(२७४) passionately attached : he adopted a vagrant life, visited Benares, and afterwards went to Chitrakuta, where he had a personal interview with Hanumant, from whom he received his poetical inspiration, and the power of working miracles : his fame reached Dehli, where SHAH JAHAN was emperor : the monarch sent for him to produce the person of Rama, which • TULSI DAS refusing to do, the king
- brew him into confinement; the people of the
vicinity, however, speedily petitioned for his liberation, as they were alarmed for their own security : myriads of monkeys having collected about the prison, and begun to demolish it, origin of the various sects, and descriptions of the appea rance, and obseryaaces, and present condition of their followers: they comprise all the known varieties, with on or two exceptions, and indeed, at no one place in Indi: could the enquiry be so well prosecuted as at Benares. The work of Mathura Nath is the fullest and most satisfactory though it leaves much to be desired, and much more thar I have been able to supply. In addition to these sources of information, I have had frequent recourse to a work of grea popularity and extensive circulation, which embodies the legendary history of all the most celebrated BHAKTAS O devotees of the Vaishnaya ordet. This work is entitled the BHAKTA MALA.
