About The Book

Sūradāsa, the blind saint-poet, lived in the sixteenth century during the establishment of the Mogul empire in India by Babur and its consolidation by Akbar. A Vaishnava of the Pushṭimārga, he was spiritually inspired by Vallabhā-chārya and composed his outstanding work, the Sīrasāgara ‘Ocean of Poetry’, closely following the Bhāgavata which narrates the deeds of Krishna, whose staunch devotee he was. His numerous padas composed in Brajbhāshā are a treasure-house of the very best Hindi poetry on a level with that of Tulasīdāsa, the author of the Rāmāyaṇa but unfortunately his poems remain comparatively much less known to the Western world. This English translation of some of the verses of his Sūrasāgara endeavours to provide the reader with a representative selection from the various sections of this work in English verse along with the transliterated version of the text, and in English prose for the narrative portions. The selection highlights Krishna as the Lord and as the amorous lover of Rādhā and the milkmaids of Braj