The article examines the material relating to the earlyreception of the eighteenth century Hindi poetĀnandghan (Ghanānand). Ānandghan's poetic ideas werenot far from those expressed in Persian literature,popular at that time in India. Apart from anabundance of idiomatic usage and paradoxes hisapproach to love reflects his taste for Persianpoetry: the beloved can be either a woman or anundefined God, or even Krishna. Ānandghan's‘openness’ towards Persian poetry earned himdisrepute. In this article three early schools ofcriticism of his quatrains are distinguished: thoseof his opponents, of his fellow-devotees and ofBrajnāth, the secular connoisseur. All three partiesexpressed their views on Ānandghan through poetrysometimes employing bitter or pungent language.