XX 
INTRODUCTION, 
While the successors of Ballabhachar’j were filling Braj with their 
music, the not distant Mughal Court at Dilll had collected a group 
of state poets, some of whom were of no mean reputation. Todar 
Mall, who besides being a great finance minister was the immediate 
cause of the acceptance of the Urdu language, Bir’bal, Ak’bar’s 
friend and author of many witty impromptus, ‘Abdu’r Bahlm 
Ivhan’khana, and Man Sirjgh of Amer, were more famous as the 
patrons of authors than as vernacular writers themselves; but 
Nar’hari, Hari Nath, Karan, and Gagg, are justly celebrated as poets 
of a high rank. 
Tubs! Das (fl. 1600, d. 1624), the greatest poet of the deeds of 
Bam, occupies a position amongst these authors peculiar to himself. 
Far different from the founders of the Braj school, who were surrounded 
by numerous imitators and successors, he lived in Banaras, unapproach¬ 
able and alone in his niche in the Temple of Fame. Disciples he had 
in plenty,—to-day they are numbered by millions,—but imitators, none. 
Looking back along the vista of centuries we see his noble figure 
standing in its own pure light as the guide and saviour of Hindustan. 
His influence has never ceased—nay, it has increased and is still 
increasing ; and when we reflect on the fate of Tantra-ridden Bengal or 
on the wanton orgies which are carried out under the name of Krisna 
worship, we can justly appreciate the work of the man who first in 
India since Buddha’s time taught man’s duty to his neighbour and 
succeeded in getting his teaching accepted. His great work is at the 
present day the one Bible of a hundred millions of people ; and fortunate 
has it been for them that they had this guide. It has been received as 
the perfect example of the perfect book, and thus its influence has not 
only been exercised over the unlettered multitude, but over the long 
series of authors who followed him, and especially over the crowd who 
sprung into existence with the introduction of printing at the 
beginning of the present century. As Mr. Growse well says in the 
introduction to his translation of the Ram ay an of this author, 
u the book is in every one’s hands, from the court to the cottage, and 
is read or heard and appreciated alike by every class of the Hindu 
community, whether high or low, rich or poor, young or old.” For 
further particulars concerning him the reader is referred to the body 
of this work. 
This Augustan age was not only a period of the erotic poetry 
of Sur Das and of the nature-poetry of Tul’sl, but was also signalized 
by the first attempts to systematize the art of poetry itself. The 
