Surdas, Surdas poetry, Yoga / Hindu, Yoga / Hindu poetry, Vaishnava (Krishna/Rama) poetry, poetry, Sikh poetry Surdas
India (1478? - 1581?) Timeline
Yoga / Hindu : Vaishnava (Krishna/Rama)
Sikh

Poems by Surdas
Books - Links

Sant Surdas was a deeply influential bhakti poet-saint. He was born blind and treated poorly by his family. While still a boy, he heard a group of traveling devotional singers and he left his family to join them.

In his traditional biography, he is said to have already gathered a considerable following as a singer by age 18. His songs at that point cried out to Krishna, complaining of his constant absence. The saint Sri Vallabharacharya heard the young man's singing and began to teach him a nondualist form of bhakti devotion. Vallabha's teachings opened the blind poet's "inner sight" and led to a radical transformation of his philosophy and poetry.

He lived during the rule of the Mughal emperor Akbar, and the poet's fame was such that he met the emperor in person.

His great work is the Sur Sagar (Ocean of Melody), a collection that was said to have contained 100,000 poems, but today about 8,000 poems remain.

As with other bhakti poets, the poetry of Surdas was also reverently incorporated into the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib.

Poems by Surdas


Recommended Books: Surdas

Songs of the Saints from the Adi Granth Songs of the Saints of India



Related Links

Surdas - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surdas
A good, brief biography online.

Sant Surdas on Oldpoetry
http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Sant_Surdas
Several poems by Surdas.

Sant Surdas - Poemhunter
http://www.poemhunter.com/sant-surdas/
More online poems by Surdas.

The Life of Surdas
http://www.siddhayoga.org/community/families/tales_2000/surdas/
A photographic slide show re-enacting the life of Surdas.

Indolink - Surdas
http://www.indolink.com/kidz/surdas.html
A biography of Surdas intended for children.
Surdas