The article examines the material relating to the early
reception of the eighteenth century Hindi poet
Ānandghan (Ghanānand). Ānandghan's poetic ideas were
not far from those expressed in Persian literature,
popular at that time in India. Apart from an
abundance of idiomatic usage and paradoxes his
approach to love reflects his taste for Persian
poetry: the beloved can be either a woman or an
undefined God, or even Krishna. Ānandghan's
‘openness’ towards Persian poetry earned him
disrepute. In this article three early schools of
criticism of his quatrains are distinguished: those
of his opponents, of his fellow-devotees and of
Brajnāth, the secular connoisseur. All three parties
expressed their views on Ānandghan through poetry
sometimes employing bitter or pungent language.