Page:A History of Hindi Literature.djvu/43

 EARLY BHAKTI POETS 29 Mira Bai — About the same time as Vidyapati, or perhaps a little later, there flourished in the west of Hindustan a writer whose poems helped to popularize the Krishna cult in that region. This was Mird Bai (fl. 1470) the most famous of Hindi poetesses. There has been a great deal of confusion as to her date and the details of her life. But it seems that she was a princess of Rajputana who was married to Bhojraj, the heir-apparent of Kumbha, Maharana of Mewar. Her husband died before he came to the throne, and Kumbha was put to death by another son Udekaran (or Uda), who seized the throne in 1469. Mira Bai, who was a devotee of Krishna even from her childhood, seems already to have given offence to the family of her husband by her refusal to con- form to their particular form of Hindu worship, and her frequent lavish expenditure in the entertainment of sadhus, and when her brother-in-law Udekaran had gained the throne, he persecuted her so much that she fled from Chitor and became a disciple of Rai Das, the chamar disciple of Ramananda. This must have been about the year 1470. She is said to have been especially devoted to that form of Krishna known as Ranchhor, and a legend says that one day while w^orshipping with great devotion she was taken up into the image and disappeared. Rai Das, as a follower of Ramananda, was a worshipper of Rama, and it is not clear why Mira Bai chose him as her guru, or whether Rai Das in any way modified her views, but he is mentioned two or three times in the poems ascribed to her. The lyrics of Mira Bai are occupied with intense devotion to Krishna, though in some of them she uses the name of Rama also for God. They are written in the Braj Bhasha dialect and are graceful and melodious verses. There are many similar lyrics in Gujarat! which are also ascribed to Mira Bai. The following is the translation of one of her lyrics : — " God {i.e. Krishna) hath entwined my soul, O Mother, With His attributes, and I have sung of them.