Surdas Biography – Surdas Poems

Surdas Biography

Surdas was a great devotee of Lord Krishna and one of the prominent figures in the Bhakti movement in India from the 14th to the 17th century. He lived in the 16th century and was blind. Surdas was not only a poet but also a singer like Tyagaraja. Most of his lyrics had been written praising Lord Krishna. His works contain two literary dialects Braj Bhasa, one in Hindi and the other being Awadhi.

He followed Hinduism as well as Sikhism. He influenced the Bhakti movement, and the hymns are also mentioned in Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of Sikhs. His father’s name was Ramdas Sargwat, and his works were written as ‘Sun Sagar, Sun Saravali, and Sahitya Lahari. The literary works of Surdas show and explains the intense bondage between Lord Krishna and his devotees.

Surdas Early Life

At an early age, he was interested in visiting Vallabha Acharya to listen to his teachings on life and various issues. Gradually, he was influenced by Vallabha Acharya and started writing Hymns on Lord Krishna. Since his childhood, he has been blind. However, as a keen observer of voice and memory, I quickly wrote poetry and sang it with a sweet voice.
According to historians, Surdas was born in 1478 AD or 1483 AD and died in 1561 AD or 1584 AD. According to Vallabhite’s story, Surdas was blind during his childhood, so his low-income family neglected and forced him to leave the house to live by begging. At that time, he lived on the banks of the Yamuna river. In the meantime, he learned about Vallabh Acharya and became his disciple. Since then, his life has moulded him as a great poet and devotee of Lord Krishna.

Surdas Poems

He composed the tremendous literary work ‘Sursagar’. In that book, he described Lord Sri Krishna and Radha as lovers and explained Lord Krishna’s grace with Gopis. In Sursagar, Surdas focuses on the childhood activities of Lord Krishna and his naughty plays with His friends and Gopis. Sur also composed the Sur paravail and Sahityalahari. These two poetic works wrote approximately one lakh verses. Due to the obscurity of the times, many verses had been lost. He narrated the Holi festival with rich literary work. The poems described Lord Krishna as a great player and life’s philosophy through broking the pot.

In his rhyme,s we can listen to the epic story incidents from Ramayana and Mahabharat. With his poems, he beautifully described all incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Significantly, every devotee can impact when reading Sant Surda’s poems on Dhruva and Prahlada Hindu legendaries.