Jha, who flourished in the latter half of the
nineteenth century, was the author of a Ramayan
in Maithili, which is much admired.
Religious Verse. Though a great deal of the
literature already described has a religious connection
the output of religious verse due directly to the various
sectarian movements seems to have been less since the
beginning of the nineteenth century than in previous
times. Contact with the new influences which have
come from the West has led indeed to a great deal of
religious activity in India, but a large part of the new
movements has been in the direction of religious
reform. Prose literature, whether in the form of pam-
phlets or newspapers, has come to be very much used for
the dissemination of religious as well as other ideas.
Still, the production of poetry in connection with the
various religious movements did not entirely cease.
In 1806 Jai Chand, of Jaipur, wrote a Sanskrit and
Hindi work which deals with the doctrines of the Jains,
entitled Svami Karttikey&iupreksha. A later Jain of
considerable merit was Brindaban Ji (circ. 1791-1858),
of Benares. Bakhtdwar (fl. 1817), of Hathras, in the
district of Aligarh, who was a religious mendicant,
wrote a book entitled Suriisar, which was intended to
98 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
show that all notions of God and man are fallacies and
that nothing exists. There were several works also
connected with the Rama cult. Aun (fl. 1803) was
the author of the Ram Rdva?i Yuddh and other works
dealing with the stories of Rama. Lalak Das (fl. 1813),
of the Lucknow district, wrote the Satyopakhydn,
which relates the early life of Rama from his birth to
his marriage. The Ramayan in the Maithili dialect,
composed by Chandra Jhd, has already been mentioned.
Sahaj Ram (born 1804), who lived in the district of
Sitapur, also wrote a Ramayan which is a translation
of the Sanskrit Raghuvamsa and of the Hanumdn
Nataka. In the latter half of the nineteenth century
Raghu Nath Das, a Brahman of Ayodhya, wrote
hundreds of hymns in honour of Rama, of whom he
was a devotee, while in the same period Jdnkl Prasad,
of the district of Rae Bareli, wrote several poems
dealing with the story of Rama which are considered
to be very excellent. Commentaries also were written
on the works of Tulsi Das, such as the Manas Sanka-
vali of Ba?zdan Pathak, of Benares, which is a
commentary^ on the Ramayan, and the Ram Tattva
Bodhanl of Siv Prakds Singh, which is a commentary
on the Vinay Patrikd. These appeared in the latter
half of the nineteenth century. Of writers who were
devotees of Krishna the following may be mentioned :
Rasik Govind (fl. 1801), who wrote works, which are
much praised, all connected with the Krishna legends,
and Lalit Kishorl (fl. 1860-1873), whose works are also
connected with Krishna and full of merit as works of
poetry.
The spread of the Christian faith in India has also
been accompanied by the production of Christian hymns.
Many of these are translations of English hymns
written in English metres, which, judged according to
Indian standards, sound barbarous and uncouth. But
a large number have also been written in Hindi metres,
and many of these have a popularity far beyond the
bounds of the Christian Church. Curiously enough, one
of the most famous writers of Christian hymns in
THE MODERN PERIOD 99
Hindi metre was a European named John Christian
(died about 1883). His most famous work is the
Mukti Muktavall, a life of Christ in verse.
Thus, while the nineteenth century was a period of
great change characterised especially by the develop-
ment of prose literature, and the application of it to
a large number of new subjects, literature of the older
type still continued to be produced, though it generally
exhibited little or no novelty in its themes. The
period has been largely a time of transition, and in
spite of its many past glories Hindi literature still
awaits its more complete development. No attempt is
here made to give an account of the writers in prose
and poetry of the last thirty or forty years. Many
of these writers are still living, and time alone will
show how much of their work will have a lasting fame
and prove of real value.
XI.
SOME GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF HINDI LITERATURE
Having now traced the history of Hindi literature
from its earliest times to the present day, it may be
helpful to mention in this chapter some of its general
characteristics even at the risk of some repetition of
points already mentioned.
1. The first striking feature is that, during the
time when it grew and flourished through its own
original force, Hindi literature was dominated by a
religious interest. Probably much more than half of
the literature directly springs from the bhakti move-
ment in one or other of its aspects. A great deal of
the remainder is concerned with the art of poetry ;
and even in these works the illustrative verses, which
form the greater part of them are often connected with
one or other of the various religious movements. The
bardic chronicles, and some other parts of the literature,
are secular in character, but even in these the religious
interest is not quite out of sight.
2. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century
practically the whole of the literature was in verse.
There are indeed a few exceptions. The works ascribed
to Gorakhnath (though almost certainly not by him)
include one in prose, and if this is correctly dated as
belonging to the fourteenth century it is the earliest
Hindi prose work extant. Then we have the Mandan
of Vitthalnath and the Chaurasi Varta of Gokul Nath
in the sixteenth century, and Damodar Das' s translation
of the Markandeya Pur ana in the seventeenth century.
