Banarasidas

Banarasidas (1586–1643) was a Shrimal Jain businessman and poet of Mughal India. He is known for his poetic autobiography – Ardhakathānaka, (The Half Story), composed in Braj Bhasa, an early dialect of Hindi linked with the region around Mathura. It is the first autobiography written in an Indian language. At the time, he was living in Agra and was 55 years old – the "half" story refers to the Jain tradition, where a "full" lifespan is 110 years.

==Life== Banarasidas was born in a Shrimal Jain family in 1587. His father Kharagsen was a jeweller in Jaunpur (now in Uttar Pradesh). He received basic education in letters and numbers from a local Brahmin in Jaunpur for one year and then from another Brahmin named Pandit Devdatt at the age of 14. He further completed his higher studies in astrology and Khandasphuta, a work on mathematics. He studied lexicographical texts like Namamala (synonyms) and Anekarthakosha (words with multiple meanings). He also studied alankara (techniques of poetic embellishment) and Laghukoka (a text on erotics).