Which of the following books was not written by Keshavdas?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Ram Rasayan. Keshavdas Mishra (c. 1555–1617), the court poet of Orchha, has a well-fixed canon: Ratan Bavani (his earliest work, c. 1581), Rasikpriya (1591), Kavipriya, Ramchandrika, Chhandmala, Virsinghdev Charit, Vigyan Gita and Jahangir Jas Chandrika. 'Ram Rasayan' does not appear anywhere in that list — the title belongs to a separate body of later Rama-devotional writing by other authors. The question is a 'which one is NOT his' pattern, and the odd title out is the one option that is never listed among Keshavdas's works.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) This IS by Keshavdas — his Braj-bhasha retelling of the Rama story, and one of his best-known compositions. MPPSC itself asked in 2023 'Whose famous work is Ramchandrika?' with Keshavdas as the answer.  (b) This IS by Keshavdas — a lakshan-grantha (a treatise that defines poetic devices with illustrations), composed at the Orchha court alongside his other work on poetics.  (c) This IS by Keshavdas — regarded as his earliest work (c. 1581), a 'bavani' (52-verse) eulogy of a Bundela hero of Orchha.

Concept: Keshavdas is the hinge figure between Hindi's Bhakti-kaal and its Riti-kaal. He served the Bundela rulers of Orchha — Madhukar Shah and his son Indrajit Singh — and wrote in Braj bhasha. His Rasikpriya (1591) is a lakshan-grantha: a systematic manual of poetics, nayak–nayika classification and rasa, illustrated with his own verses. Because he codified poetry into rules, he is called the father of the Riti-kaal, the 'mannered' phase in which craft and convention took priority over devotional feeling.

State PCS 2025 Q62 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q62 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer