the Persian and the Hindu literary traditions began to influence each other.
But the most influential Hindu poet was Tulsidas whose hero was Rama and
who used a dialect of Hindi spoken in the eastern parts of U.P. around
Banaras. Tulsidas was essentially a humanistic poet who upheld family ideals
and complete devotion to Rama as a way of salvation open to all, irrespective
of caste. Punjabi, due to the writings of the Sikh Gurus, also received a new
life. Marathi reached its apex at the hands of Eknath and Tukaram. Asserting
the importance of Marathi, Eknath exclaims “If Sanskrit was made by God,
was Prakrit (local language) born of thieves? My language Marathi is worthy
of expressing the highest sentiments and is richly laden with the fruits of
divine knowledge.” This undoubtedly expressed the sentiments of all those
writing in local languages. It also shows the confidence and the status
acquired by these languages.
                        Literature of the Mughal Period
  Author              Name of the Work           Remarks
  Gulbadan Begam      Humayun Namah              History of Humayun
  Abul Fazl           Ain-i-Akbar                History of Akbar’s reign
  Abul Fazl           Akbar Namah                ”
  Badauni             Muntakhab-ul-              ”
                      Tawarikh
  Mulla Daud          Tawarikh-i-Alfi            ”
  Nizam-ud-din        Tabaqat-i-Akbari           ”
  Ahmad
  Jahangir            Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri          Autobiography
  Mutamad Khan        Iqbal Namah                History of Jahangir’s reign
  Abdul Haqq          Nuriyya-i-                 Theory of kingship
                      Sultaniyya
  Abdul Hamid         Padshah Namah              History of Shah Jahan’s reign
  Lahori
  Muhammad            Padshah Namah              ”
  Waris
  Inayat Khan         Shah Jahan    Namah ”