Besides these, and the commentaries which accom-
SOME GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 101
panied certain works, there is very little else till we
come to the time of Lallu Ji Lai. Even commentaries
were often in the form of poetry. The system of
versification was very complicated, but all authors
seem to have found it more natural to write verse
than prose. When prose was first employed, at
the beginning of the nineteenth century, writers
at first found it more awkward and difficult to manage
than poetry. Even text-books on such subjects as
veterinary surgery, astronomy or lexicography were
written in verse.
3. From about the middle of the sixteenth century
the literature became self-conscious, and from the time
of Keav Das onwards an enormous number of works
have appeared dealing with the rules of prosody and
the art of poetry generally. Apart from verse of a
directly religious character this was indeed the favourite
subject of composition amongst Hindi poets. The
tendency to lay great stress on the form rather than
the substance, and to develop a certain amount of
artificiality could not, under such circumstances, be
avoided. It is considered a mark of a writer's ability
if his words are capable of more than one meaning,
and ingenuity of phrase, whether by way of double
entendre, or alliteration, or any other literary device, is
greatly admired. Even nowadays there seems to be a
tendency to appraise poets more on account of their
technical skill than on account of the message which
they have to give. But even so the writers on the art
of poetry, who include some of the best Hindi writers,
have produced a great deal of verse which is very
graceful and artistic, and it must be said that the strict
rules as to versification, and their great elaboration,
have helped to make Hindi poetry almost unrivalled
for melody and rhythm.
4. Conventionality in the use of metaphors is
another feature of Hindi poetry. Some of these
metaphors do not correspond with the facts of nature,
but Hindi poets are never tired of repeating them.
The separation of the chakwa bird from its mate at
8
102 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
night ; the eager waiting of the chatak bird, who is
supposed to drink only raindrops, for the beginning of
the rainy season ; the chakor bird, that is never happy
except when gazing on the moon ; the swan that knows
how to separate milk from the water with which it has
been mixed these and many other stock metaphors
are continually recurring in Hindi poets. But many
beautiful similes, drawn from a true observation of
nature at first hand, are also found not only in the
works of Tulsi Das, but also in the verses of other
poets.
5. Another thing to be noticed in Hindi poetry is
the limitatio7i of the range of its subject matter. Not
only is the religious interest dominant, but even in
connection with this the subjects dealt with are con-
fined to well-worn grooves. The stories of Rama and
of Krishna form a very large part of the subject matter
and have been told over and over again by poet after
poet. There are differences in treatment, but the same
details are constantly appearing again and again. Those
religious poets who avoid these themes are very largely
occupied with such subjects as have already been noted
in a previous chapter, namely, the value of the guru,
the importance of bhakti, the evils of transmigration*
the deceit of mdyd, the transitoriness of the world, and
suchlike subjects. One misses also the poetry of pure
human love. There is indeed a good deal of erotic
poetry of a very unhealthy type, but owing to the
general practice of child-marriage, and the secluded
position occupied by women, the romantic period of
youth, which is the time of courtship, does not come
into the lot of young men and women in India, and
hence when love is described in Hindi poetry it is too
often in connection with the courtesan. But the fidelity
of Padmavati, the wifely devotion of Sita, and some
other stories of the same type must not, on the other
hand, be forgotten. There was also a tendency to look
to previous writers for themes of poetic inspiration, and
if a great poet achieved success in any subject, he was
sure to have a large number of imitators. Thus there
SOME GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 103
are whole realms of human thought in connection with
which Hindi writers have contributed nothing, and great
as their work has been, the original and stimulating
thoughts which Hindi literature contains are confined
within a somewhat narrow area.
6. Yet in spite of its limitations Hindi literature
has many excellencies, and is worthy of much greater
study than it has yet received. It has truly been
described as a "garden of delights." It possesses a
system and variety of versification which has seldom,
if ever, been excelled, and beauties of thought and
phrase, and expressions of deep feeling and noble
aspiration, abound. It was moreover genuinely popular,
and being written in the dialects of the people, and
often as a tacit revolt against the literary exclusiveness
of the Sanskrit scholars, it appealed to the heart of the
people, and reached a very wide audience. Many of its
thoughts and expressions have become closely bound up
with the life of the people, and a close acquaintance
with the vernacular literature is most important for all
who would fully understand the peoples of India.
XII.
PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS
With such a splendid record of past achievements
what is the present position of Hindi literature ? What
are its prospects of development ? A brief answer to
these questions is all that can be attempted in this
present chapter.
In the first place it is to be noted that Hindi
literature has to face many present difficulties,
some of which it shares with other Indian vernaculars,
and some of which are peculiar to itself. This is not
the place to discuss the question whether English or
the vernacular should be the medium of instruction in
higher education. But it is certainly true that most
educated Indian people would be very sorry that their
sons should surrender the opportunity which a knowledge
of English gives not only of becoming acquainted with
the vast stores of Western learning, but of carrying on
intercourse with educated people from other parts of
India who possess a different vernacular from their
own. It is, however, almost unavoidable that such
a state of affairs should put Hindi somewhat at
a disadvantage, for if a writer wishes to appeal to a
widespread educated audience it is natural for him to
use English rather than the vernacular to express his
ideas, and hence there is sometimes a tendency to
despise the vernacular as a medium of literature, and to
regard vernacular productions as more intended for the
unlearned than for the educated. This is a condition
of things in every way to be deplored, and it is to be
hoped that, without lessening the opportunities for
PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS 105
securing an acquaintance with English, the vernacular
may be given a much more important place in the
future.
Hindi is also under a disadvantage because its
standards of prose have not yet been fixed. We have
seen that not only is the prose literature a plant of
very recent growth, but that the dialect of High Hindi
which it uses is also a modern production. There are
scarcely any prose standards of the past to look to,
and the present state of the language is transitional.
Some authors attempt to write in a language from
which are expelled, as far as possible, all words other
than those of Hindi or Sanskrit origin. But if this
standard be adopted the language is for the common
folk very difficult to understand. Other writers go to
the opposite extreme and admit a great many words
not only of Arabic and Persian, but also of English
origin, even when there are simple and well-understood
Hindi words which could just as well express their
meaning. It seems indeed inevitable that for the
expression of modern ideas a good deal of borrowing
must take place, but the limits to which this should
go can only be settled in course of time by the practice
of good prose writers. At present there is a great
deal of variation, both in translations and original
works, with regard to the language used, and the
adoption of some generally recognised standard is very
much to be desired.
Owing to Hindi prose literature being written in a
modern artificial dialect, which has not proved itself
very popular for the purposes of poetry, it has come
about not only that the language of poetry is different
from that of prose, but that there are several different
dialects still used for poetry. The existence of a widely
divergent standard between the language of prose and
that of poetry would be unfortunate in many ways, and
it cannot be said what the ultimate issue of this matter
will be, but there does seem a tendency amongst some
modern poets to use a language which is approximating
more to that of prose.
106 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
These disadvantages to the present development of
Hindi literature are, however, being counteracted by-
many favourable circumstances. The spread of educa-
tion, with the prospect that the day is not far distant
when it will be made compulsory, at least for boys, is
helping to increase rapidly the number of those who can
read. Moreover, the modern tendency to extend the
franchise, and to give increased political responsibility
to large numbers of the people of India will also make
it necessary to acquaint them with various aspects of
modern political, social, religious, and other questions.
It is impossible with increasing education and enlighten-
ment that a language which can be understood by over
a hundred millions of people should not eventually
develop a great modern literature, though it may not
be easy to forecast the exact lines of its development.
The existence of societies for the extension and
improvement of Hindi literature is also a sign of great
hope. The Nagarl Pracharini Sab ha, whose headquar-
ters are at Benares, is doing most useful work. It
conducts a systematic search for old manuscripts, and
publishes many good editions of the older works
of Hindi literature. It also issues many useful
books in which a high standard is aimed at. It en-
courages Hindi writers to produce original books and
also to translate important books from European
languages. Amongst other works it has under-
taken the publication of a standard Hindi diction-
ary in several volumes. Many others also are
publishing the works of various Hindi authors, whose
works up till now have existed only in manuscript,
and have often been hardly known outside the
particular sect to which the authors belonged. Trans-
lations of many English and other works are being
produced in great numbers, making it possible even
for those who are unacquainted with English to
gain some knowledge of the culture of the West.
Moreover, books on subjects connected with politics,
science, philosophy, morals, history, and religion are
being constantly issued from the press. A great deal
PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS 107
of what is produced may not have great value as
literature, but it is all helping to cultivate and enlarge
the resources of the language to meet the needs of
to-day. A Hindi society which has its headquarters
at Allahabad is the Sahitya Sammelan, which conducts
examinations in Hindi of a very high standard and
grants diplomas, and is trying to establish purely
Hindi schools in all parts of North and Mid India.
Amongst other societies that are doing much to
extend Hindi literature the North India Tract Society
and other Christian societies hold an important place.
Through the agency of these societies a great deal of
Hindi literature has been produced not only of a directly
religious nature, but also stories, biographies, educational
books, and books on social and other subjects. Indian
people themselves are often largely unaware how much
of the new movements for political freedom, social
emancipation, and religious reform are really inspired by
Christian ideals. India has seen the vision of a future
glory for herself and her children greater even than her
past achievements, excellent as these have been. New
ideals of righteousness and of duty, of brotherhood and
of service have come before her, and inspiration for
these has been very largely due to the life and teaching
of Christ, who in this as in so many other ways is the
fulfilment of all that is noble and excellent in Indian
life. The ideas of the old mythology, which formed so
large a part of the themes of writers in the past, are on
the wane, and the past ideals with regard to many other
matters are undergoing a charge. India is seeking out
after a larger, a fuller, a more complete life than she has
lived in the past. In this development the vernacular
literature is bound to have a most important part to
play. The responsibility resting upon all writers,
where such great issues are at stake, is very great,
but the situation is one which should call forth the very
best and noblest work from all who are concerned in
the production of literature.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
History of the Literature, etc.
The Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan. Sir
George A. Grierson. 1889. Published by the Asiatic Society of
Bengal (Calcutta).
Misra Bandhu Vinod. (3 vols.) An account in Hindi of the
literature, with examples of the work of the chief authors, by the
Misra brothers. Published by the Hindi Granth Prasarak
Mandali (Khandwa and Allahabad).
Hi?idi Navaratna. An account in Hindi by the same authors of
nine great Hindi writers, viz., Tulsl Das, Sur Das, Dev, Bihari
Lai, Bhushan, Kesav Das, Mati Ram, Chand Bardal, and
Harischandra. Publishers as above.
Kavita Kaumudl. By Ram Naresh Tripathl. Vol. I. deals with
the literature down to the time of, but not including, Harischandra,
and contains an account of 89 poets and gives copious extracts from
their work. Vol. II. is not yet published. (Sahitya Sammelan
Office, Allahabad).
Santbanl Sahgrah. (2 vols.) Contains extracts from the works
of thirty-five Hindi religious poets, with notes. (Belvedere Steam
Printing Press, Allahabad.)
Eficyclopczdia Britannica. Edition XI. Vol. XIII. pp. 483-491.
Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. II.
Linguistic Survey of hidia. Sir George A. Grierson. Con-
tains much useful information as to the language and dialects.
The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Contains
articles on several of the different sects whose literature is described
in this book.
Translations.
Only a small portion of the vast quantity of Hindi literature has
been translated into English. The following are some of the translations
(the list is not exhaustive) which have been made, and which in most
cases contain also information as to the authors and their work.
Translation of the Ramayan of Tulsl Das. By F. S.
Growse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 109
Mathurd. By F. S. Growse. Contains translations of some of ihe
poems of worshippers of Krishna.
The Sikh Religion. By M. A. Macauliffe. (6 vols.) Contains
a translation of the Granth (Clarendon Press).
A History of the Boondelas. By W.R. Pogson. (Calcutta, 1828) .
A translation of Lai Kavi's Chhatra PrakaS.
The Bijak of Kablr, Translation into English by the Rev,
Ahmad Shah.
The Padumavati of Malik Muhammad Jaisi. Edited, with a com-
mentary, translation, and critical notes, by Sir G. A. Grierson and
Mahamahopadhyaya Sudhakar Dvivedi. (Asiatic Society of
Bengal, Calcutta.)
Texts.
It is impossible to give a list of all the Hindi texts which have been
published, but the following list of publishers of Hindi texts may be of
some use. I am indebted for this list to Pandit Syam Bihari Misra, of
Allahabad.
1. The Venkateshwar Press, Bombay.
(Has published a good edition of the Sur Sagar of Sur Das.)
2. The Newal Kishore Press, Lucknow.
3. The Khadga Vilas Press, Bankipore, Bihar.
(Has published all the available works of Harischandra.)
4. The Bharat Jivan Press, Benares City.
(Has issued works of some well-known Hindi poets.)
5. The Bang Bosi Press, Hindi Bang Bosi Office, Calcutta.
(Has printed an annotated edition of Bihari Lai's Sat Sat.)
6. The Nirnaya Sagar Press, Bombay.
7. The Indian Press, Allahabad.
(Has published a good edition of the Ramayan of Tulsi Das.)
8. L. Ram Narain Lai, Publisher and Bookseller, Katra, Allahabad.
9. The Hindi Sahitya Sammelan Office, Johnston Ganj, Allahabad.
10. The Kashi Nagarl Pracharini Sabha, Benares City.
(Has published editions of Chand Bardai's Rdso, Tulsi Das's
Ramayan, Bhushan's works, and a great many other famous
Hindi works.)
11. The Bharat Mitra Press, Calcutta.
12. The Belvedere Steam Printing Press, Allahabad.
INDEX
ABDUL Rahlm Khankhana,
36 f., 52
Abul Faiz, 36
Adi Granth, 19 ff., 63 f.
Adi Upade&, 66
Agra Das, 58, 73
Akaram Faiz, 12
Akbar, 10, 34 ff., 45, 73 f.
Akharavat, 31
Alam, 47
Alankar Ratnakar, 47
Alha Khand, 15
Amar Das, 63
Amar Singh, 13, 81 f.
Amir Khusro, 18
Amrit Dhar, 22
Ananya Das, 12 f.
Angad, 63
Afig Darpan, 48
Anthologies, 93
Arjun, 19, 63 f.
