Today, the country celebrates the birth anniversary of Mahakavi Sant Surdas, a 16th-century blind Hindu devotional poet and singer known for his works written in praise of Lord Krishna. Most of his poems were written in the Braj language, a dialect of medieval Hindi, like Awadhi. 

Sant Surdas and Historical Debates

There are many historical debates on the life of Sant Surdas. One such debate lies in the connection between Surdas and the Vallabh sect within Hinduism, which is part of the Vaishnav fraction (believers of Vishnu). However, many modern scholars believe that this connection is ahistorical. Another historical debate surrounds Surdas’s book ‘Sur Sagar’ (literally translating to Surdas’s ocean), a traditional attributed to poet Surdas. But many of the poems in the book seem to be written by later poets under Surdas’ name.

The birth of poet Surdas is traced back to a Brahmin family in Uttar Pradesh. He is today celebrated for his poetic artistry in Braj Bhasha, the language of the common people of the area. His poems raised the status of Braj from a crude language of the masses to that of a literary one.