Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 6.djvu/18

10 Oriental chroniclers are enthusiastic in their praises of Jaidev. All other poets are compared to petty kings while he is the great chakrawarti or poetical monarch of the world. As the moon cannot be concealed by the stars, as the eagle cannot be surpassed by any bird in flight, as Indar attracts notice in the midst of the gods, so is Jaidev's fame conspicuous in the world. It may be added that Jaidev himself does not appear to have been in sensible of his own merits. At the conclusion of the Gitgovind he writes, 'Whatever is delightful in the modes of music, whatever is exquisite in the sweet art of love let the happy and wise learn from the song of Jaidev.' Notwithstanding the lusciousness and sensuous beauty of several parts of the Gitgovind, there can be no doubt that Jaidev intended the poem as an elaborate religious allegory. This, too, is insisted on by the author of the Bhagat Mal, who states that the love scenes and rhetorical graces of the poet are not to be understood in the sense that persons of evil minds and dispositions attach to them. Radhika the heroine is heavenly wisdom. The milkmaids who divert Krishan from his allegiance to her, are the senses of smell, sight, touch, taste, and hearing. Krishan represented as pursuing them is the human soul, which attaches itself to earthly pleasures. The return of Krishan to his first love is the return of the repentant sinner to God, which gives joy in heaven. After the completion of the poem Jaidev went to travel and visited Bindraban and Jaipur. To the latter place its king had given him a pressing invitation. While on those travels it is related that he met a party of thags. He knew what they were from their ready offer to accompany him on his journey. Without more ado he pulled out his purse and gave