received some education; knew some Sanskrit, Persian, and Hindī, and, when a very young man, obtained a post in Calcutta, as copyist with Vakulachandra Ghōsāl, the dewān (manager) of an estate. Like other poets before and since, he found officework irksome, and he filled his books with scribbled verses. His employer discovered this, and was angry; but when he read, 'I do not want this copyist's work. Give me your treasuryship, Mother,' his sense of humour or his sense of piety overcame his annoyance. He became a generous friend and patron, settling on the poet a pension of Rs. 30 (£3, according to the reckoning of John Company days) a month, and introducing him to the Kṛishṇagar Court. Here Rāmprasād rose in favour, and won the title of Kavirañjana or 'Entertainer of Poets.' He had a rival, one Aju Goswāmi, a Vaishṇava. We do not know much about their relations with one another, but they seem to have been kindly. Rāmprasād wrote, on one occasion, 'Free me from the net of Māyā (Illusion), Mother'; to which his far from ascetic compeer replied with the prayer, 'Bind me in its wide chains.'
His fame was well established in his lifetime, and there are many legends about him. To one of these he laughingly refers in No. LVI of this selection. Others are obviously of later date, invented to explain the genesis of this or that poem. For instance: on his way to the Ganges, he met a woman who asked him to sing to her. He told her to wait at his house, till he returned from bathing. When he arrived and asked for her, she had gone, but had left a note for him in the family temple. This note informed him that the goddess Kālī had come from Kāśī (Benares) to hear him sing, and now commanded him to go to Kāśī. He fell ill on the road, and composed the song, 'I cannot go, but your Feet shall be my Kasi.' Recovering, he tried to go on; but fell ill again, and saw Kālī in vision, telling him to forgo the journey. He obeyed her, making the song which is No. XV in this book.
Rāmprasād had friends and patrons in Calcutta, and often visited the town. He died in 1775. The older
