Home > Purandara Dasa
Shri Purandara Dasa
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| Period : | 1494 to 1564
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| Place of Birth : | Pandarapur , Maharashtra
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| Preceptor : | Sri Vyasaraja
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| Names : |
- Srinivasa Nayaka, as named by his parents
- Navakoti Narayana, One who is wealthy.
Navakoti being Nine crores
- