Swami Haridas (1480—1573) was a spiritual poet and

classical musician Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

. Credited with a large body of devotional compositions, especially in the

Dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South Ind ...

style, he is also the founder of the Haridasi school of mysticism, still found today in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

. His work influenced both the classical music and the

Bhakti movement The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th centur ...

s of

, especially those devoted to

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

's consort

Radha Radha ( sa, राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is worshiped as the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. She is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi and is also de ...

. Hit Harivansh Mahaprabhu, Hariram Vyas,

Rupa Goswami Rupa Goswami ( sa, रूप गोस्वामी, bn, রূপ গোস্বামী, ; 1489–1564) was a devotional teacher (guru), poet, and philosopher of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. With his brother Sanatana Goswami, he is ...

, Vidyapati, Mahaprabhu

Vallabhacharya Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhu (1479–1531 CE), also known as Vallabha, Mahaprabhuji and Vishnuswami, or Vallabha Acharya, is a Hindu Indian saint and philosopher who founded the Krishna-centered PushtiMarg sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj(Vraj) ...

, Vitthalnath (Gusainji), were his contemporaries. Swami Haridas is a direct disciple of father of

Carnatic Music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

Purandara Dasa Purandara Dasa (IAST: Purandara dāsa) ( 1470 – 1565) was a Haridasa philosopher and a follower of Madhwacharya 's Dwaitha philosophy -saint from present-day Karnataka, India. He was a composer, singer and one of the chief founding-prop ...

of Karnataka. He had many pupils,

Tansen Tansen ( – 26 April 1589), also referred to and commonly known as Sangeet Samrat () , was a Hindustani classical musician. Born in a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pra ...

being one of them and one of Akbar's nine gems.

Biography

Haridas's father was a

Saraswat Brahmin The Saraswat Brahmins are Hindu Brahmins, who are spread over widely separated regions spanning from Kashmir in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. The word ''Saraswat'' is deriv ...

from

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

and that his mother's name was Chitra Mata. The family migrated to a village called Rajpur , near

Vrindavan Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. Haridas was born there in 1480 and the village is now called Rajpur gram in his honor. This village holds that he died in 1575. He was disciple of Shri Ashudheer Maharaj, also his father who followed the

Nimbarka Sampradaya The Nimbarka Sampradaya (IAST: ''Nimbārka Sampradāya'', Sanskrit निम्बार्क सम्प्रदाय), also known as the Hamsa Sampradāya, and Sanakādi Sampradāya (सनकादि सम्प्रदाय), is ...

, he is said to be the Avatar of Shri Lalita Sakhi. He was deeply learned and widely acquainted with the music of his time. Mention is found in his works of stringed instruments such as the

kinnari A kinnara is a celestial musician, part human and part bird, who are musically paradigmatic lovers, in Hinduism and Buddhism. In these traditions, the ''kinnaras'' (male) and ''kinnaris'' (female counterpart) are two of the most beloved mytho ...

and aghouti and of drums such as the mridang and daff. He mentions the ''

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

s'' of Kedar,

Gauri (raga) Gauri is an India musical raga that appears in the Sikh tradition from northern India and is part of the Sikh holy scripture called Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Every raga has a strict set of rules which govern the number of notes that can be used; whi ...

Malhar "Malhar" is a Hindustani classical raga. Malhar is associated with torrential rains. Besides the basic Shuddha Malhar, which was the original Malhar, several Malhar-related ragas use the Malhar signature phrase m (m)R (m)R P, including "Miyan ...

and Basant. Swami Haridas is said to have been the teacher of

, one of the nine gems of Akbar's court, and the renowned dhrupad singer and composer Baiju. He later shifted his residence to

, the playground of the immortal cowherd

and Radha. There he built his ''

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

'' (hermitage) in Nidhivan and sang his songs of the love of Radha-Krishna. Following the example of Swami Shribhatta, Haridas continued to praise the Lord until the Lord manifested himself as Sri Banke Bihari. Swami Haridas' spiritual disciples included

Vitthal Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is of ...

and Krishna Das who fostered his tradition of devotional music. Groups (''samaj'', like the ''sankeertan'' of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

and the ''bhajana goshti'' of

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

) of devotees came together and sang of the Lord of

. His

samadhi ''Samadhi'' (Pali and sa, समाधि), in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Ashtanga Yoga ...

(tomb) is in

Nidhivan, Vrindavan Nidhivan which means "''Forest of Tulsi'' " is one of the sacred forest sites of Vrindavan. It is situated in the Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Nidhivan is considered as the most prominent site dedicated to the pastimes of Hindu deities ...

Songs of Swami Haridas

Haridas's compositions may be classed as Vishnupadas. Even his ''prabandhas'' that do not refer to

have come to be known as Vishnupadas, perhaps because of the mystic source of his music but also because they are musically constructed in a manner similar to

dhrupad Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music from the Indian subcontinent. It is the oldest known style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, Haveli Sangeet of Pushtimarg Sampraday and also related to the South Ind ...

s. He is also said to have written '' tirvats'', '' ragamalas'' and other forms. There are around 128 compositions attributed to him, of which eighteen are

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

(''

siddhanta ''Siddhānta'' is a Sanskrit term denoting the established and accepted view of any particular school within Indian philosophy; literally "settled opinion or doctrine, dogma, axiom, received or admitted truth; any fixed or established or canonica ...

pada'') and a hundred and ten devotional (''keli mala''). He describes Radha and Krishna's sporting:

Two beams of light are playing - Unique their dance and music. Ragas and raginis of heavenly beauty are born, The two have sunk themselves in the ocean of raga.

Swami Haridas belonged to the tradition of '' madhura

bhakti ''Bhakti'' ( sa, भक्ति) literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity".See Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit Dictionary'', 1899. It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to d ...

'' - Adoration expressed in conjugal imagery. Haridas's

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

embraces not merely the Love of Krishna and Radha but also the witnessing of the Love, a state of mind called rasa. In an ecstatic condition of trance he sings of the play of Krishna among the bowers of Vrindavan. More than Krishna, Radha was the central personality of all his poems. He says:

Who knows of the quality of things more than Radha? If anyone has any knowledge at all, it is by her grace. None knows the beauty of raga, tala and dance as Radha does.

Popular culture

An annual classical music festival,

Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan (English: Swami Haridas Music Festival) is a noted Hindustani classical music and dance festival organized by Sur Singar Samsad, and held annually in Mumbai, India. All the prominent Indian classical vocalists, in ...

is held every year in Mumbai since 1952.

References

External links

Bankey Bhihari Temple, VrindavanBankey Bhihari Temple WebsitePostage stamp on Swami Haridas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haridas, Swami People from Mathura People from Aligarh Performers of Hindu music Indian Hindus Indian male classical musicians Bhakti movement 1478 births 1573 deaths 16th-century Indian musicians

Biography

Songs of Swami Haridas

Popular culture

See also

References

External links