Surdas Jayanti 2026 Date

About Surdas Jayanti

Vaishakha Shukla Panchami marks the birth of Surdas, the blind Brajbhasha poet whose padas about the child Krishna — sung from the viewpoint of the Braj gopis — became the model for Krishna-bhakti music across North India. Tradition places his birth in Sihi village, Faridabad, in 1478.

Surdas is counted as the foremost of the Ashtachhap, or 'eight seals' — eight poet-singers of the Vallabha Sampradaya whose compositions are still sung in the sect's daily temple service. Vallabhite tradition says Surdas met the philosopher Vallabhacharya in 1510 and was blind from birth, but historians think he likely lost his sight later in life. His signature subject is Krishna as a mischievous child, watched and adored by the gopis of Braj. The collection bearing his name, the Sur Sagar, started as roughly 400 padas in the 16th century and grew to thousands as later poets composed under his 'seal'. His fame reached Akbar's court, and he spent his last years in Braj living on offerings from his bhajan singing. Blind devotional singers in North India still call themselves Surdas in his memory.