Ashta Chhap, 30, 72
Aurangzeb, 39 f., 43 f., 46 f., 81
Avadhes, 94
Avadhi, 4, 25, 54. 89
Avadh Sagar, 60
Ayodhya, 4, 52, 55, 69, 94 f., 98
Azam Shah, 43, 45
BAHADUR Shah, 46
Bairl Sal, 48
Baiswari, 4, 54
Baital, 85, 95
Baital PachisI, 89
BakhshI Hansraj, 78
Bakhtawar, 97
Bal AH, 60
Balbhadra, 39
Bal Dev, 95
Bal Mukund Llla, 78
Bal Krishna TripathI, 39
Banarsi Das, 84
Bandan Pathak, 98
BanI (of Dadu), 65
Ban! (of Lai Das), 66
BanI (of Ram Charan), 68
Ban Bhaskar, 95
Bansidhar, 47
Banwari Lai, 82
Bards, 9, 13 ff., 81 ff., 94
Benares, 23 f., 30, 42 f., 44, 47,
49, 52, 60 f., 63, 82, 91, 94,
96, 98, 105
Bern, 49
Beni Madhav Das, 59
Beni Pravin Bajpeyi, 95
Bhagavad Gita, 67
Bhagavata Purana, 35, 39, 67,
74, 78, 89, 95 '
Bhagwan Hit, 75
Bhagwant Ray, 49, 60
Bhaktamala, 52, 57 f., 73, 75
Bhaktavatsal, 59
Bhakti, 19 ff., 27, 30, 53, 67, 70,
79, 99, 100, 102
Bhanu Nath Jha, 93, 97
Bharatendu, 91
Bhasha Bharan, 48
Bhasha Bhushan, 44 f., 47
Bhaun, 49
Bhawanand, 22
BhawanI Chhand, 84
Bhikhari Das, 49
Bhikha Sahib, 67
Bhishma, 78
Bholan Jha, 86
Bhu Dhar Das, 85
Bhupati, 18, 47
Bhushan Tripathi, 41
Bible, the, 89 "f.
Biharl, 2ff., 28, 83, 86, 93,97
Bihari Lai, 95
INDEX
111
Bihari Lai Chaube, 10, 42, ff.,
46 f., 49 f., 57, 78, 89, 96
Bihari Lai Tripathi, 96
Biharini Das, 78
Bijak, 24 f., 62, 95
Birbal, 35 f., 38, 74
Bir Bhan, 66
Bisal Dev, 13
Bodha Firozabadl, 49
Braj Basi Das, 78, 93
Braj Bhasha, 4, 29 f., 33, 39, 42,
45, 49, 54, 64, 72, 75, 83, 85, 89
Braj Bilas, 78
Brindaban, 52, 73, 78
Brindaban JI, 97
Buddh Rav, 82
Bulla Sahib, 67
Bulle Shah, 67
Bundelkhand, 42, 46, 49, 79, 83,
85, 94
pAREY, William, 89
^ Chaitanya, 28, 77 f.
Chandan Ray, 48
Chand Bardal, 9, 13 ff., 73
Chandra Jha, 98
Chandra Sekhar Bajpeyi, 94
Charan Chandrika, 86
Charan Das, 67
Charitavall, 92
Chaturbhuj Das, 72
Chaupai, 6, 68
Chaurasi Pad, 76
Chaurasi Varta, 75, 100
Chet Chandrika, 94
Chhand Bichar, 40
Chhand Chhappanl, 48
Chhand Sar Piftgal, 42
Chhappai, 6, 58
Chhatra, 85
Chhatra PrakaS, 83
Chhatra Sal, 41, 46, 69, 82 f.
Chhattlsgarhl, 4
Chhit Swami, 72
Chintamani Tripathi, 40, 59
Christian, John, 99
Christian Literature, 98, 107
HADU, 64 ff.
^ Dadupanthis, 10, 64 ff., 85
Dalel PrakaS, 49
Dalpati Ray, 47
Damodar Das, 85, 100
Dara Shukoh, 39, 42
Darbhanga, 28, 83, 86, 94, 97
Dariya. Sahib, 67
Das, 49
Das Ratna, 59
Daya Bai, 68
Daya Bodh, 68
Daya Nidhi, 86
Delhi, 4, 8, 13, 31, 67, 88, 91
Devanagari, 5
Dev Datt (Dev Kavi), 10, 40,
45,93
Dev Datt, 48
Devi Das, 69, 85
Devki Nandan Tiwari, 48
Dev Maya. Prapahch, 45, 93
Dhana, 22
Dharm Das, 62
Dharni Das, 66
Dhruv Charitr, 33
Dhruv Das, 77
Dialects, 4
Dig-Vijai Bhushan, 94
Doha, 6, 43 f., 57
Drama, 11, 93 f.
Drishtakut, 74
Dalah Trivedi, 48
Dulan Das, 69
Dulha Ram, 68
ETAST India Company, 87
FATEH Bhushan, 48
Fateh Shah PrakaS, 48
Fort William College, 88, 90
GADA Dhar Bhatt, 78, 96
Gambhlr Ray, 82
Ganesh, 61
Ganesh Prasad Farukhabadi, 96
GaAg& Lahari, 96
Gafig& Pati, 85
Ganga. Prasad (Gang Kavi),
36f.,74
Ganjan, 47.
Garlb Das, 68
112 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Gauri Parinay, 93
Ghagh, 85.'
