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Revised Bibliography
SU ̄RDA ̄S (also called Su ̄r Da ̄s and Su ̄ rada ̄sa; c. 1483–
1563), a North Indian devotional poet. Known for his bril-
liant padas (lyrics) in the Braj dialect of Hindi, Su ̄ rda ̄s is one
of the most popular poets of Kr:s:n:a bhakti (devotion) in the
North Indian heartland.
The traditionally accepted story of his life has come
down through the hagiographic accounts of the Vallabhite
sect of Kr:s:n:a bhakti, which claims Su ̄ rda ̄s as the first of its
“eight seals”—eight poets who lived during the early days of
the sect and whose compositions are part of the sect’s daily
liturgy. According to these accounts, Su ̄ rda ̄s was born near
Delhi in 1478, the same year as Vallabha ̄ca ̄rya, the founder
of the sect, and, like him, was of the Sa ̄rasvat Bra ̄hman: caste.
Reputedly blind from birth, he was endowed with miracu-
lous gifts of clairvoyance as well as great musical talent. At
a young age, he left home to become an ascetic, eventually
settling near Agra. There he composed devotional songs and
attracted a following. In 1510 Vallabha ̄ca ̄rya came through
on one of his preaching tours and met Su ̄ rda ̄s. Until that
time, all of Su ̄ rda ̄s’s compositions had been of the vinaya
type—hymns of supplication and humble pleas for salvation.
Vallabha ̄ca ̄rya taught him the story of Kr:s:n:a as embodied in
the tenth chapter of the Bha ̄gavata Pura ̄n:a, instructed him
in his doctrines, and enjoined him to sing about the l ̄ıla ̄ (di-
vine play) of Kr:s:n:a. He then brought Su ̄ rda ̄s to the sect’s
newly established Shr ̄ına ̄thj ̄ı temple in Govardhan and put
him in charge of composing songs for the liturgy. In this set-
ting, where he spent the remainder of his life, Su ̄ rda ̄s com-
posed the Su ̄rsa ̄gar, a retelling of the Bha ̄gavata Pura ̄n:a in
twelve chapters of verse. He died, according to Vallabhite
sources, shortly before the death of Vallabha ̄ca ̄rya’s son,
Vit:t:halna ̄tha, in 1585, his life thus spanning that of both the
founder of the sect and his immediate successor.
Serious scholarly doubt has been cast on this account.
Another nonsectarian Hindu tradition suggests that Su ̄ rda ̄s’s
dates are 1483 to 1563, that he was by caste a Bha ̄t: (panegy-
rist), and that he became blind only later in life. The issue
is further complicated by references in Muslim sources to a
renowned singer named Su ̄ rda ̄s at the court of the emperor
Akbar (r. 1556–1605). The somewhat subordinate ranking
of this Mughal Su ̄ rda ̄s—he is far less celebrated than his fa-
ther, a certain Ra ̄mda ̄s—and a disagreement among the royal
choniclers as to whether Ra ̄mda ̄s hailed from Gwalior or
Lucknow makes it unlikely, however, that this Su ̄ rda ̄s is the
same as the renowned Vais:n:ava poet. The early-seventeenth-
century Afsa ̄nah-i-Sha ̄ha ̄n ̇ of Muh:ammad Kab ̄ır also men-
tions a Su ̄ rda ̄s, who is referred to as a performer at the court
of the Afghan ruler Isla ̄m Sha ̄h (r. 1545–1555). This
Su ̄ rda ̄s—who sounds more likely to be “our” man—is in-
cluded in a select list of “accomplished scholars and poets”
whose luster was intended to burnish the reputation of Isla ̄m
Sha ̄h a half century or more later. Su ̄ rda ̄s is the only non-
Muslim to be included in the group.
This image of Su ̄ rda ̄s as a court poet is entirely at vari-
ance with the Vallabhite account that has become so stan-
dard. But the most serious challenge to the Vallabhite view
comes not from alternate biographies, Vais:n:ava or otherwise,
but from the textual history of the Su ̄rsa ̄gar itself. Though
the present-day standard edition of nearly five thousand
padas is indeed divided into twelve chapters following the
Bha ̄gavata Pura ̄n:a, the oldest extant manuscripts, which con-
tain only a few hundred padas, are not. Nor do the older
manuscripts follow the Vallabhite liturgical calendar, use the
characteristic theological terminology of the sect, or group
the vinaya lyrics at the beginning as a distinct genre. The
present-day Su ̄rsa ̄gar is thus the product of gradual addition
to an original core of episodic lyrics, and of the imposition
of a systematic framework by a self-conscious sectarian tradi-
tion. A critical edition prepared by Kenneth E. Bryant in co-
operation with Vidyut Aklujkar and others is shortly to be
published and will force a radical reevaluation of the text, at
least in scholarly circles.
Despite the incorporation of Su ̄ rda ̄s into the history and
liturgy of the Vallabhite community, his importance as a reli-
gious figure extends far beyond the sectarian. His name has
become a household word used to refer to blind persons, es-
pecially blind mendicant singers, while the Su ̄rsa ̄gar, whose
lyrics are sung by Indians of all sectarian persuasions, is con-
sidered one of the literary and devotional treasures of the
Hindi-speaking area. Su ̄ rda ̄s’s lyrics touch on all aspects of
the Kr:s:n:a story, but he is best known for his depiction of
Kr:s:n:a’s childhood and adolescence. Among the poems on
Kr:s:n:a’s childhood, those dealing with Kr:s:n:a as the butter
thief are among the favorites. Also popular are the lyrics that
describe the irresistible attraction of Kr:s:n:a’s flute-playing
and how it draws the cowherd women (gop ̄ıs) from their
homes. Su ̄ rda ̄s’s second most beloved theme is that of the
pain of separation (viraha) felt by Ra ̄dha ̄ and the cowherd
women after Krishna leaves them and settles in Mathura, re-
suming the royal station he was forced to abdicate at birth.
Among these viraha poems are the famous “bee songs,” in
which the cowherd women mock the cold monistic philoso-
phy of Kr:s:n:a’s emissary Uddhav and assert the superiority
of their loving personal devotion to Kr:s:n:a. Su ̄ rda ̄s’s third
most popular theme is that of vinaya, in which he turns from
dramatic third-person description and narration to the inti-
mate first-person voice of the devotee praying to his god for
salvation, sometimes humbly, sometimes with reckless aban-
don. The Su ̄rsa ̄gar also contains padas that plumb Kr:s:n:a’s ac-
tivities as a mature adult—stories associated with the great
Maha ̄bha ̄rata epic—as well as a number that celebrate Ra ̄ma
and S ̄ıta ̄, as in the Maha ̄bha ̄rata’s parallel epic, the Ra ̄ma ̄-
yan:a.
Finally, there are poems that function as verbal icons,
as in the following example. Here, one young woman catchesSU ̄RDA ̄S 8881