Surdas (1478 – 1583) was a Hindu devotional poet, singer, and a saint (sant), who followed the Shuddhadvaita school of Brahmavada. He was a desciple of Mahaprabhu Shri Vallabhacharya. He lived during reign of King Akbar (1542-1606). Surdas spent most of his years in Vrindavan and created the epic literary work Sur Sagar. Vallabhacharya took him under his tutelage and thus began Surdas's teaching in prevalent Bhakti Shuddha advaita (Non-dualism philosophy), as Vallabhacharya was the founder of the Pushti sect (Pushtimarg) in India. ...Read More
Mirabai (1498-1547CE) was a Hindu mystical poetess whose compositions are popular throughout India. Mirabai is held to have been a disciple of Ravidas. Mirabai composed between 200 to 1300 prayerful songs called Bhajans. These Bhajans are in the bhakti tradition, and most passionately praised Lord Krishna. Many of the details of Mirabai's life are pieced together from her poetry and the stories later recounted by members of her community. While Mirabai's hagiography is held as truth by followers of the bhakti tradition, the historical authenticity of most of her story is the subject of scholarly debate. ...Read More
Raskhan (born 1548 A.D.) was a poet who was both a Muslim and a follower (bhakt) of Lord Krishna. His real name was Sayyad Ibrahim and is known to have lived in Amroha in India. Raskhan was his pen name which means Mine of Ras (nectar) in hindi. Most of the scholars say that Raskhan was a Pathan Sardar belonging to Delhi, but some scholars opine that his birth place was Pihani in Hardoi district. Raskhan is not his original name. Hajari Prasad Dwivedi has described his two names, Saiyad Ibrahim and Sujan Raskhan, in his book. It appears that the original name of Raskhan was Saiyad Ibrahim and Khan was his title. ...Read More