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42 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE composed about 1664. The Chhajid Sdr Pingal is a treatise on prosody composed in honour of Sambhu Nath. The Ras Raj is a treatise on lovers containing a Nayika Bhed and is considered to be a very excellent work. Mati Ram also composed the Sat Sal Mati Ram. As a poet he is famed for the purity and sweetness of his language, the excellence of his similes, and for his descriptions of the dispositions of men. Many of his dohas are considered equal to those of Biharl Lai. Other Poets of the time of Shah Jahan.— Raja Sambhu Nath Singh of Sitara (fi. 1650) was the friend and patron of Mati Ram and other poets. He was the author of a Nayika Bhed and a Nakhsikh which are much admired. The latter is sometimes considered to be the best work of its kind extant. Sarasvaii (fl. 1650) was a Brahman of Benares, learned in Sanskrit composition. At the instance of Shah Jahan he took to writing poems in Hindi. His chief work of this kind was the Kavi7idra Kalpa Lata, in which there are many poems in praise of his patron as well as of prince Dara Shukoh and the Begam Sahiba. Tulsi (fl. 1655) was only a mediocre poet himself, but in 1655 he compiled an excellent anthology of poetry, called the Kavi Mala, which includes poems by seventy-five different authors from 1443 to 1643. Another writer of this period was Veddng Ray (fl. circ. 1650). He was the author of the Pdrsl Prakds, a work describing the manner of counting the months, etc., by Hindus and Muhammadans, which was compiled by the orders of the Emperor Shah Jahan. Bihari Lai Chaubc.— The most celebrated Hindi writer in connection with the art of poetry is Biharl Ldl Chaube (circ. 1603-1663). He is said to have been born in Gwalior and to have spent his boyhood in Bundelkhand. On his marriage he settled at Muttra the home of the Bra] Bhasha dialect, in which his verses are composed. His patron was Raja Jai Singh of Jaipiir, who gave him a gold ash7'afi for each dohd. Bihari Lai's fame as a poet rests upon his Sat Sal