Purandara Dasa Krithi
Nancie Fazzari
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 Vishnu) and this same form of Vishnu is his aaradhya daiva or ishta murthi or worshippable deity. His work was appreciated by many scholars of his time and later scholars.
Purandara Dasa was the only son of the wealthy merchant Varadappa Nayaka and his wife Rukmini. He was named Srinivasa Nayaka, after the patron deity of Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala. He acquired proficiency in Kannada, Sanskrit, and sacred music through education. At the age of 16, he was married to Saraswati Bai, traditionally described as a pious young girl. They had four sons, Varadappa, Gururaya, Abhinavappa and Madhvapati. He lost his parents at age 20, thereby inheriting his father's business of gemstones and pawning. He prospered and became known as Navakoti Narayana (an abundantly rich man; worth ninety million).
Popular legend narrates a miraculous incident in Srinivasa Nayaka's life, owing to which he was led to devote himself to the practice, propagation and inculcation of bhakti (devotion) towards Krishna through musical compositions. As a natural, inescapable consequence of such a transforming event, ubiquitous in the lives of several saints throughout the ages, he is believed to have relinquished his former greedy and miserly self, having realized the worthlessness of attachment to worldly possessions:[20] The deity, in a bid to cure Srinivaasa of his tenacious materialistic delusion and attachment, and thereby claim his devotion to himself, approached Srinivaasa in the guise of a poor man, with a piteous plea for money; ostensibly, the money was needed to perform His son's 'upanayana'(sacred-thread investiture ceremony).
Having been summarily rejected, mocked and turned out, the 'poor man' repeated his plea before Srinivaasa's wife; a generous soul of rigorous spiritual nature, she gave away one of her precious nose rings, unbeknownst to her husband; the 'poor man' sold the nose ring back to none other than Srinivasa himself! The shrewd Srinivasa, privy to his wife's openhandedness, immediately identified the nose ring as his wife's and hurried home; enraged and anxious to ascertain the truth of the matter, he demanded his wife to produce the nose ring before him immediately.
Travelling Haridasa successors are said to have followed the systems[clarification needed] he devised, and orally transmitted his compositions. According to traditional sources, his compositions numbers as many as 4,75,000.[25] His original collection of songs is referred to as Purandaropanishat[8] as given by Vyasatirtha out of which only 1000 are available right now.
Purandara Dasa tried to reform existing social practices and preached through devotional songs in the local Kannada language.[27] Most of his keertanas deal with social reform and pinpoint the defects in society.[28] The philosophy of Purandara Dasa is harmonious with the concept of bhakti in Hinduism, broadly based on the Narada Bhakti Sutras and essentially synchronous with the pan-Indian Bhakti movement. It teaches complete self-surrender and unadulterated love towards God. The philosophy of Bhakti in Purandara Dasa's compositions stems from the essential teachings of the realistic-pluralistic Madhva Philosophy of Vaishnavism, and has been rendered in simple Kannada. The individual soul (jeeva) is a pratibimba (reflection) of God (Vishnu/Ishvara), who is the bimba (source). The jeeva owes its existence, knowledge and bliss to the Ishvara, and any sense of independence with regards to one's actions and the results thereof is to be given up.[29] The mind has to be turned away from transient pleasures and possessions of this world; instead, it is to be turned towards Vishnu, who alone is the abode of unadulterated, unswerving bliss. His keerthanas have simple lessons in this regard and implore men to lead the noble life of a Vaishnava.[30]
Purandara Dasa fought the evils of casteism through his songs.[31] In his song aavakulavaadarenu aavanadarenu aatma bhavavariyada mele he wonders what is the use if one does not understand the spirit of humanism whatever caste or status one might be accredited to.[31] In the same song when relating to cows of different colours and sugarcane of different shapes he emphasizes that one's birth cannot merely decide the highness or lowness of any individual.[31] He asks will the sweetness of crooked sugarcane be also crooked or will the milk of cows of many a colour be also of many colours.[31] He asked people to do their best in the world, to provide food and charity to the poor, help others and give up attachments. He was against the caste system, and believed true caste was based on character, not on birth. Sacrifice did not imply the slaughter of animals, but the slaying of one's bad qualities.[32]
According to Purandara Dasa, there were no inequalities among men and women. Both of them had the same rights and obligations in their conduct of everyday life as well as observation of piety. Purandara Dasa distinctly described the quality of a virtuous woman. According to him, the neck chains, bangles and other ornaments that women wore were not important; the beauty of mind and noble conduct were her true embellishments.[33]