Ghan Syam Sukla, 82
Ghasi Ram, 84
Ghat Ramayan, 60
Gilchrist, Dr. John, 88
Giri Dhar, 86
Giri Dhar Das, 93
Gita Govinda, 20, 28, 73
Golcul Nath, 49, 75, 94, 100
Gokul Prasad, 94
Gopal, 95
Gopal Chand, 93
Gopal Ram, 93
GopI Nath, 94
Gorakhnath, 18, 100
Gosain Charitr, 59
Govind Das, 72
Govind Singh, 63 f.
Govind Sukhad Bihar, 94
Granth of the Tenth Guru,
63 f.
Granth Sahib, 10, 19 f., 26 f.,
63 f.
Gulal Sahib, 67
Guman Misra, 49
Gurdln Pande, 95
Guru Datt Singh, 47
Guru Granth Sahib, 68
Gwal, 96
Gyan Praka, 69
Gyan Samudra, 66
LIAMMIR Hath, 94
** Hammlr Kavya, 17, 82
Hammir Rasa, 17
Hanuman Chhapplsi, 60
Hanuman Nataka, 59, 98
Hari Charan Das, 50
Hari Das, 77 f.
Harikesh, 82
Hari Prasad, 44
HariSchandra, 11, 91 f., 93, 96
Harivarha, 76, 86
Harsh Nath Jha, 93, 97
High Hindi, 2 ff., 88 f.
Hindi 2 ff., 34, 88 f.
Hit Haribans, 76
Hitopadesa, 89
Hit Tarangini, 33
TNDO-ARYAN Languages, 1, 7
Indravati, 86
Ishqnama, 49
Ishwari Prasad Tripathi, 60
jagjiwan uas, oo r.
Jagnayak (Jagnik), 9, 15
Jahanglr, 10, 36, 39, 84 f.
Jai Chand, 97
Jaidev, 20
Jai Dev Bilas, 81
Jains, ,84, 85, 97
Jain Satak, 85
Jai Singh, 95
Jai Singh Kalpadrum, 82
Jai Singh Sawal, 82, 85
Jaipur, 35 f., 42, 46, 82, 85, 97
Jalali Das, 69
Jalhan, 15
Jan Gopal, 49
Janki Prasad, 98
Janki Rasik Saran, 60
Japjl, 27, 63
Japji, 64
Jaswa^t Singh, 44 f., 47
Jata. Sankar 31
Jatibilas, 45
Jayadeva, 20, 28
Jodhpur, 44, 82, 94
Jodhraj, 82
KABIR, 9 f., 22 ff., 31, 62 f.
66 ff., 70, 95
Kabirpanthis, 23, 62 f., 68
Kalidas Hajara, 47
Kalidas Trivedi, 47, 48
Kamal, 26
KanarpI Ghat Larai, 83
Karan, 36, 82, 95"
Karnes, 36
Kashmir Kusum, 92
KaI Nath, 39
Kasi Nath Khattri, 93
Kavi Bachan Sudha, 92
Kavi-kul Kalpa-taru, 40
Kavi Mala, 42
Kavindra Kalpa Lata, 42
INDEX
113
Kavi Priya, 37, 50, 95
Kavitta, 6, 40, 57 f., 59, 74
Kavitta Alcali, 97
Kavitta Ratnakar, 40
Kavittavali, 57
Kavya, 6
Kavya Kalpadrum, 40
Kavya Prakas, 40
Kavya Saroj, 47
Kavya Vivek, 40
Kayattri (Kaithi), 5
Kedar, 12
Kesav Das, 10, 33, 37 ff., 40, 44,
47, 50, 74, 95, 96, 101
Kesav Das, 67
Khankhana, 36 f., 52
Kharl Boll, 4, 88
Khas Granth, 24
Khuman Rasa, 12
Kishor, 48
Kishor Safigrah, 48
Kripa Ram, 33, 37, 85
Krishna, 9, 27 ff., 40, 43, 54, 58,
72 ff., 98, 102
Krishna Das Pay Ahari, 72
Krishna Kallol, 78
Krishna nand Vyas Dev, 94
Krishnayan, 79
Kulpati Misra, 46
Kumar Mani Bhatt, 49
Kumar Pal.* 12
Kumbhan Das, 72
Kundaliya, 6, 63, 86
I AKSHMAN Singh, 93
^ Lalak Das, 98
Lala Sita Ram, 93
Lai Chandrika, 89
Lai Das, 66
Lalit Kishori, 98
Lalit Lalam, 41, 48
Lalit Prakas, 78
Lalitya Lata, 48
Lai Jha, 83
Lai Kavi, 83
Lallu Ji Lai, 4, 11, 40, 85, 88 f.,
93, 101
1V/IADHONAL, 85
1V1 Madhu Sudan Das, 60
Mahabharata, 49, 85
Mahajani, 5
Mahapralay, 69
Mahoba Khand, 15
Maithili, 5, 28* 83, 86, 93, 97
Malik Muhammad Jayasi, 10,
31 ff., 86
Maluk Das, 58 f.
