48 RELIGIOUS SECTS 



flourished at the end of Akber's reign, and in the commencement of that 

 of his successor. 



The notiees we have of Sur Das are very brief: he was blind, a great 

 poet, and a devout worshipper of Vishnu, in whose honour all his poems are 

 written : they are songs and hymns of various lengths, but usually short, 

 and the greater number are Padas, or simply stanzas of four lines, the first 

 line forming a subject, which is repeated as the last and the burthen of the 

 song, Padas being very generally sung, both at public entertainments, and the 

 devotional exercises of the Vaishna'va ascetics. Sur Das is said to have 

 composed 125,000 of these Padas: he is almost entitled to be considered as 

 the founder of a sect, as blind beggars carrying about some musical instru- 

 ments, to which they chaunt stanzas in honour of Vishnu, are generally termed 

 Sur Ddsis. The tomb of Sur Das, a simple mound of earth, is considered to 

 be sitfuated in a tope near Swpur, a village about two miles to the north of 

 Benares. There is also an account of a saint of the same name in the BhaJcta 

 Mala, who is possibly a different person from the blind bard. This was a 

 Brahman, Jmin, or collector of the Pergunnah ofSandila, in the reign of Akber, 

 and who with more zeal than honesty made over his collections to the shrine 

 of Madana Mohana, a form of Krisna, at Vrmdavan, and sent to the 

 treasury chests filled with stones:* the minister Toder Mull, however, 

 although a Hindu, was not disposed to confirm this transfer, and he had the 

 defaulter arrested and thrown into prison. Sur Das then applied to Akber 



* He accompanied them also with the following rhyme, cf"^^ '^?5 ^^W '^'^^ ^W 



W^Wt%# f?^il ^T^¥ ^^^rm^'T ^T# Tiff t% ^^%U which may be thus 



rendered t 



The Saints have shared Sandilas taxes, 

 Of which the total thirteen lacks is, 

 A fee for midnight service owen, 

 By me Sur Dds to Madan Mohen^ 



