Page:Classical Poets Of Gujarat.pdf/18

 6

Such is the key to the poetry

poets found themselves.

the

of Gujarat, and any one who is disposed to unlock treasures of our poets must, in the first instance, learn understand and appreciate what in

to>

Gujarat, the Brah is

man, the Banya, the ascetic, and even the woman used to treasure up deep

within his or her heart, and

communicates only to those whom

he

loves or

or she

regards as one of his or her own fold.

The Gujarati poets are many in number. of

them

are

placed before

the

printing press, and their number seventy.

public

Only

few

a

the

through

amounts

about

to

Eight of these belong to Kathiawar, fifteen

the city of Baroda,

and

the

rest

over

scattered

are

to-

different parts of what we now call the Districts of Surat,

Broach, Kaira, and Ahmedabad,

and over the other

outlying provinces forming parts of Baroda and other petty States.

Six of

Banyas, six Kunbis,

the poets seven

are ladies,

Artisans,

nine

nine Sadhus

ascetics, four Jain priests, one a Maratha bastard,

are

or and

all the rest are Brahmans of different sections. Poetry so written may be studied from an anthropological point of view, and such a study, though it is likely to repay the labour, is not the object seventy

names belong to the fifteenth

to the sixteenth, to

the

of this paper.

eighteenth,

eleven

and

to

Four of the century,

the seventeenth,

twelve

to

the

three sixteen

nineteenth.

The period to which the good many names that remain,