Swami Haridas

Swami Haridas was a spiritual poet and classical musician. Credited with a large body of devotional compositions, especially in the Dhrupad style, he is also the founder of the Haridasi school of mysticism, still found today in North India. His work influenced both the classical music and the Bhakti movements of North India, especially those devoted to Krishna's consort Radha. He is accounted a follower of the Nimbarka Sampradaya, the major Vaisnava tradition of exclusive devotion to Radha-Krishna. He was the disciple of Purandara Dasa, some also believe Bhai Mardana was his teacher Gavai, Sheshadri. 1956. Sangeetha kalaravinda. Bangalore: Aravinda Publications. and the teacher of Tansen.

Biography

The details of Haridas's life are not well known. According to one school of thought he was born in 1480 in Rajpur, near Brindavan. His father's name was Gangadhar and his mother's name was Chitra Devi. In this version of his life story Haridas is said to have died in 1575. A second school holds that Haridas's father was a Saraswat Brahmin from Multan and that his mother's name was Ganga Devi. The family migrated to a village called Khairwali Sarak, near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Haridas was born there in 1512 and the village is now called Haridaspur in his honor. This school holds that he died in 1607.

Swami Haridas spent some time at the Gwalior court of Raja Mansingh...
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