4. The modern period, marked by the growth of a prose literature in both dialects, and dating from the beginning of the present century.

1. Early Hindi literature has as yet been very insufficiently explored.· Chand’s Prithwïrâj Räsau is the only specimen of the heroic ballads of which any portion has been published, other ancient metrical chronicles of the same character being known to us only from the use made of them by such writers as Colonel Tod in his Annals of Rajasthan, and Major Pogson in his History of the Boondelas. Chand was the bard of Prithwiräj, the last Hindu king of Dehli, whose life and death he has related. He was himself a native of Lahore, which had for nearly 200 years (since 1023) been under Musulman domination at the time when the poem may be supposed to have been written. His language exhibits a considerable proportion of Persian words, but little of the distinctive features of what is now Panjabi. His work is probably, with the exception of a fragment by Jaideo (the author of the Sanskrit Gita·Govinda), preserved in the Ädi-Granth, the oldest specimen of Hindi which we possess: but it is impossible to suppose that he was the first to attempt poetical composition in that language. The metrical perfection of his verse alone shows that he must have had many predecessors; and rude and rough though his utterance is, it abounds in poetic conventionalisms which must have been the common stock of many singers of his class. The story is told in sixty-nine books, of which some are interludes and digressions, but most are occupied with the exploits of the hero and his warriors. Considering the early date of the poem, and the opportunities of knowing the truth which the author (if he was really Prithwiräj’s bard) possessed, it is remarkable how much legend and fiction is mixed up with history in the chronicle. The repeated conflicts between the räjä and Sultan Shihâbuddîn of Ghor, in which the latter always, except in the last great battle, comes off the worst, and is released on payment of a ransom, seem to be entirely unhistoric, our authorities knowing only one encounter (that of Tirauri near Thänesar, fought in 1191) in which the sultan was defeated, and there even he escaped uncaptured to Lahore. The Mughals (Book xv.) are brought on the stage more than thirty years before they actually set foot iu India (1222), and are related to have been vanquished by the redoubtable Prithwïrâj. These and other points make it questionable whether we have here, at least in its entirety, a genuine contemporary work; but we may concede, as indeed we are justified in doing by the language of the poem, that it is one of our earliest documents in Hindi.

It is very difficult for us now to form a just estimate of Chand’s poem: the language, essentially transitional in character, abounds in strange forms which have long since died out of the vernacular speech; few if any Hindus, even the most learned, are able to interpret him; and his meaning must be sought by investigating the processes by which Sanskrit and Prakrit words have been transfigured in their progress into Hindi. But upon the whole he may be said to exhibit both the merits and defects of ballad-chroniclers in general. There is much that is lively and spirited in his descriptions of fight or council; and the characters of the Räjpüt warriors who surround his.hero are not unfrequently sketched in their own words with skill and animation. The sound, however, too often predominates over the sense, and we find abundantly exemplified in his poem the wearisome iteration, uninventive sameness of machinery, and tedious unfolding of familiar themes and images which distinguish nearly the whole of Indian narrative poetry. His value, for us at least, is linguistic rather than literary.

The other class of composition which is characteristic of the period of Old Hindi, the literature of the Bhagats, both possesses more intrinsic interest and has exercised a more important influence on subsequent literary endeavour. The heroic chronicles, with perhaps the single exception of a famous saga relating the history of Padmävati, wife of Ratan Sen Räjä of Chitor, who in 1303 at the taking of that fortress by Sultan *Ala-ud-din burnt herself and (so says the tale) 13,000 other women rather than fall into the hands of the conqueror, which has been several times handled by poets outside the pale of Rajput traditions, and especially in a still highly esteemed work by Jaisi under Sher Shäh (1540), had only a local currency, and contributed but little to the furtherance of literature outside the limits of Râjpûtânâ. The Vaishnava reformers, on the other hand, exercised the most powerful influence both upon the national speech and upon the themes chosen for poetic treatment. Nearly the whole of subsequent Hindi literature is impressed with one or other form of Vaishnava doctrine; a very large proportion of the poets whose works are still current among the people were Vaishnava saints or bhagats ; and to their initiative is due the almost exclusive use as a poetic dialect of that form of archaic Hindi known as Braj-bhäkhä. Vaishnavism was essentially a reaction against Brahmanical influence and the chains of caste, a claim for the rights of humanity against the monopoly which the “twice-born ’’ asserted of learning, of worship, of righteousness. As Siva was the peculiar deity of the Brahmans, so was Vishnu of the people; and while the literature of the Sai vas and éâktas is almost entirely in Sanskrit, and exercised little or no influence on the popular mind, that of the Vaishnavas is mainly in Hindi, and in itself constitutes the great bulk of what has been written in that language.

