Surdas - Definition and Overview

Surdas was a Hindu poet, saint and musician of India.

Surdas was very prolific composer in his life. He is known for his "Sur Sagar" (Ocean of Melody). This magnum opus is said to originally contain 100,000 poems or songs; however, today only 8,000 have survived.

Surdas' poetry was in the proto-Hindi language of Brij Bhasha. This dialect was considered to be a very plebian language. This was especially pronounced as the literary language of Hinduism was Sanskrit. Surdas' work is one of a number that are credited with raising Brij Bhasha from the status of a vulgate into that of a literary language.

The philosophy of Surdas' work is a reflection of the times. He was very much immersed in the Bhakti movement that was sweeping India. This movement represented a grass roots spiritual empowerment of the masses. Surdas in particular was a proponent of the Shuddhadvaita school of Vaishnavism (also known as Pushti Marg). This is no doubt due to the training he received under his spiritual guru Sri Vallabhacharya. This philosophy is based upon the spiritual metaphor of the Radha-Krishna Lila (The celestial dance between Radha and Lord Krishna). This is derived from earlier saints such as the great Kabir Das.