3
classes, round domestic hearths, in temples, and in social and religious gatherings, that is, in towns and villages, and not in the open country. The Mahrattas suoceeded the Mahomédans and even their rule was not characterized by any better conscience or policy so far as the natives of the province were concerned. Bat. the advent of the Mahrattas was also the means of a more permanent blow to Gujarat. Like some innocent birds which nestle in some quiet regions where no. rude hands might disturb them, the literary men of Gu- jarat had begun the great works in those very towns and villages where the Mahrattas 'were destined to come, but where, till then, there were seclusion and peace and quiet. Baroda itself was the place where the greater of the two greatest of our poets had been thus bringing up a rare garden of literature, and this was the place which the new invaders selected for their principality.
- This promising and hopeful garden was blasted at their
approach. But Baroda was not the whole of Gujarat, Out- side this town, which was transformed from the residence of poets into the centre of political activity and intrigue, there was the large mofussil which the new invaders did not care for, except for the collection of revenues. Here, left to themselves, the landholders and merchants, though illiterate and unable to sing, formed- a good market where a demand for poetry of some kind could be created, for they had money as well as their