Man, 78, 81, 95
Manas Sankavali, 98
Manbodh Jha, 86
Manchit Dwij, 79
Mandan, 30, 46, 100
Man Das, 59
Mani Dev, 94
Mani Ram Mira, 48
Maniyar Singh, 60
Manohar Das, 36
Mansa Ram, 97
Man Singh, 36, 52, 94 f.
Markandeya Purana, 85, 100
Marwa'r," 50, 81 f."
Marwari, 3, 97
Masaud, 12
Mati Ram TripathI, 41 f., 48, 96
Meerut, 4, 88
Mewar, 3, 12, 29, 81
Mira Bal, 10, 29
Mohan Bhatt, 95
Moti Ram, 85
Mubarak AH, 84
Muhammad Shah, 47, 68
Mukti Muktavall, 99
Mulla Daud, 18
Mun, 97
Muttra, 4, 42, 72 f., 80
NABHA Das, 52, 58, 73
Nagarl Das, 77, 86
Nagari Pracharini Sabha, 106
Nahush Natak, 93
Nakhsikh, 39, 42 f., 47 f., 59, 96
Nala and Damayanti, 74
Nalla Singh, 18
Namdev, 10,20, 63
Nanak, 26, 63 f., 66
Nand Das, 72 f.
Narayan Ray, 96
Narhari Sahay, 36
Narottam Das, 33
114 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Narsingh Mehta, 28
Nasketopakhyan, 89
Nath Kavi. 84
Navin, 96
Nayak-Nayika Bhed, 39, 42 f.,
Nazir, 84 [46, 49
Nehpraka, 60
Newaj, 46, 93
Nidhan, 86
Nilkanth TripathI, 40
Ni&chal Das, 66
North India Tract Society, 107
Nur Muhammad, 86
DADMAKAR Bhatt, 95, 96
r PadmavatI, 14, 102
Padumavati, 31, 86
Pajnes, 96
Paltu Sahib, 63
Panchadhyayl, 73
Panchatantra, 89
Panna, 41, 46, 48, 78, 83, 94, 96
Parmanand Das, 72
ParsI Praka, 42
ParSva Puran, 85
Ph aturi Lai, 97
Pifigal, 4
Pipa, 21
Plyush Nidhi, 48
Poetesses, 10, 29, 38, 47, 68, 78 f.
PrabhavatI Haran, 93, 97
Prabodh Chandroday, 93
Prakrit, 1, 10, 12 f., 93
Pran Nath, 69
Pratap Sahi, 96
Pratham Granth, 69
Pravin Ray Paturl, 38
Premchandrika, 45
Premlata, 76
Prem Prakas, 67
Prem Ratna, 79
Prem Ratnakar, 85
Prem Sagar, 89
Premsattvanirup, 72
Printing Press, 90
Prithi Raj, 8, 13
Prithi Raj Rass, 13
Priya Das, 58
Prose, 30, 85, 89 f., 97, 100, 105
Prosody, 6, 37 ff., 95 ft., 101
Puhakar, 84
Purohit GopI Nath, 93
Pushya (Punda), 12
QADIR Bakhsh, 76
Qutub AH, 12
DADHA, 28, 43, 74 ff.
JA Radha-sudh&-nidhi, 76
Radha-Vallabhis, 76 f.
Raghu Nath, 49
Raghu Nath Das, 98
Raghu Nath Ray, 82
Raghunath Rupak, 97
Raghu Raj Singh, 95
RaghuvarhSa, 98
Rag Mala, 36
Rag-Sagarodbhav Rag-Kalpa-
Rahim Sat Sai, 36 [drum, 93
Rai Das, 22, 29
Rai Pithora, 8, 13
Rajasthanl, 2 ff., 85, 89, 94
Raj Dev Bilas, 81
Rajniti, 89
Raj Pattana, 81
Rajputana, 8, 10, 31, 64, 68, 81,
84, 86
Raj Ratnakar, 81
Raj Rupakakhyat, 82
Rama, 9, 20, 23, 27 ff., 51 ff.,
97 f., 102
Ram Alankrimanjari, 38
Ramananda, 9, 19 ff., 27, 51, 58
Ramanandis, 21, 57 f.
Ram&Svamedh, 60
Ramayan, 40, 51 ff., 60, 89, 98
Ram Bilas, 60
Ram Bilas Ramayan, 60
Ram Chandra kl Sawari, 95
Ram Chandrika, 38
Ram Charan, 68, 86
Ram-Charit-Manas, 52 ff.
