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-of not only political but even religious and moral invaders, tthe apostles of Vallabh poured into the country, and men and women, mostly Banyas, accepted this new dispensa- tion of madness. Those who would have been poets with -sound brains in ordinary times, began to advocate and assist the new creed in this century of moral and political anarchy. Some twelve poets directly or indirectly attached to this faith, supply the country during this period with an imbecile kind of poetry, where we generally miss the vigour and philoso phy of Narasinha as well as the gentle purity of Mira. The greatest of these poets were the Banya <Girdhar and the Brahman Dayaram, and Dayaram is infinitely in advance of Girdhar. Dayaram lived at Dabhoi, and died as late as in 1852 orso. So far as ‘poetical powers are concerned, he is undoubtedly the greatest genius since the daysof Premanand. His poems -on Krishna and the maids of Gokul are a stream of cburning lava of realistic passion and love, and if lewdness -of writings do not take away from the merits of a poet, he is avery great poet indeed. Hehas a weird. and fascinating way of bodying forth ‘a host of over-fondled spirits of uncontrollable will in a language which is not only at once popular and poetical, but drags society after him to adopt, as popular, the language he creates for them anew. He introduces the men and women of: his -country to a luxuriance of metres, whose wild musi¢
