Page:A History of Hindi Literature.djvu/87

 THE KRISHNA CULT 73 Agra Das (fl. 1575), who was in turn the preceptor of Nabha Das, author of the Bhaktamald. Nand Das holds, next to Sur Das, the highest place as a poet amongst those who are included in the Ashia Chhap. He was a Brahman, and some have believed him to be a brother of the great Tulsi Das. There is a proverb about him which says, A^ir sab gariya, Nand Das jariyd, "All others are simply founders (or melters), but Nand Das is the artificer (who joins the pieces of metal into a composite whole). " He was the author of several larger w^orks as well as of detached verses. One of his compositions is a poem in imitation of the Sanskrit Gitd Govinda, called Pane had hydyi. Sur Das.— The greatest of all the Ashta Chhdp, how- ever, was Sur Dds. The particulars of his life are very scanty and uncertain. It is said that he was a Brahman and the son of Baba Ram Das, who was a singer at the court of the Emperor Akbar. At the age of eight he went with his parents to Muttra, and became the pupil of a devotee. Afterwards he removed to Gau Ghat, between Agra and Muttra, where he became a disciple of Vallabhacharya. In the commentary which he him- self wrote to some of his emblematic verses he says that he was a descendant of the famous bard Chand Bardal, that his father's name was Ram Chandra, and that his grandfather, Hari Chandra, lived at Agra. Some, however, consider him to be a Brahman and regard the verse where this information is given as spurious. His father lived at Gopchal and had seven sons, six of whom were killed in battle with the Muhammadans. He alone, blind (either literally or figuratively) and worthless, as he says, remained alive. He had a vision of Krishna, and thereafter "all was darkness" to him, which may mean he became blind. He went to live at Braj, and became one of the Ashta Chhdp. Tradition places his birth in 1483 and his death in 1563, but these dates are uncertain. All the traditions agree as to his blindness, either from birth, or from a later period of his life, and he is often referred to as " the blind bard of Agra."