58 A HISTORY OF HINDI LITERATURE dominating influence of Tulsi Das's great work. There are, however, some writers who must be men- tioned. The Bhaktamala was the work of Ndbha Das (fl. 1600), who was also known as Ndrdyan Das. He was the disciple of Agra Das, who according to some was a leader of the Vallabha movement of Krishna worship, but by others is said to have been a disciple of Rama- nanda. Nabha Das was a Dom by caste, and it is said that when he was a child he was exposed by his parents during a time of famine to perish in the woods. Agra Das found him and brought him up. It w^as at the suggestion of his preceptor that Nabha Das, when he arrived at maturity, wrote the Bhaktamala, probably somewhere between 1585 and 1623. The Bhaktamala, or " Roll of the Bhagats," is a poem in old Western Hindi, written mainly in the chhappai metre. It gives an account of the principal Vaishnava devotees, whether worshippers of Rama or of Krishna, though it deals chiefly with those who were worshippers of Rama. Nabha Das himself seems to have been a Ramanandi. The style is very obscure and compressed. Gener- ally one stanza only is given to each devotee, and in this his chief characteristics are described in the briefest possible manner, with allusions to different legendary events in his life. The Bhaktamala holds a very important place in Indian religious history. It would, however, be almost unintelligible but for the commentary which always accompanies it. This was written in the kavitta metre by Priya Das in 1712. In this commentary further legends are added. There have also been other later commentators, and their w^ork is often printed together with the original text of Nabha Das and the gloss of Priya Das. The Bhakta^ndld has been fully translated and adapted in all the chief vernaculars of India. Maluk ViK^,—Maluk Das, who lived in the reign of Aurangzeb, was the founder of a sect which is closely connected with the Ramanandls. The Maluk Dasis worship Rama as an incarnation of the Supreme and also use images. The main difference between this
