"Literary aesthetics such as rasa, which use affective terms and imagery to engage an empathetic audience, on the other hand, inhabit the messy world of human sentiment, and easily allow for the complicated, even mutually opposed states of being, multiple loyalties, and multivalent symbolism that the devotion of the [[Gurbilas]] texts convey. Paying closer attention to such affective language and the internalized habitus of communities also captures the bonds that drew diverse peasant and warrior groups to shrines and texts memorializing heroes, martyrs, and warriors slain in battle not only within Panjab, but more widely throughout South Asia. Such cultural patterns also allow us to understand the diversity of aesthetic practices, philosophical viewpoints, and ethical approaches found in the communities drawn to the new Sikh courts." From: Purnima Dhavan, _When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799_ (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). [[1843 Suraj Prakash/Suraj|Suraj]] [[Gurbilas Patshahi Dasvi]]