Purandara Dasa

Purandara Dasa
Purandara Dasa on a 1964 stamp of India
Personal
Born
Srinivasa Nayaka

1484
Died2 January 1564 (Saturday)
ReligionHinduism
SpouseSaraswati Bai
OccupationCarnatic Vocalist, scholar, Saint, poet, composer
Organization
PhilosophyDvaita, Vaishnavism
Religious career
GuruVyasatirtha

Srinivasa Nayaka, also known as Purandara Dasa (IAST: Purandara dāsa)[2] (c. 1484 – c. 1564) was a composer, singer and a Haridasa philosopher from present-day Karnataka, India. He was a follower of Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy. He was one of the chief founding proponents of Carnatic music. In honor of his contributions to Carnatic music, he is referred to as the Pitamaha (lit. "grandsire") of Carnatic music.[3][4][5][6] According to a legend, he is considered as an incarnation of Narada.[7][8]

Purandara Dasa was a wealthy merchant of gold, silver and other miscellaneous jewellery from Karnataka, who gave away all his material riches to become a Haridasa (literally meaning a servant of Vishnu or Krishna), a devotional singer who made the difficult Sanskrit tenets of Bhagavata Purana available to everyone in simple and melodious songs. He was one of the most important music scholars of medieval India.[9][10][11] He formulated the basic lessons of teaching Carnatic music by structuring graded exercises known as Svaravalis and Alankaras,[9] and at the same time, he introduced the raga Mayamalavagowla as the first scale to be learnt by beginners in the field – a practice that is still followed today. He also composed Gitas (simple songs) for novice students.

Purandara Dasa is noted for composing Dasa Sahithya, as a Bhakti movement vocalist, and a music scholar. His younger contemporary, Kanakadasa, emulated his practice. Purandara Dasa's Carnatic music compositions are mostly in Kannada, though some are in Sanskrit. He signed his compositions with the ankitanama (pen name) "Purandara Vittala" (Vittala is another name of Krishna, one of the incarnations of Vishnu) and this same form of Krishna is his aaradhya daiva or ishta murthi or worshippable deity. His work was appreciated by many scholars of his time and later scholars.

  1. ^ "Purandara Dasa is not from Maharashtra, his birth place is Araga in Karnataka | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. August 2018.
  2. ^ Kamath, Suryanath. (1980). A concise history of Karnataka from prehistoric times to the present. Bengaluru: Jupiter Books.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference iyer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Thielemann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference MA1991 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference oldest was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Purandara Daasaru Collection - Paneendra N Gautham. For "Sumadhwa Seva" Group" (PDF). Sumadhwaseva.com. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  8. ^ "New Page 1". Madhvaradio.org. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  9. ^ a b Nettl, Bruno; Stone, Ruth M.; Porter, James (1998). The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia : the Indian subcontinent. Taylor & Francis. p. 216. ISBN 978-0-8240-4946-1.
  10. ^ Narayan, M.K.V. (2010). Lyrical Musings on Indic Culture: A Sociological Study of Songs of Sant Purandara Dasa. Readworthy. p. 108. ISBN 978-93-80009-31-5.
  11. ^ Ranade, Ramchandra Dattatraya (1933). Mysticism in India: The Poet-Saints of Maharashtra. State University of New York Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-0-87395-669-7.

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