Ram Charitr, 59
Ram Das, 36, 63; 73
Ram Din TripathI, 95
Ram GItavall, 57
Ram Ji, 46
Ram Ravan Yuddh, 97
Ram Sahay Das, 96
Ram Sanehls, 68
INDEX
115
Ram Tattva Bodharri, 98
Ran Chhor, 29, 81
Ranthambhor, 9, 17
Ras, 43, 70
Ras Bilas, 45
Ras Chandrika, 39
Ras Chandroday, 93
Rasik Govind, 98
Rasik Priya, 38, 47, 50
Rasik Rasal, 49
Ris ke Pad, 77
Ras Khan, 76
Ras Lin, 48
Ras Rahasya, 46
Ras Raj, 42
Ras Ratan, 84
Ratan Kavi, 48
Ratan Kunwar, 79, 90
Ratnakhana, 59
Rav Rana, 94
Rav Ratan Raysa, 82
Rewah, 22, 82, 95
Rup Sahi, 95
CABAL Singh, 85
Sabdas, 24, 66 f.
Sabha Bilas, 89
Sadal Mira, 88 f.
SadaSiv, 81
Sadharan Siddhant, 77
Sadhs, 66
Sadna, 20
Sahaj Ram,, 98
Sahachari Saran, 78
Sahajo Bal, 68
Sahityalahari, 74
Sahitya Sammelan, 107
Sakhis, 24 f., 66, 68
Sakuntala Natak, 46, 93
Salihotr, 86
Samarsar, 49
Sambhu Nath, 60
Sambhu Nath Mtera, 49
6ymbhu Nath Singh, 42
Saneh Sagar, 78
Sangit Sar, 36
Sanskrit, 1, 5, 19 ff., 28, 30, 35 f.,
43 f., 48,52 , 59, 67, 73, 76 f.,
, 90, 93, 95, 97, 105
Sarang Dhar, 9, 17, 82
49 f., 57, 78,
42 [89, 95 f .
60
Sarasvati, 42
Sardar, 96
Sarra.fi, 5
Satnamis, 68 f.
Sat Sal, 42 ff., 47,
Sat Sal Mati Ram
Satya Praka, 67
Satyopakhyan, 98
Saundarya Lahari,
Savaiya, 6, 50, 66
Sayyad Gulam Nabi, 48
Sen, 21
SenapatI, 10, 40
Serampore, 89
Shah Jahan, 10, 39 f., 42, 82
Shekh Rangrezin, 47
Sikandar LodI, 23
Sikhs, 26, 63 f.
Singhasan Battisi, 40, 89
SIta, 51 ff., 102
Sital, 78
Sita Ram Dhyanrhanjari, 60
Siv Arsela, 49 f.
Siv Narayan, 68
Siv Prakas Singh, 98
Siv Prasad, 79, 90
Siv Raj, 41
Siv Raj Bhushan, 41
$iv Singh Saroj, 94
Siv Singh Sengar, 94
Somnath, 48
Soratha, 6, 43
Sri Dhar, 84
Sri Hit Brindaban D&s Ji
Sri Nagari Das, 86 [Ch&cha, 77
Sringar Sangrah, 96
^rinivas Das, 93
Sripati, 47, 49
Sudami Charitr, 33
Sudan
Sudhanidhi, 47
Sujan Charitr, 83
Sukh Dev MiSra, 46
Sukh Nidhan, 62
Sundar, 39
Sundar Bilas, 66
Sundar Das, 66
Sundari Kunwari Bai, 79
Sundari Tilak, 92
Sundarkand, 60
116 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE
Sundar Satak, 95
Sundar Sringar, 39
Siinlsar, 97
Surati Misra, 47
Suravall, 74
Surbhldanllla, 79
Sur Das, 10, 13, 36 f., 52, 57,
72 ff. 80, 96
Sur Sagar, 74
Surya Praka, 82
Surya Malla, 95
T A J> 78
1 Tan Sen, 35 f.
Teg Bahadur, 63
Thakur, 50
thakur Prasad Tripathi, 94
Thakur Satak, 50
Than Ram, 49
Todar Mai, 35
Tota Ram, 93
Tosh Nidhi, 47
Tripathi Brothers, 10, 40 ff.
Tulsl,' 42
Tulsi Das, 10, 37, 44, 51 ff.,
72 ff., 95, 98, 102
Tulsl Sahib, 60
T TDAY NathTrivedi,
KJ Umapati, 28
48
Urdu, 2ff.35, 88 f.
Usha Haran, 93
\/AISHNAVAS, 9, 19, 28, 55,
v 57 f., 75
Vallabhacharis, 72 ff. 75, 78
Vallabhacharya, 30, 72 f., 75
Valmiki, 52, 59 f.
Vedang Ray, 42
Vedanta, 22, 23, 45, 55, 65 f.,
84, 85
Vichitr Natak, 64
Vidyapati thakur, 10, 28, 93
Vidya Sundar, 93
Vigyan Gita, 37
Vijai Muktavali, 85
Vijai Singh, 82
Vikram Sahi, 85, 95
Vinay Patrika, 57, 95, 98
VIsala-deva, 13
Vishnu Purana, 49
Vi^vanath Singh, 95
Vitthalnath, 30, 72, 75, 100
Vitthal Vipul, 78
W/ESTERN Hindi, 2 ff., 58,
YAMUNA Lahari, 96
1 Yari Sahib, 67
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