A poetry collection framed as advice from one of these figures scandalized scholars when its author was revealed not to be the long-lost poet “Bhānusiṃha,” but rather a teenage Rabindranath Tagore. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name these people whose points of view are unconventionally used throughout the Braj-language collection Sūr Sāgar, or Sur’s Ocean. The chief of these people is the heroine of a 12th-century gītā by Jayadeva.
ANSWER: gopīs [or gopikās; accept milkmaids of Braj or cowherdesses of Braj] (Rādhā was largely invented by Jayadeva in the Gītā Govinda.)
[10e] Narsinh Mehtā wrote chaupāīs, verses with this many lines, in which he imagines becoming a gopī to achieve intimate devotion to Krishṇa. The Persian rubāʿī is composed of this many lines.
ANSWER: four [accept chār or chatur or chahār]
[10m] This female devotee of Krishna wrote, “I myself in a previous birth / was a cowherding girl / at Gokul” in one of many poems comparing herself to a gopī. This 16th-century poet-saint wrote many bhajans like “Pāyo jī mainne Rām ratan dhan pāyo.”
ANSWER: Mīrābāī [or Meera or Sant Meerabai]
<AMS, World Literature>