OP THE HINDUS. 



47 



Mdld win be given in their proper places, and it will be sufficient here to con- 

 fine our further extracts from that authority to Nabhaji, the author, Sur Das, 

 and TuLASi Das, to whose poetical talents the late version of it is largely in- 

 debted, andJAYADEVA, whose songs have been translated by Sir William Jones. 



Nabhaji, the author of the Bhakta Mdlci, was by birth a Dom, a caste 

 whose employ is making baskets and various sort of wicker work. The early 

 commentators say he was of the Hanumdn Bans, or Monkey tribe, because, 

 observes the modern interpreter, Bdner, a monkey, signifies in the Marwar 

 language, a Dom, and it is not proper to mention the caste of a Valshnava by 

 name: he was born blind, and when but five years old, was exposed by his 

 parents, during a time of scarcity, to perish in the woods : in this situation 

 he was found by Agradas and KfL, two Vaislmava teachers : they had com- 

 passion upon his helplessness, and Kil sprinkled his eyes with the water of 

 his KamandalUf or water pot, and the child saw : they carried Nabhaji to their 

 Maikf where he was brought up, and received the initiatory Mantra from 

 Agradas : when arrived at maturity, he wrote the Bhakta Mdld by desire of 

 his Guru. The age of Nabhaji must be about two centuries, or two and a half, 

 as he is made cotemporary with Man Sink, the Raja of JaynagaVy and with 

 Akber. He should date much earlier, if one account of his spiritual descent 

 which makes him the fourth from Ramanand* be admitted, but in the 

 Bhakta Mdld, Krishna Das, the second in that account, does not descend in 

 a direct line from RamXnand, but derives his qualifications as teacher from the 

 immediate instructions of Vishnu himself: there is no necessity, therefore, to 

 connect Nabhaji with Ramanand. The same authority places him also 

 something later, as it states that Tulasi Das, who was cotemporary with Shah 

 Jehan, visited Nabhaji at Vrindavan. It is probable, therefore, that this writer 



* 1 Ramanand, 2 Asanand, 3 Krish&a Das, 4j Kil and Agradas, 5 Nabhaji, see 

 the next division of this section. 



