Keshav Das

Keshavdas Mishra (1555–1617), usually known by the Keshavdas, was an Indian Poet, Writer, Scholar and administrator who was best known for his work , a pioneering work of the of Hindi literature. He was patronized by Vir Singh Deo of Orchha, a vassal of the Mughal Empire.

== Life == thumb|Painting of Akbar with falcon receiving Itimam Khan, while below a poor petitioner (self-portrait of the artist Keshavdas as an old man) is driven away by a royal guard, 1589 Keshavdas was a Sanadhya Brahman born in 1555 most likely near to Orchha at Tikamgarh. There were many pandits among his ancestors and inferences from his writings suggest that, as would be typical of a pandit, the preferred language of his family, and that to which he was exposed as a child, was Sanskrit. Those ancestors included Pt.Dinakara and Tribikrama, who had both been rewarded by Tomara rulers in Delhi and Gwalior, as well as his grandfather, Pt. Krishnadatta, and his father, Pt. Kashinatha, who had both served as scholars to the rulers of Orchha kingdom. His elder brother, Balabhadra, was also a poet.