THE MODEM YERNACULAR LITERATURE 
OF 
HINDUSTAN. 
- ♦- 
CHAPTER I. 
THE BARDIC PERIOD. [700—1300 A.D.] 
1. 3SJ the poet Pusya, of Ujain . FI. 713 A.D. 
This is the earliest vernacular poet of whom I have found any 
mention in Native authors. The Sib Siygh Saroj states that he 
flourished in the year 713, and that he is the “ root of the vernacular” 
bhtkha ki jar . It is not clear from this account whether his name 
was Pusya, Puspa, or Punda. It states categorically that he wrote 
both in Sanskrit and in the vernacular, and that he is mentioned 
by Col. Tod in his Rajasthan. If by vernacular we are to under¬ 
stand a stage of language later than that of the Prakrits, this seems 
a most improbable statement; nor can I find that it is borne out by 
Tod. The only allusion apparently bearing on this point in the 
Rajasthan is a reference (i, 229; Calcutta edition, i, 246) to a Pusya, 
the author of an inscription (translated i, 799). I can find no 
mention in Tod regarding the language in which he wrote. 
2 . Khuman Siygh alias Khuman Raut Guh’Iaut t 
king of Chitaur, in Mewar . FI. 830 A.D. 1 
In his honour was written the Khuman Ray’sa. This is the most 
ancient poetic chronicle of Mewar, and was written in the ninth 
1 See Tod’s Rajasthan , i, 240; Calc, ed., i, 258. 
* A 
