Bhaktamal

(“Garland of Devotees”) Text written by
Nabhadas (ca. 1600) in which he gives
short (six-line) biographical accounts of
over two hundred bhakti (devotional)
figures. Although Nabhadas himself was
a Ramanandi, and thus a devotee
(bhakta) of the god Rama, his work not
only includes devotees of all sectarian
persuasions but is generally considered
unbiased. The text is notably free of
astonishing and miraculous events.
Instead, the main emphasis is on the
devotee’s personal qualities, which serve
as a model for others. In many cases the
Bhaktamal gives the earliest reliable
account of these figures, which makes it
an extremely important source for
northern Indian literary and religious
history. It is all the more interesting that
the text cannot be definitively dated,
although internal evidence suggests that
it was completed early in the seventeenth century.