15th century,
Gaughat, Uttarakhand.
Somewhere close to a woodland comes a lovely tune. It is Ektara's music. There are few girls walking in the wilderness. They paused there, taking in the lovely melody. They pondered the identity of the artist performing such lovely tunes. Music helped them to get to the musician. A blind man was sitting and he was playing his ektara. He was not the only one that had people stop over and listen to the music. One of the females approached a person and inquired about his identity.
"The man said that the blind man is Surdas, a musician and poet. She walked to Surdas after thanking him. She introduced herself as a prostitute named Chintamani as she sat in front of Surdas.
Surdas met her and inquired about her desires. Chintamani expressed interest in him and a desire to learn more about him.
Surdas consented to share his story with Chintamani and the other onlookers.
"I was born in the village called Ranukta which lies on the road Agra to Mathura to a brahmin family in Uttar Pradesh," Surdas said as he started to tell his story
"Bilwamangal is my true name. Pandit Ramdas Saraswat is my father. My father was an excellent musician. But because I'm blind, he wouldn't let me learn music. However, I avoided him and learned music with the assistance of some of my childhood friends who were also my father's students. When my father wasn't home, I would practice singing and play Ektara. two years prior, when I was eighteen years old. In our kingdom, there was a conflict. My siblings were enlisted in the army because the monarch made them and my father fell into poverty. and we lived in destitution. Every member of my family disregarded me. They declined to give me food. Not even a sufficient space for me to sleep.