Purandara Dasa made some forceful expressions on untouchability, which was dogging society.[31] His strength comes perhaps from the support of his guru Vyasathirtha with the backing of king Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara himself.[31] In one such song Holaya horagithane oorolagillave he opines that an individual should not be branded untouchable based on his/her birth in any specific caste, however it is rather his conduct which should make him untouchable if at all he can be called so. The usage of the word untouchable is not used in the limited context of physical contact with the person, it is the worthlessness of the association with that person which is highlighted here. This is evident by the subsequent expressions in the song which says that one who does not practice self-discipline is untouchable, one who plots against his government is untouchable, one who shirks charity while having wealth is untouchable, one who poisons to eliminate his opponents is untouchable, one who does not use soft language is untouchable, one who prides over his purity of caste is untouchable and finally one who does not meditate on Purandara Vittala is untouchable.[31] Dasa's message is loud and clear rejecting untouchability in our society.[31] He uses the name of Purandara Vittala to imply any God.[31] This is evident from his other songs on various Gods and Goddesses.[31] Similar ideas were expressed by many other poets also.[31]
In the pure Carnatic tradition, Bidaram Krishnappa was one of the foremost singers of modern times to popularize the compositions of Purandara Dasa. Singer Madras Lalithangi, and her illustrious daughter Padmavibushan, Sangeetha Kalanidhi M. L. Vasanthakumari have rendered yeoman service in propagating the compositions of Purandara Dasa; both were considered authorities on Purandara Dasa. M. L. Vasantha Kumari was awarded an honorary doctorate by Mysore University for her contributions to Purandara Dasa's music.
Though the compositions of Purandara Dasa are originally in the ragas of the Carnatic system of music, his compositions have been adopted and made equally popular in Hindustani music. Hindustani music legends such as Bhimsen Joshi, Madhav Gudi and Basavaraj Rajguru have made them more popular in recent years.
Classical vocalists and musicians such as Upendra Bhat, Puttur Narasimha Nayak, Venkatesh Kumar, Nagaraja Rao Havaldar, Ganapathi Bhatt, Vidyabhushana, Pravin Godkhindi, Nachiketa Sharma, Sangeetha Katti, and the Bombay Sisters are continuing the tradition of singing and performing Purandara Dasa's compositions and other Dasa Sahitya songs in Carnatic as well as Hindustani music concerts. Of late, Mysore Ramachandracharya is industriously propagating dasa sahitya through his concerts. Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanams is also propagating the dasa krithis through the Dasa Sahitya Project. He also composed the first lullaby songs in Carnatic music, such as Thoogire Rangana[34] and Gummana Kareyadire,[35] which led to the creation of many similar songs by others.
The Purandara Mantapa[36] adjoining the Vijayavittala temple at Hampi is one of the long-standing monuments relating to Purandara Dasa. This is where he is said to have composed and sung in praise of Vishnu.
Sri Purandara Dasa Memorial Trust (SPDMT),[40] formed in Bangalore in 2007, has been actively involved in promoting and researching all aspects of the life and works of Purandara Dasa. A 3500-square-foot concert hall, called 'Purandara Mantapa', has been erected on the premises of the Trust.
The Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha (ISS) at Indiranagar, Bangalore formed in 1986, has dedicated an auditorium with a seating capacity of 600 called Purandara Bhavana[41] exclusively for cultural events, inaugurated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam,[42] to his memory.
Another life sketch of Purandara dasaPurandara Dasa(1484-1564) was known as the father of Carnatic music. His signature was Purandara Vittala. He composed Lakshana geetams. He also composed swaralai varasaisa and swarajathi to be the first composition to be learnt by beginnners. He also made mayamalavagowla raga to be the first raga to be learnt by beginners. His compositions were mostly in kannada and sometimes sanskrit.
The Bhakti movement was infused with musical fervour by many saint -musicians all over India over the centuries. Notable among them -Purandara Dasa and Thyagaraja played key roles during their lives. Both these men belonged to the line of saint-musicians, who influenced the masses for their moral and spiritual upliftment through the medium of their musical compositions. Both men have emphasized that bhakti without sincerity of devotion is meaningless. These two ardent devotees of God were in a manner of speaking, trend-setters. Their reformist zeal to set bhakti in its proper perspective devoid of sham and meaningless rituals was frequently stressed in their krithis. The spiritual and philosophical contents of their krithis are often compared to the Upanishads.
c80f0f1006