Page:Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets.djvu/15

Rh negyrists, Singers, Jesters, Moralists, and Historians; the first, to investigate the laws, the second, to write the genealogy, martial deeds and other actions, and qualities of Sovereigns, to promulgate the same to different quarters of the world; the third, to chant and laud; the fourth to amuse the king by their jokes, and filth, to utter wise maxims and saws; sixth, to furnish precedents; and seventh, to record transactions, and expound the histories of celebrated dynasties. The above seven officers will cause a Sovereign to rule his country with justice and renown.

The Hindus affirm, that poetry is innate and not to be acquired, and according to their astrologers, mankind obtain this art by a fortunate influence of the planets Jupiter and Venus.

The ancient kings of the north of India were very great patrons of poetry, although in that remote age poems were constructed