In the history of Hindi literature, the oldest extant text of medieval Hindi prose is the collection of hagiography known as the as the varta literature which, since the seventeenth century, has been central to the religious life of the Hindu devotional community known as the Pu[sdotu
][tdotu
]i
Marga. This article argues that a close examination of these texts in their proper social and historical context reveals that the varta literature was written and revised during a time when the Pu[sdotu
][tdotu
]i
Marga was slowly expanding its sphere of religious influence in Western and Central India. The result was a body of literature whose principal purpose was to shape the religious self-identity of the Pu[sdotu
][tdotu
]i
Marga by stressing the community as a close-knit and exclusive fellowship of believers who owed their final allegiance to K[rdotu ][sdotu ][ndotu ]na and the community's religious leaders who were known as maharajas.
