Bhaktamala is a biographical work on the Hindi devotional poets up to 1643 CE by Nabhadas. Blind by birth and raised and educated by his guru and mentor Agradas, Nabhadas (1570 – 1662 CE) was well versed in Sanskrit poetics and the current literary idioms in Braja Bhasha, the language in which he wrote.
Bhaktamala of Nabhadas gives biographical accounts of the
medieval Vaishnava poets of North Indian in general and the Ramananda sect in
particular. Nabhadas declares that he composed this work at the behest of his
guru Agradas, who was the fifth guru in line of the celebrated Swami Ramananda
school.
Nothing definite is known about the date of Bhaktamala.
Scholars have surmised that this work was completed sometime before 1658 CE.
Other sources propose 1592 CE as a possible date. The first half of the book
contains hagiographies of legendary poets, i.e., “those before the Kali Yuga’.
The second half covers historical and contemporary poets. Sometimes one set enumerates
more than one poet. The work is written in Braja Bhasha (a dialect of Hindi),
which was the prevalent language for literary writing before Khadi boli got
accepted as the standard language for literary writing. The preferred meter is
the chappaya (sestet) and doha (couplet).
Because of its popularity, a number of commentaries were
written on Bhaktamala. A number of other biographical works followed, viz.,
Bhaktirasabodhini Tika by Priyadasa (1712); Bhakta Urvashi by Lalchandra Das
(1743); Bhaktamala Tippani by Vaishnavadas (1743); Bhakta Kalpadruma by Pratap
Singh (1901); Ramarasikavali by Raguraj Singh (1864); Rasikaprakasha Bhaktamala
by Jivarama (1868); Bhaktamala Chappaya by Bharatendu (1883); Haribhakti Prakashika
by Jwalaprasad Mishra (1898) and Bhaktanamavali Dhruvadas by Radhakrishnadas
(1901).
So popular were these biographies that they were translated
into various popular dialects and languages. Mention may be made of the Persian
version, Pharsi Bhaktamala by Munshi Gumanilal (1841); Bhakti Pradeep in Urdu
by Tulsiram (1854); Gurumukhi Bhaktamala by Kirti Singh (1841); two versions in
English, and Angreji Bhaktamala by Bhanupratap Tiwari (1908). This makes
Bhaktamala tradition very important for the study of prevailing devotional
sects of Vaishnava schools in northern India, as also a biographical storehouse
of information regrading their main preceptors and leaders.
The first Bhaktamala by Nabhadas is still the most famous of
them all and the most authentic work in that tradition. In the descriptions of
the lives of the saintly poets, the exemplary portrayals convey the beliefs and
ideals of the various prevalent sects and thus indirectly reiterate the
doctrines accepted by the respective poets.