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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2, p. 416.

4I6 THE I.NDIAN EMPIRE [CHAP. Considerations of space prohibit any attempt to give a com- plete account of the enormous mass of Indian vernacular literature. In the following pages the literature directly or indirectly connected with the three great forms of bhakli will be considered first. Here the classification will be, primarily, according to the objects of worship, and only secondarily accord- ing to language. Thus the literature, as a whole, dealing with Rama will be described, followed by brief notices of its most important examples in each language. Then the literatures connected with Krishna, and with diva (or Durga), will be discussed in the same manner. After these have been dis- posed of, the remaining space will be allotted to other features of the various literatures. Here each language will be con- sidered separately. Three or four will be handled at some length. The rest must necessarily be dismissed in a few lines for each. Rama The literature dealing with Rama had its origin in the twelfth literature. century in Southern India. Riam5nuja, its founder, came from Rdmanuja. Conjeeveram. He wrote only in Sanskrit, and addressed him- self only to Brahmans. A Vedantist by religion, the cardinal point of his teaching was the personal existence of a Supreme Deity, endowed with every gracious attribute, full of love and pity for the sinful beings who adore him, and granting the released soul a home of eternal bliss near him-a home where each soul never loses its identity, and whose state is one of perfect peace. In the Deity's infinite love and pity he has on occasions become incarnate in various forms for the salvation of mankind, and his fullest and most noble incarnation was that of the Great Example, Rama-chandra. The sect which Ramlnuja founded did not gain much popularity in Northern India, and was bound by the strictest rules regarding eating, bathing, and dressing. Rama- Early in the fifteenth century one of its prominent members, nanda. Ramananda, was outcasted for suspected infringement of these rules, and, in dudgeon, he migrated to the Ganges valley, and formed a new sect-teaching in the vernacular, and admitting all castes, even the lowest, to his fold. In other respects his doctrine was identical with that of Ramanuja. He had twelve apostles, amongst whom were numbered a Rajput, a currier, a I(abir. barber, and a Miusalman weaver. The last mentioned was the celebrated Kabir, the founder of the Kabir-panthi sect. With amazing boldness Kabir assailed the whole system of idolatrous worship practised by the Hindus as well as the sophistications of Muhammadan doctors. Much of his doctrine, and even some of his language, were borrowed from the Nestorian