Page:A History of Hindi Literature.djvu/38

24 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE exiled from Benares by the Emperor's orders. He went to live at Maghar in the Gorakhpur district, where he ended his days. The poems composed by Kabir are very numerous. It is probable that he himself did not commit them to writing, but that they were remembered and treasured up by his disciples. Various collections of poems ascribed to Kabir have come down to us, but there is a strong probability that there is much in these collec- tions that is not hi^s genuine work. One collection is to be found in the Adi Gra^ith of the Sikhs, which was compiled in 1604. Another collection is contained in the Bijak (literally "invoice," or ** account-book," or perhaps " a document by which a hidden treasure can be located"). This work was produced in connection with the Kabir Panth after the death of Kabir probably as 'a book of instruction. It is often said to have been compiled by Bhago Das, one of Kabir's immediate disciples, about the year 1570. The Bijak is a collec- tion of verses in various metres. The Ramainls are short doctrinal poems. The Sabdas are similar but in a different metre. The Chauntlsa is an exposition of the religious signification of the consonants of the Nagari alphabet. In the thirty verses of the Vipra- matisi an attack is made on the orthodox system of the Brahmans. The Kaharas, Vasanias, Bells, Chancharls, Bir hulls and Hindolas are religious verses in the metres so named. The collection ends with over four hundred Sakhis, or short apophthegms, each consisting of a single doha, and the Sayar Bijak Ko Pad, which sums up the whole matter. Neither the verses contained in the Adi Grayith nor those in the Bijak can be regarded in their entirety as the work of Kabir. Besides these there are a very large number of Sakhis (of which over five thousand have been collected) and other verses ascribed to Kabir which are still current in India. At the Kabir Chaura, which is the headquarters of the Kabir Panth at Benares, there is said to be a collection of the works of Kabir, called the Khas Gra7ith, which includes about twenty different books.