·I·~- THE PADAS OFSURDAS i I i I MAHARAJA SAWAI MAN SINGH" MUSEUM CITY PAL~CE, ~~IPVFl Edited with introduction and appendices by GOpAL NARAYANBAHURA With an essay by Dr. KEN BRYANT University of British Columbia, Canada t t< /tff.€7, ~ t1 8JI 11B~ Maharaja Sawai Man Singh 1\ Memorial Series; No.6 General Editor I Gopal Narayan Bahura Copyright 1982, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust .Rs 2 0 0 = 1 Published by Dr. Asok K. Das. Director, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh 11 Mus·eum Trust, City Palace, Jaipur-<302002 Printed and Blocks made by JUbilee Block & Printing Works Johari Bazar, Jaipur-302003 Phone 75895 Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Memorial Series No.6 'l< ~T'iI"G!r 'PT The Padas of Surdasa (A facsimile of ms. No. 49 of the reserved collection of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum) Aims: To publish :- (a) catalogues and indices of manuscripts. paintings and other art objects of the Museum (b) texts and critical editions of rare and important manu'scripts in the City Palace collections, (c) discourses on Museum subjects and (d) theses and independent original compositions bearing on. Jaipur, the ruling family of the erswhile Jaipur State, history and culture of Rajasthan in particular and India in general. CONTENTS Message by H.H. GaYatri Deviji, Rajamata of Jaipur Foreword by Lt. Col. H.H. Sawai Bhawani Singhji M.V.C. of Jaipur. Chairman Preface by Dr. A. K. Das. Director Introduction Ly G.N. Bahura i-vi Essay: The Manuscript Tradition of the Sursagar : The Fatehpur Manuscript by Ken Bryant vii-xx List of Padas ['1'o:r1'fil1fOf'fi'r] 1-16 Facsimile of the text 1-328 Appendix A Alphabeiical list of Surdasas Padas 1-11 Appendix B Alphabetical list of repeated Pad as 12 Appendix C Alphabetical list of Padas not traceable in Nagar! Prachirh;d' SabhH edition, 13 I " i cJ. Ja I ; \1, " ~h: fili ~1<f .. ~1 !fiTa- al: I ~f'" ~"'. !fi~T ~!fiTf<: <fT~T ~T, ~f~ tTTqT"'f~ il'l: I qT *n.: fa(lIIq-fi!llll-~TtT" ':~<f lQ'i!lT ~iiT 13:l: I 'i\': ~qT~ fili ~<f'liT<'T if !liTa- '" IITTiiT<f itl: II INTRODUCTION The song-verses 01 Surdas have been very popular throughout North India. He was not only a great singer and poet but also an ardent devotee of Sri Krishna whom he addresses as Hari. Bhagavan, Giridhar, Prabhu, Shyam and Govind, but more frequently as Gopal. His devotional songs have been stirring the hearts of the people for about four centuries and made a lasting impact on the life and culture of his country-men. In fact, there is no Vaishnava home where the padM or bhajan. of Surdas are .not sung or chanted by men and women in the morning and evening. Temples, of whatever dimensions or resources, resound with the lila padas full of deep devotion and self­ consignment to the lord whom Surdas realised as an Actuality in the form of Sri Krishna, a ,,1'1' lila 'a sure true friend' of the depressed and the forlorn being. He is one of the great world poets who ! j 'are not for their own age but for all ages.' ; It has been accepted with all probability that Surdas never wrote himself. He composed and sang before his lord. Rather, it was the listeners who recorded those songs in their own scripts. Sometimes they wrote after an interval and employed their own intelligence where memory failed. Thus the versions differed. later copyists also caused variations in the script as well as in actual wordings of the padas. There is one more reason for the creeping in of variations in the padas of Surdas. Besides being a poet, he was a great musician_ With·this natural gift tie blended his poetry witl:l a rich lyrical element. We find names of suitable melodies (ragas and raginis) mention.ed before each of his padas for singing them. Some. of the's.ingers learnt the padas by heart and recited them at different places where interested people noted them down and compiled according to their taste. High poetic diction, devotion, popular language and the very theme of composition blended with sweet and rich lyrical meiodies earned a great fame and reverence for Surdas, and his padas travelled far and wide in the country. 1he same were recorded in the garb of local scripts· and preserved in a . large number of manuscripts. ·which still enrich so many private and institutional manuscript' collections. I .. -_._---_._.__ ._._-_.__ .