The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c18.124

v4.c18.124

While these Brāhmans under the influence of court patronage were producing works of literary merit, men of other castes were composing hymns which have done so much to deepen the spiritual life of the masses and to inculcate faith and devotion in place of philosophical abstraction. Prān Nāth, a Chhattrī of Pannā in Bundelkhand, wrote a number of poems which attempt to reconcile Hinduism and Islām, their language itself being marked by a grammatical basis of Hindī with a vocabulary of Persian and Arabic words. A cotton carder of Ahmadābād named Dādū, who lived most of his life in Rājputāna, was a prolific hymn writer and has many followers. These authors were the founders of sects which still exist, known as the Prānnāthīs and Dādūpanthīs. Still greater influence has been exerted by Tukārām, a grain seller of low caste born near Poona, whose hymns became so popular that he was persecuted by the Brāhmans as one who had no right to be a religious teacher.