The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c21.s1.7

v4.c21.s1.7

During the eighteenth century, the Marāthā character started to change. Poona was filled with loot from Hindūstān, and the manners and ceremonial of the Moghul Court were introduced. Contact with the western nations, especially the English at Bombay and Surat, was beginning to have its effect. Erotic poetry became popular, and Rām Joshī (1762–1812) was the most celebrated of the writers of *Lavanis* or Love Songs. The conquest of an empire, and the appearance of state-papers and despatches, led to the development of Marāthī prose. *Bakhars* or historical chronicles were compiled, but their barbarous idiom, three-quarters Persian, bears little relation to the elegant, highly sanskritised prose style which arose in the nineteenth century, as a result of contact with western literature.