Raskhan

Raskhan, whose name was Syed Ibrahim, was born into a Pathan family, probably at Delhi, in the time of Akbar. The account in the Pushti Marg’s “Do Sau Bavan Vaishnavan ki Varta” tells that his heart was first given to worldly love, and that a picture of Shri Nathji, or in other tellings a recitation of the Bhagavata, turned it towards Krishna. He went to Braj, became a disciple of Goswami Vitthalnath, the son of Vallabhacharya, and spent the rest of his life there. His name means “mine of rasa”, and he lived up to it: his savaiyas and kavittas in Braj Bhasha are among the most musical and the most quoted in Hindi. He asks for nothing but Braj, to be born there again as a man, a cow, a stone or a bird, and he finds the infinite Lord in the smallest scenes, a dusty child with butter in his hand, Ahir girls making him dance for buttermilk. His works are collected as “Sujan Raskhan” and the shorter “Prem Vatika”. His samadhi stands at Mahavan near Gokul, and devotees visit it on the way to the Braj parikrama. He is remembered in Braj with deep love as a devotee whom Krishna claimed for his own.