A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s4.39

v1.c5.s4.39

One of the most voluminous writers of the eighteenth century was Moropant, a Karhāda Brahman, who was born in 1729 and died in 1794. He began work as a clerk or accountant. He composed poems in the ārya metre in honour of Vishnu and other gods, epics in imitation of the Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata, and miscellaneous poems such as the Kekāvali or ‘peacock’s cry.’ ‘The greater part of his writings is disfigured by pedantry, and they are so overloaded with pure Sanskrit words that they are less pleasant reading than the simple verse of Tukārām or Srīdhar.’¹ His popularity with the Brahmans is due to the fact that he was a Purānik or expounder of the legends, and decidedly belonged to the class of pedantic Pandits referred to by Srīdhar.²