The Vaishnava doctrine is commonly carried back to Ramanuja, whose appearance is placed by Wilson about the middle of the 12th century. He was a native of Southern India, and had few immediate followers in the north. In the latter region the new opinions were spread by Rämänand, whom the Bhaktamälä makes the fourth head of the sect, and other authorities the fifth; both Wilson and Trumpp place him about 1400 of our era. Nothing in Hindi by Ramanuja has come down to us; of Rämänand we have one short poem in the Grαηth (Introduction, p. cxxiv.). Between Ramanuja and Rämänand (though not in the line of teachers descending direct from the former) we may place Jaideo (about 1250) and Nämdeo (about 1300), of the first of whom we have a fragment in the Granth, and of the second six pieces have been similarly preserved. Jaideo was a Brahman, and well acquainted with Sanskrit; but Nämdeo (or Nämä) was a chhïpï or calico-printer, a very despised class, and was perhaps the first to proclaim among the followers of the new doctrine the essential unity of mankind as worshippers of Hari. Kabir comes next, and is incomparably the greatest, in the order of Vaishnava teachers. He was a weaver by caste, and in all probability originally a Musalmän. He is counted among the twelve disciples of Rämänand; but he seems himself to trace his spiritual paternity rather to Jaideo and Nämä. He dwelt first at Benares and afterwards at Magahar, in the present district of Gorakhpur, during the reign of Sikandar Shäh Lodi (1488-1517), and was probably dead before the end of the 15th century. Nänak, the first Guru of the Sikhs, whose Granth is little more than a paraphrase of Kabir’s writings, was born in 1469 and died in 1538; and from the relation between the two it seems necessary to suppose that Kabir was several years the senior.

The works attributed to Kabir are very numerous; they are preserved complete at the headquarters of the sect, the Kabir chaura at Benares, and many portions of them have been separately printed and lithographed in India. The best known are those entitled the Sakhis,Sabds, and Rekhtas, which have a wide popularity even among those who are not professed disciples of the saint. Several of the compositions enumerated under the name of Kabir are, however, not by him, but by his disciples: as the lesser Bïjak, by Bhago-Däs, the Sukh-Nidhän, by Srut-Gopäl, &c.; it was the custom (as also that of Kabir’s religious heirs, the Sikh Gurus) for the successors in the guruship to speak in the name of him whose successors they were. The doctrine of Kabir

was philosophically a form of pantheism, accounting for the existence of phenomena (the reality of which was denied) by the agency of a Maya, or illusion, emanating from the Supreme. The varied lot of men in life, their differences of faith and aim, their desires, fears, hopes, loves, are all the work of this Mäyä, to know which, and to recognize beneath all the Supreme, is the only means of emancipation from the chains of illusion. Neither austerities, ritual, nor works of any kind are necessary to obtain the highest end; this is only to be gained by bhakti, li faith,” and perpetual meditation on the Supreme—His names, Hari, Ram, Govind, being ever on the lips and in the heart. The highest end is absorption in the Supreme, reunion with Him from whom all proceeded and who exists in all. Little place is left in this somewhat barren doctrine for a social code, since works are naught; but negatively, at least, it.is inoffensive, commanding respect for all forms of life, and quiet performance of duty without self-seeking or desire for gain.

