70 
THE MODEEN LITEEAEY HISTOEY OE HINDUSTAN. 
ft 171. 
escorted out of Char’kharl by many respectable and learned men of 
tlie place. When they had gone a little way the others returned, but 
Khuman stayed by him, in spite of the saint advising him to go home. 
Khuman’s argument was, “ Why should I return to my home? I am 
blind, ignorant, and of no use in the house. As the proverb says, I am 
like the washerman’s donkey, who belongs neither to the house nor 
to the washing place.” 1 2 Pleased at this the saint wrote the mantra of 
Saraswatl on his tongue, and told him first to compose a poem in 
honour of his (the saint’s) gourd pot. Khuman immediately composed 
twenty-five verses in its honour, and after worshipping the saint’s 
feet returned home. There he began to compose epics in Sanskrit and 
in the vernacular. 
Once he was attending the court of Raja Sendhia (Scindia), of 
Givaliyar, who commanded him to spend the whole night in writing 
a work in Sanskrit Khuman agreed to do this, and in one night 
composed seven hundred clokas. 
He is considered to have been truly an inspired poet. His best 
known works are the Lachhman Satak and the Hanuman Nakh’sikh.* 
He is possibly the same as a poet named Khuman Kabi (date 
unknown), who metrically translated a section of the Amara Kooa 
(Rag.) into the vernacular. 
Part II.—Other Poets. 
[These are grouped as far as possible according to their patrons or the states to 
which they were attached.] 
171- Najlr (Nazir), of Ag’ra, FI. before 1300 A.D. 
Rag. A poet of considerable fame, first prominently introduced 
to European readers by Mr. Fallon in the preface to his Hindustani 
Dictionary. Mr. Fallon says that he is the only poet whose verses 
have made their way to the people, and that there is scarcely an 
indifferent line in all that he has written. To these very wide state¬ 
ments I am quite unable to subscribe. His writings (quoted as 
Nazir til Shair in. Rag.) certainly are popular among certain classes, 
but they have nothing like the general acceptance of the works of poets 
like Tul’sl Das, Sur Das, Malik Muhammad Jayasl, and other giants 
1 I.e., he is always going backwards and forwards between them. 
2 See note to No. 87. 
