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the MODERN LITERARY HISTORY OF HINDlJSTlN. 
of the heroic Chhattr’ Sal, Char’khan made famous under milder 
auspices by Bikram Sahi, and Rliua, illustrious for its art-patrons 
from the days of Neja Ram to those of Biswanath Sirjgh, each formed 
a centre from which issued well-known standard works on the art 
of poetry. The writers, of whom perhaps Padmdkar was the most 
famous, were those on whom the mantles of Kesab Das and 
Chintamani Trlpatht fell. They were the last survivors of the learned 
writing for the learned. Bundel’khand remained during the whole 
half-century a country of semi-independent chiefs warring amongst 
themselves, with whom the printing-press found little favour. 
Far different was the case of Ban dr as- The end of the eighteenth 
century saw that city a British possession; and with the pax Britannica 
came the introduction of printed books. This had its natural effect. 
The limitless multiplication of copies by the art of printing gave a 
new audience to the learned,—an audience that had hitherto been 
satisfied with the rough Doric of the folk-epic, and which in the 
earlier days of India’s chivalry had been successfully addressed by 
Raj’put bards. What an opportunity for making or marring a nation’s 
character! And here again the pure and noble figure of Tul’sT Das 
stands forward as the saviour of his fellow-countrymen. Hindustan, 
happily in this differing from Bangui, 1 had that figure to go back to 
as an example. His popularity gave its tone to the demand, and 
with characteristic acuteness the Banaras Pandits fostered the supply. 
In 1829 was completed and printed for the Maharaj of Banaras 
GbkulNath’s great translation of the companion epic to the Rama - 
yana, the Mahabharata. This alone was sufficient to make our present 
period noteworthy, but it is only one early instance of the many 
valuable works issuing from the Holy City. Other authors, of a 
younger generation, of whom one of the greatest is happily still alive, 
endowed with a wider and more catholic mental vision, no longer 
bounded by the horizon of Pauranik cosmology, came to the front, and 
the benefit done to the intellect of Hindustan by such men as Raja 
Siua Prasad and Harishchandr’ cannot easily be calculated. 
The Ta'aluqdars of Audh also worthily upheld their reputations 
as encouragers of poetry. Although eclipsed by Banaras in this respect 
(for is not the Sundarl Tilak deservedly the most popular work of its 
1 It is needless to say that I am not referring to the great revival of Bapgali 
literature inaugurated by Ishiuar Chandra ( Bidydscigar ) in later years, but to 
the insipid indecencies of Bharat Chandra and his imitators, which up to then 
were so popular. 
