Surdas

Surdas is the great singer of Krishna’s childhood. The Pushti Marg tradition, in the Chaurasi Vaishnavan ki Varta, says he was blind from birth and was already living as a sadhu at Gaughat on the Yamuna, singing padas of humility and self-reproach, when Shri Vallabhacharya met him and initiated him. The acharya asked him why he only wept before the Lord and recited the Bhagavata’s tenth skandha to him; from then on Surdas sang the leelas of Krishna. Vallabhacharya placed him as kirtankar at the Shrinathji temple on Govardhan, and he became the first of the Ashtachhap, the eight poet-singers of the sampradaya. He sang the cradle, the first steps, the butter stolen and denied, the choti that will not grow; then the gopis’ love and, in the Bhramargeet, their grief when Krishna leaves for Mathura and sends Uddhava with a lesson in yoga. The Sursagar, the great collection of his padas, is held to contain thousands of songs, and its Braj Bhasha set the standard for Krishna poetry for three centuries. Tradition places his last days at Parasoli near Govardhan. Pushti Marg havelis still sing his padas at each darshan of the day, and his name is the first that comes to a Hindi reader’s mind for vatsalya, a mother’s love.