Of the spiritual followers of Kabir many have left memorials in literature; one of the most eminent of these was Dädü, founder of a sect very prevalent in Räjpütänä. A translation of two chapters from the Granth or scripture of this Bhagat will be found in a note to Wilson’s Religious Sects of the Hindus, pp. 106-113, and will repay perusal. But those whose compositions, if not most excellent from a literary point of view, have at any rate wrought most in history, were the Gurus or spiritual heads of the Sikhs of the Panjâb. The Adi Granth, or Book of the first five Gurus (from Nänak, who died in 1538, to Arjun, who died in 1601), is described by its translator as “perhaps the most shallow and empty book that exists, in proportion to its size;” and certainly the translation is not attractive reading. But the doctrines, reiterated with the most painful diffuseness, are essentially those of Kabir, much of whose writings has been incorporated in the volume. The language is rather Old Hindi than Old Panjabi, and thus the work falls within the scope of this article; though Panjabi words and idioms frequently occur, the grammar is Hindi; and the authors evidently aimed at propagating their tenets rather among the Hindi-speaking races of Hindustan proper than (as actually happened) among the Panjabi-speaking tribes of the West and South-West. The Granth consists of six parts: I., the Japfi, the only portion as yet published in Europe in the original Hindi; II., III., and IV., arrangements for devotional purposes of extracts from Part V., the Rägs or body of the Granth; of these Rags there are thirty-one, but only four, Sm Rag, Majh, Gauri, and Asa, have been rendered by Trumpp; the remaining twenty-seven are described as “a second gathering or gleaning, as materials offered themselves, no attention being paid to the contents, but only to the bulky size of the Granthf VI., the Bhog or conclusion, containing verses by various authors, among them Kabir and Shekh Farid of Pâkpattan, a famous Indian Sufi, and panegyrics of the five Gurus by fifteen bhαtts or bards. At the end of each Räg is a collection of sayings of the Bhagats, chiefly of Kabir, in confirmation of the doctrines set forth by the Gurus; and it is in these additions that the literary importance of the work, as a treasure of specimens of early Hindi, mainly consists.

Another of the following of Rämänand, though consider ably later in time than Kabir, was Sür-Däs. Of his life little is known: as some of his verses are included in the Granth, he must have lived before its redaction (about 1600); if he be the same as a saint of that name mentioned in the Bhaktamalä, as is probable, he was a Brahman, amvn or revenue collector of the parganah of Sandilä in Oudh during the reign of Akbar, who is related to have appropriated the collections of his district for the service of the temple of Madan-Mohan at Brindäban, sending to the treasury instead chests filled with stones. When his delinquency was discovered, he was pardoned by Akbar, but thenceforth abandoned the world, and, becoming blind, led a wandering life as a singer of the praises of Vishnu. His stanzas, generally of four lines (padas), are said to number no less than 125,000; they are collected in a huge volume entitled the Sür-Sägar, and are extremely popular.

While the sects of which Rämänand may be considered the spiritual father adore the Deity chiefly under the names of Rama, Hari, Goviηd, and dwell but little on the avatars or human incarnations of the Hindu god whom they have selected as the type of the Supreme, there is another division of the λ z aishnavas which is not less important in Hindi authorship, and counts its adherents by millions, whose worship is of a different character. The sects belonging to this division take Krishna as their favourite type of the godhead, and, accepting the whole mass of legends (most of them probably of comparatively late origin) relating to this incarnation, inspire themselves with fervour by the contemplation chiefly of Krishna’s childhood and his youth in the society of the herd-maidens of Braj. As the doctrine and object of worship are, so also is the mode of life. The Rämänandis are for the most part men of ascetic and unworldly life, not indeed given to self-torture or needless rigour, but caring nothing for the wealth of the world, and living quietly and soberly in the possession of what they deem the truth. The worshippers of Krishna and his mistress Rädhä, or of the infant Bäl-Gopäl, on the other hand, are no ascetics, but persons of luxurious and often opulent lives; among women especially this form of devotion is widespread. The chief sect of this denomination is the Vallabhächäris, or the following of the Gokulastha Gosaïhs. Their founder was one Vallabha Swâmï, a Brahman from the south, wffio settled at Gokul near Mathurä, probably about the beginning of the 16th century. The best known works of this sect are the Braj-biläs, a description of Krishna’s sports with the maidens of Brindâban, by Brajbäsi-Däs, and the Värttä, a 'collection of legends regarding eighty-four teachers of the following, resembling the Bhaktamälä, which deals chiefly with the other division of Vaishnavas. The popularity of the Brαj- biläs is immense, and it is to be found in a lithographed form for sale in every bazaar. Its contents (as indeed many other productions of the worshippers of Krishna) have been condemned by Europeans as indecent; but although containing much that seems at least outwardly licentious and prurient, it is a work the study of which is indispensable to one who w ould understand the religious temper of the Hindus. The mystic dwelling on the amours of Krishna and the Gοpιt of Braj has been often compared to the mystical interpretation of the Song of Solomon; and in most religions we shall perhaps find at least one phase in which the sensual is curiously mingled with the spiritual, and faith and love towards the heavenly stimulated by thoughts and phrases drawn from earthly scenes of passion. Of the Värttä we shall speak under the next division of our subject.

