[608] Thus we have the poems of Kabir, Nânak and others contained in the Granth of the Sikhs and tending to Mohammedanism: the hymns wherein Mirâ Bai, Vallabha and his disciples praised Kṛishṇa in Râjputâna and Braj: the poets inspired by Caitanya in Bengal: Śaṅkar Deb and Madhab Deb in Assam: Namdev and Tukârâm in the Maratha country.
[609] See Beames, J.A. 1873, pp. 37 ff., and Grierson, Maithili Christomathy, pp. 34 ff., in extra No. to Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, Part I. for 1882 and Coomaraswamy's illustrated translation of Vidyâpati, 1915. It is said that a land grant proves he was a celebrated Pandit in 1400. The Bengali Vaishṇava poet Chaṇḍî Dâs was his contemporary.
[610] See Grierson, Gleanings from the Bhaktamâlâ, J.R.A.S. 1909 and 1910.
[611] Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan, 1889, p. 57.
[612] Similarly Dinesh Chandra Sen (Lang, and Lit. of Bengal, p. 170) says that Krittivâsa's translation of the Râmâyaṇa "is the Bible of the people of the Gangetic Valley and it is for the most part the peasants who read it." Krittivâsa was born in 1346 and roughly contemporary with Râmânand. Thus the popular interest in Râma was roused in different provinces at the same time.
He also wrote several other poems, among which may be mentioned the Gîtâvalî and Kavittâvalî, dedicated respectively to the infancy and the heroic deeds of Râma, and the Vinaya Pattrikâ or petition, a volume of hymns and prayers.
[613] See Growse's Translation, vol. I. pp. 60, 62.
[614] Ib. vol. III. p. 190, cf. vol. I. p. 88 and vol. III. pp. 66-67.
[615] Ib. vol. II. p. 54.
[616] Ib. vol. I. p. 77.