OCCASIONAL PUBLICATION 12 Allison Busch

I find much not just to be wary of in the Hindi-language literary historiography-some of the discussions are absolutely alarming." The standard approach is to introduce courtly Hindi with a discussion of the parisihitiviim (conditions) of the day. [...] We know that this text was read avidly not only at the Mughal court but by the nobility of Golconda and myriad kings in Rajasthan: dozens of manuscripts and commentaries on the work survive." The Sundarsmgiir also made it onto the syllabus of a famous Brajbhasha school founded in Bhuj, Gujarat, in the eighteenth century, and the text continued to circulate widely in the nineteenth century through. [...] )3iJ This reference to Kavindracharya's teachings by one of his contemporaries appears to correspond to a sixty-verse segment of the Kauindrakalpalatii on the weighty subject of tattvajnan (metaphysics), in which the pandit takes the emperor on a whirlwind tour of the major principles of Indian philosophy. [...] The unpublished Harikaliibeli of Vrindavandas, who took refuge at Bharatpur after the sack of Mathura by Ahrnad Shah Abdali in 1757, offers a valuable firsthand perspective on the political turmoil of the day." Those looking to understand the rocky political relations between the Mughal court and the [ats of Bharatpur, or the machinations of warlords in Bundelkhand such as Anup Ciri Cosain, would. [...] He mobilized the moral courage of Yuddhisthira, the strength of Bhima, the fortitude of Arjuna, the intelligence of Nakula and the power of Sahadeva.