2. Middle Hindi reaches from about 1570 to 1750. To this age belong the best poets of Hindi literature, Kesav-Däs, Bihäri-Läl, and Tulsi-Däs, whose writings are no less remarkable for skill and subtlety of language than for perfection of metrical form. The labours of their predecessors had wrought the language of western Hindustan into a medium worthy of being put to the highest poetic use; and we accordingly find in the poets of this period large borrowings from Braj, even where (as with Tulsi-Däs) that idiom is not the dialect of their own region. From their day onward Braj-bhäkhä has been esteemed (in the words of Lallü-Läl) “the standard language of sentiment (mahärasa-mül), and equal to the speech of the gods” (ie., Sanskrit).

Kesav-Däs was a Brahman who lived under Jahangir and Shähjahän. He was the author of a poem on Räma, entitled the Rämachandrikä, written in 1602; the Kavi-priya, written in the same year, a treatise on the poetic art of much celebrity; the Rasik-prvyα, on rhetoric, written in 1592: the Bhakta-lllämmta, an exposition of the doctrine of Rämänandi Vaishnavism; and several other works. Kesav-Däs’s compositions are widely popular, and have been frequently lithographed in Northern India.

Bihäri-Läl is renowned as the author of the Sat-sai, a collection of 700 distichs, which is perhaps the most celebrated work of Hindi poetic art, as distinguished from narrative and simpler styles. They are inspired by the Krishna side of Vishnu-worship, and take the form of amorous dialogues between Rädhä and the other Gopns and their lover. The author was a native of Goäliyär, and lived at Amber during the early part of the 17th century. Editions of this work, one of the most difficult in Hindi and abounding in subtle conceits, are very numerous. It has been commented on by a crowd of scholars, among them, strange to say, more than one Musalmän,—a sufficient proof of the value set by natives of India, irrespective of their creed, on its perfection of language. It has even been translated into Sanskrit.

Tulsi-Däs, though perhaps inferior in poetic skill to the two last mentioned, is undoubtedly the most popular Hindi poet. His Rämäyan (originally named by the author Räm- charit-manas, or “the Lake of Räma’s deeds ”) is perhaps better known among Hindus in Upper India than the Bible among the rustic population of England. He was a Kanauji Brahman, and probably (from his language) a native of Oudh. The greater part of his life he spent at Benares; he died in 1624. His Rämäyan was commenced at Ayodhyä in 1573. Besides this great work, he is the author of six other poems, all bearing more or less on the history and worship of Räma, called the Räm-gitävali, the Dohävali, thè Kabit-sambandh, the Binay-patrikä, the Pad- Rämäyan, and the Ghhandavali. Seven other minor works are attributed to him, but their authenticity is doubtful.

Tulsi’s Rämäyan is a rehandling of the great theme of Välmiki, but in no sense a translation of the Sanskrit poem; real translations are scarcely to be found in original Hindi literature, the vernacular authors permitting themselves great liberty of excision, adaptation, and addition. It consists of seven books, of which the first two, called the Bäl-känd and Ayodhyä-känd, make up more than half the work, and relates the birth and boyhood of Räma and his brethren, his marriage with Sitä, their dwelling together in the forest, her abduction by Rävan, the expedition to Lankä and the overthrow of the ravisher, and the life at Ayodhyä after the return of the...