44 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE Bihari Lai was not the originator of this form of composition. Similar works had appeared in Sanskrit, one of which is called Sapta Satikd^ the Sanskrit equivalent of the Hindi 5«/ kS^x (** seven centuries," i.e. of verse). Tulsi Das had written a Sat Sal before the time of Bihari Lai, as well as other Hindi poets. But Bihari Lai undoubtedly achieved very great excellence in this particular line, and his work has had a large number of commentators (as many as thirty in number) and many imitators. Hari Prasad (fl. circ. 1775) of Benares translated the Sat Sal into Sanskrit. Each couplet had to be complete in itself, and yet in such a small space the poet must give an entire picture. Conciseness of style was therefore an absolute necessity, and besides this all the different artifices of Indian rhetoric had to be illustrated in turn. The work of Bihari Lai is a triumph of skill and of felicity in expres- sion. He is perhaps at his best in his description of natural phenomena, as when he describes the scent- laden breeze under the guise of a way-worn pilgrim from the south. Naturally a work of this kind abounds in obscurities and on account of the peculiarity of its style is very difficult to translate. In the following verse Bihari Lai gives a riddle: — At even came the rogue, and with my tresses Toyed with a sweet audace — with ne'er a 'please' Snatched a rude kiss — then wooed me with caresses. 'Who was it, dear ? ' ' Thy love ? ' 'No, dear, the breeze.' * Jaswant Singh.— Mahdrdj a Jaswant Singh of Jodh- pur (Marwar) figures in history as an opponent of Aurangzeb. He was born in 1625 and died in 1681. In 1634, while still a boy, he came to the throne. In literature his chief fame rests on his Bhdshd Bhushan, a work on rhetoric in 261 dohds. This work, which was founded on a Sanskrit one, has had a large number of commentators. Though Kesav Das was the first great Hindi writer on this subject he is considered heretical in some points, and for those who do not follow Kesav ^ Translation from Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. II, p. 423.
