INTRODUCTION. 
XVII 
six centuries. Is it unreasonable to hope that some enlightened 
prince of Raj’putana will rescue these documents from the undeserved 
obscurity in which they lie, and publish the texts of all of them, with 
English translations ? 
Turning aside from these bardic historians we may now revert 
to the growth of vernacular literature in the Gangetic valley, coin¬ 
cident with the rise of the Yaishnava religion at the commencement 
of the 15th century. Ramanand, the popularizer of the worship of 
Rama, flourished about the year 1400; and even greater than he was 
his famous disciple Kablr, who succeeded in founding a still existing 
sect, which united the salient points of Muhammadanism and Hinduism. 
Here we first touch upon that marvellous catholicity of sentiment of 
which the key-note was struck by Ramanand, which is visible in the 
doctrines of all his successors, and which reached its truest height in 
the lofty teaching of Tubs! Das two centuries later. The worship of 
the deified prince of Audh, and the loving adoration of Slta, the perfect 
wife and the perfect mother, have developed naturally into a doctrine of 
eclecticism in its best form—a doctrine which, while teaching the infinite 
vileness of mankind before the Infinitely Good, yet sees good in every¬ 
thing that He has created, and condemns no religion and no system 
of philosophy as utterly bad that inculcates, Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 1 
Far different has been the fate of that other great branch of the 
Yaishnava religion which is founded on mystic interpretations of the 
love which Krisna bare to Radha. Beautiful in itself, paralleled, also, 
by the teaching of many Christian doctors, and rendered more beauti¬ 
ful by the magic poetry of Mira Bal (fl. 1420) in the west, and of 
Bidyapati Thakur (fl. 1400) in the east, its passionate adoration, 
whose inner meaning was too esoteric for the spirits of the common 
herd of disciples, in many cases degenerated into a poetry worthy of 
only the baser sorts of Tantrik Qiva worshippers. But at its best 
the Krisna cult is wanting in the nobler elements of the teaching 
of Ramanand. Its essence is almost selfish—a soul-absorbing, nay 
all-absorbing, individual love cast at the feet of Him who is Love itself. 
1 Mr. Growse {e.g. in the note to Ram. Ba. Doha, 24) has pointed out, 
in his translation of the Rdm-cJiarit-manas , several points of resemblance 
between the doctrines of the Christian Church and those of Tul'sl Das. There 
are hymns in our Church hymnals which might be literal translations of 
passages written by this great poet. 