-._. $cholars have been ceaselessly busy in the search of such collections and early recensions in order to relate the life story of Surdas and to collect evidence of correct and actual readings of his compositions. It need not be said that cheese has been replaced with chalk in many cases; still an earlier manu~cript provides more definite chances for an approach to the core of the original text. The purpose of publishing this facsimile is to provide information about the contents of a manuscript-"Pada Surdasp ka' (No. 49) which bears the date of its script as 1639 V. S. (1582A.D.) Le. one yea'r before or after the death of the poet.l In former case it can claim to have been written during his life·time. This manuscript has been preserved in the Pothikhana of the rulers of the Ilrstwhile Jaipur State for more than three centuries and now forms an important and valuable asset of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum It was issued to the Pothikhana from Khasmohar2 custody on Chaitra Sudi 11, Svt. 2000 (4-4-'44). Scholars hardly took any notice when it remained displayed in the Art Gallery of the Museum for seiveral years.a There had been renewed interest in this manuscript from all over the world during the past few years especially alter the publication of the 'Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Maharaja of Jaipur Museum, 1971: It has. therefore. been decided to publish it in the form of a facsimile. The particulars of the manuscript are :-foll 163; size 18x16 cms.: paper (local): lines to 11 a page 12; letters per line 20; date 1639 V.S. (1582 A.D.), written by Ramdas Ratna at Fatehpur for Chhitarji, Kunwar of Rajsri Narharidasji; omissions and corrections are recorded on the margin, some in the same handwriting and a few later ones in a different handwriting Attempts to edit or correct the manuscript seem to have been made again at a later stage as insertions etc. appear to have been incorporated with a very thin steel nib with black ink.- Red ink has been used to denote numbers of the verses as well as the last refrain of the son,g up to f. 67. The last page bears a seal of Maharaj­ kumar Ram Singh. son of Mirza Raja Jai Singh. carrying anetfigy of a lion between the word-':[1f and suffix "If making 'Ramasimhasya' i.e. belonging to Ram Singh. The year of the seal 1718 V.S. 1. Majoritv of scholEIrS agrees that Surdas d led in 1640 V.S. (1583 A.D.). I 2. Royal sea'!. 3. Dr. P. D. Mittal, Mathura: Nagari Pracharini Patrika, Vol. VI, No.3, 2019 V. S. 1 4. The ms. was sent to R. B. Pt. Vishvambhar Nath, Dewan of Kota for publication purposes vide Central Archives, Jaipur No. 13 G/97/1933 (now weeded out). ii (1661 A.D.) is also inscribed. Such seals are frequently noticed on the manuscripts collected by or written for Maharajkumar Ram Singh while the collections made by his father, Mirza Raia Jai Singh. bear the date of accession as ~;r.r, >;f"'f<;!, 1075 (A.H.) and sometimes a seal of;r.r<r<mr of 1059 A H" who might have been the keeper of his manuscripts. It. therefore. appears that this manuscript was acquired by Ram Singh when he was still a Maharajkumar. There are in all 411 Padas compiled in this manuscript Out of these 262 bear the Chhaapa (brand) or bhanita of Surdas in different forms e.g. Sur·prabhU(lB). Sur (112), Suru(2), Surdas (43), Surdas·prabhu (51), Surijdas (3).Surij (B), Surij·prabhu (5), Sur·svami (2), Sur·shyam (15). S'ur (1). Shyam (1) and Shyam·ghana (1)=262. Twenty three padas are repeated with some variations on different pages (appendix B) Only 244 padas (including the 23 repeated' ones) could be traced out in the Nagari Pracharini Sabha edition (vols. I & II, 2021 V.S.) but there are eight such padas more which occur with the bhanita of other poets in the present manuscript and with that of Surdas in the Nagari Pracharini Sabha edition. These are :- folio no. page no. pada no. name of the poet. N.P.S. no. 20 40-41 57 Brahmadas . 787 21 42 59 Manadas 1326 26 53 74 Paramanand 4664 14 29 41 Kishoredas 170 15 30 42 Vidyapati 879 16 31 45 Brahmadas 2271 14 28 39 Paramanand 4888 72 145 B9 i Tilokaswami 266 The manuscript contains an incomplete index of the verses in 5 damaged leaves which seem to have been written crudely afterward by different persons and at different limes. The readings also do not agree with the, text. Therefore an index of 411 Padas has been prepared in accordance with the original and prefixed to the text, under publication. Another alphabetical index with the first lines of 262 padas of Surdas and 8 padas of the other poets mentioned above together with the corresponding numbers of these padas as found in the N.P.S.