Page:A History of Hindi Literature.djvu/82

This page needs to be proofread.

68 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE disciples were poetesses. These were Sahajo Bdl and Dayd Bdl. They are said to have been sisters and to have belonged to the same caste as Charan Das. Their verses are of considerable merit and full of devotion. The Dayd Bodh of Day a Bai was composed in 1751. The Siv Narayanis.— 52^ Ndrdyan was a Rajput who lived near Ghazipur. In 1734 he founded a sect which worships God as Brahman without attributes, and rejects idolatry. Siv Narayan is himself regarded as an incarnation by his followers. Outward con- formity to the observances of Hindus and Muhammadans is permitted and people of all castes are admitted as members. It is said that the Emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-1748) became a member of the sect. The founder was a voluminous writer and is credited with having composed sixteen books of Hindi verse. The Garib Dasis.— The guru of Garib Dds (1717- 1782) is said to have been Kabir, which, although an anachronism, seems to show that the sect he founded sprang from the Kablrpanthls. This sect, which is still in existence, consists only of sddhus, who must belong to the twice-born castes. The book which he composed, called the Guru Gra?ithSdhib, contains 24,000 sdkhis and chaupdls. Of these, however, 7,000 are said to be sdkhis of Kablr. Garib Das lived at the village of Chhuranl in the Rohtak district of the Panjab. The Ram Sanehis.— The sect of Ram Sanehis was founded by Rdjn Charan (born 1718), who lived in Rajputana. He was at first an idolater, but gave up the worship of idols and founded the sect of Rdm Sanehis, or Lovers of Rdm, The sect is now repre- sented merely by an order of sddhus. His sayings and hymns have been collected into a Bdnl. The third leader of the sect, named Dulhd Rdm, who became a Ram Sanehi in 1776, composed about 10,000 sab das and 4,000 sdkh-is. He died in 1824. The Satnamis and Jagjivarv Das.— The sect of the Satnamis seems to have been founded before the middle of the seventeenth century, but the circumstan- ces of its origin are unknown. It was reorganised