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{{Short description|Indian poet}}{{for|the founder of the Indian officially dead people's association|Lal Bihai}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Bihari Lal Chaube
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = 1595
| birth_place = [[Gwalior]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], India
| death_date = 1663
| death_place = [[Vrindavan]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], India
| occupation = [[Poet]]
| nationality = [[India]]n
| period = Riti Kaal
| genre =
| subject =
| movement = Ritikaal
| influences =
| influenced =
| signature =
| website =
}}

'''Bihari Lal Chaube''' or '''Bihārī''' (1595–1663)<ref name=national>[http://www.goloka.com/docs/bihari/about_bihari.html Kangra Paintings of the Bihari Sat Sai] National Museum, New Delhi, 1966.</ref> was a [[Hindi]] poet, who is famous for writing the ''[[Satasai|Satasaī]]'' (Seven Hundred Verses) in [[Brajbhasha]], a collection of approximately seven hundred [[distich]]s, which is perhaps the most celebrated [[Hindi]] work of poetic [[art]], as distinguished from [[narrative]] and simpler styles.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Bihārī-Lāl |volume=3 |page=927|first=Charles James |last=Lyall|authorlink=Charles James Lyall}}</ref> Today it is considered the most well known book of the Ritikavya Kaal or 'Riti Kaal'(an era in which poets wrote poems for kings) <ref>[[Hindi literature#Ritikavya Kaal|RitiKavya Kaal]]</ref> of [[Hindi literature]].<ref>[http://www.google.com/notebook/public/03553967701179803178/BDQs4SwoQx5vXjbQh Google notebook] Hindi literature.</ref>

He was the court poet of Jaipur ruler Jai Singh and composed couplets under his patronage and inspiration.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Datta|first=Amaresh|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=1987|isbn=9788126018031|pages=519}}</ref>

The language is the form of Hindi called ''[[Brajbhasha]]'', spoken in the country about [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]], where the poet lived. The couplets are inspired by the [[Krishna]] side of [[Vishnu]]-worship, and the majority of them take the shape of amorous utterances of [[Radha]], the chief of the [[Gopis]] or cowherd maidens of [[Braj]], and her divine lover, the son of [[Vasudeva]]. Each couplet is independent and complete in itself. The distichs, in their collected form, are arranged, not in any sequence of narrative or dialogue, but according to the technical classification of the sentiments which they convey as set forth in the treatises on [[India]]n rhetoric.<ref name=EB1911/>

==Biography==

===Early life and education===
[[File:The Poet's Prayer to Krishna, Folio illustrating the Satsaiya of Biharilal LACMA M.70.38.2.jpg|thumb|350px|''The Poet Bihārī Offers Homage to [[Radha]] and [[Krishna]]'']]
Bihari was born in [[Gwalior]] in 1595, and spent his boyhood in [[Orchha]] in the [[Bundelkhand]] region, where his father, Keshav Rai lived. After marriage he settled with in-law's in [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]]. His father was Keshav Rai.<ref name=EB1911/>

Early in his life, he studied ancient Sanskrit texts. In Orchha state, he met the famous poet keshavdas from whom he took lessons in poetry. Later, when he had shifted to Mathura, he got an opportunity to present his in court of visiting Mughal Emperor [[Shah Jahan]], who immediately got impressed by his work and invited him to stay in Agra.

Once at Agra, he learnt [[Persian language]] and came into contact with [[Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana|Rahim]], another famous poet. It was also at Agra that Raja [[Jai Singh I]] (ruled. 1611-1667), of [[Amber, India|Amber]], near Jaipur, happened to hear him, and invited him over to Jaipur, and it was here that he composed his greatest work, [[Satasai]].<ref name=national/> After the death of his wife Bihari followed the path of [[Bhakti]] & [[Vairagya]]. He left the court & went to [[Vrindavan]], where he died in the year 1663.

==Significance of Bihari's work==
{{main|Satasai}}

One of the famous [[Doha (poetry)|Dohas]] (couplet) written by Bihārī is:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|hi-Latn|Satsaiya ke dohre jyun navak ke teer
Dekhan men chote lage ghaav kare gambhir.}}
|
The couplets of (Bihari's) Satsai are like the arrows of a hunter,
they look small but cut deep.}}

Though Bihari 'Satasai' is only known work of Bihari, an estimation in which the work is held may be measured by the number of commentators who have devoted themselves to its elucidation, of whom Dr [[George Abraham Grierson|G. A. Grierson]] mentions seventeen. The collection has also twice been translated into [[Sanskrit]].

The best-known commentary is that of [[Lallu Lal]], entitled the ''Lala-chandrika''. The author was employed by [[John Gilchrist (linguist)|Dr. John Gilchrist]] in the [[College of Fort William]], where he finished his commentary in 1818. A critical edition of it has been published by [[George Abraham Grierson|Dr G. A. Grierson]] (Calcutta, Government of India Press, 1896).

==Bibliography==

* ''The Satasaī'' (English Translation), [[Penguin Books]], 1992. {{ISBN|0-14-044576-5}}.
* Bihari Satsai. (Hindi and English Translation) Dr. Shyamsunder Dube, Publications Division. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060515221359/http://publicationsdivision.nic.in/Hindi-Roman/Sub-Wise/HRA19.HTM]
* The Veiled moon; English translations of Bihari satsai, Amar Nath Jha; Girijā Kumāra Māthura. New Delhi, [[Indian Council for Cultural Relations]], 1973.[http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/1205888]

==Further reading==
* Bihari Satsai: Aalochana evam Vyakhaya (Hindi), Nemichand Jain. Delhi, 2009.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110715191242/http://www.rnrbooks.com/details.aspx?id=11577]
* Humour in the Satsai of Biharilal, Snell, Rupert (1999). In: Of Clowns and Gods Brahmans and Babus: Humour in South Asian Literatures. Manohar (Delhi), pp. 63–79.[https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/1867/]
* Kangra Paintings of the Bihari Sat Sai by M. S. Randhawa. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 90, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1970), pp. 591–592. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/598856]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.kavitakosh.org/kk/index.php?title=%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%80 Bihari at Kavita Kosh] '''(Hindi)'''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070925185023/http://www.rmv.nl/publicaties/5Miniaturen/e/sentiments.pdf THE SENTIMENTS OF LOVE A Selection of Indian Miniatures from the Collection of the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden – I.]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Bihari}}
[[Category:1595 births|Bihari]]
[[Category:1663 deaths|Bihari]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:Hindi-language poets]]
[[Category:People from Gwalior]]
[[Category:People from Tikamgarh]]
[[Category:17th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Poets from Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:17th-century male writers]]

Bihari Lal - Revision history

imported>Board101 at 05:30, 24 August 2021