Surdas

Surdas
Detail of a painting of Surdas, Kishangarh style, Rajasthan, circa 18th century
Personal life
Born	c. 1483 Gram Sihi, Faridabad, Delhi Sultanate
Died	c. 1563 Braj Parsauli, Mughal Empire
Parents	Ramdas Saraswat (father) Jamunadas (mother)
Notable work(s)	Sur Sagar, Sur Saravali, Sahitya Lahari
Known for	Influencing the Bhakti movements, Sant Mat,
Religious life
Religion	Hinduism
Philosophy	Bhakti

Surdas was a 16th-century blind Hindu devotional poet and singer, who was known for his works written in praise of Krishna. Most of his devotional songs, or bhajans, were written in the Braj language, while some were also written in other dialects of medieval Hindi, like Awadhi.

Surdas's biography is most often told through the lens of the Vallabha Sampradāya aka the Puṣṭimārga. The Puṣṭimārga regards Surdas as an initiated disciple of Vallabha, and his hagiography is told in the Caurāsī Vaiṣṇavan kī Vārtā by Gokulnāth and Harirāy. Surdas' poems, along with those of other Aṣṭachāp poets, form a central part of Puṣṭimārga liturgical singing-worship. However modern scholars consider the connection between Sūrdās and Vallabha and his sect to be ahistorical.

The book Sur Sagar (Sur's Ocean) is traditionally attributed to Surdas. However, many of the poems in the book seem to be written by later poets in Sur's name. The Sur Sagar in its present form focuses on descriptions of Krishna as the lovely child of Gokul and Vraj, written from the gopis' perspective.