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 end of the thirteenth century and drew their inspiration from the early Vaishnava Reformers. The most celebrated of all was Tukaram, contemporary of Sivaji, who wrote in the ﬁrst half of the seventeenth century. His abangas or loosely constructed hymns in honour of the god, Vithoba are household words in the Maratha country. The most famous successor of Tukaram was Moropant (A. D. 1720). As in the case of the other vernaculars of India, nearly all the earlier work is in verse, although the re are some prose chronicles of varying information.

Marathi literature thus reﬂects the life of the Marathas and among their men of letters are found representatives of all castes and professions; and the marathi language used in books has always been approximated to the spoken language. The saints and prophets, as Mr. Ranade says, wrote for the people and not for the Pandits. They are popular writers and their writings are popular literature.

Hindi is the most popular vernacular language in India: and the Ramayana of Tulsi Das is, it is said, at the present day the one Bible of ninety millions of people. As Mr. Grouse says in the introduction to his translation of this famous book, "it is in every one's hands from the court to the