divinity, soon become wearisome. But the object that Tulsi Dás had in view is his sufficient excuse. By the course that he has adopted, fitting his special doctrines of faith, individual immortality and the like into the familiar framework of ancient legend, instead of inculcating them by a more strictly didactic method, he has succeeded in popularizing his views to a far greater extent than any of the rival Hindu Reformers, who flourished about the same period. It was their object also to simplify the complications and correct the abuses of existing practice, but the only result of their preaching was to establish yet another element of dissension and augment the disorder which they hoped to remove. Tulsi Dás alone, though the most famous of them all, has no disciples that are called after his name. There are Vallabhacháris and Rádhá Vallabhis and Malúk Dásis and Prán-náthis and so on, in interminable succession, but there are no Tulsi Dásis. Virtually, however, the whole of Vaishnava Hinduism has fallen under his sway; for the principles that he expounded have permeated every sect and explictly or implicitly now form the nucleus of the popular faith as it prevails throughout the whole of the Bengal Prasideney from Hardwár to Calcutta.
It will, I think, be admitted that a poem of such manifold interest deserved the honour of an introduction to the English reader; and I had long hoped that either Mr. Kellogg, or some of the very able scholars, his colleagues, might have been induced to supply the want they unanimously deplored. But they all pleaded the length of the work and their insufficient leisure as an excuse for declining the task. At last after ascertaining that there was no prospect of my hope being realized by their labours, I commenced the present translation, the first Book of which was published as a specimen in the year 1876, while I was still at Mathurá, in a congenial atmosphere of Hindu associations.
As a result of the fact that no translation had ever before been attempted, I anticipated that there would be found a number of errors and oversights in my performance, and the more so as it was executed under not very favourable circumstances; a considerable portion of it having been written in camp, when I had few books of reference at hand, and the remainder during the midday heat of the summer months in the plains, when the intellectual faculties are apt to become a little torpid. Several correspondents kindly responded to the request, with which I prefaced my first appearance, by sending me such suggestions for improvement as on perusal had occurred to them. But the actual errors indicated were fewer and less important than I couid have hoped; while the rapidity with which every copy of the first issue was sold and the frequency of the letters which I received after the book had become out of print, enquiring
