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THE MUGHAL COURT & HINDI LITERATURE 37 saying that other bards were vessels of virtue (Gun kd pair), but that Narhari Sahay was a great vessel (Mahdpdtr). A more famous poet connected with Akbar's court was Ganga Prasad, who is more commonly known as Gang Kaz'i. He lived probably from about 1533 to 1617. Very little is known of his life, and though he was very much honoured in his day only about thirty or thirty-five of his verses are still extant. On one occasion Abdul Rahim Khankhana, who w^as his special patron, is reported to have given him as much as thirty-six lakhs of rupees for a single verse. He is said to have excelled in the comic style and also in his description of battles. The Art of Poetry.— Besides the many poets who were closely connected with the court, the reign of Akbar was the period when such great poets as Tulsi Das and Sur Das flourished. These will be dealt with in later chapters in connection with the religious movements with which they were connected. But more closely in touch with the court was a movement to systematize the art of poetry itself. While great writers like Tulsi Das and Sur Das were far beyond their contem- poraries in the success they achieved in the handling of metres and the polish of their verse, earlier poets had often failed in this respect. But the artistic influence which had been brought to bear on Hindi poetry now became self-conscious in various works, themselves in verse, which determined the canons of poetic criticism. Kesav Das.— Kripa Ram, who is mentioned in a previous chapter, was probably the forerunner of this movement, but the first great writer on the art of poetry was Kesav Das Sayiadhya Misra (1555-1617) of Orchha in Bundelkhand. His first important work was the Vzgyan Gitd, which he dedicated to his patron Raja Madhukar Shah of Orchha. His m.ost admired work is his Kavi Priyd, in which he describes the various literary qualities which should mark a good poem and other matters connected with the art of poetry. This work, which has made Kesav Das- an authority on poetry, was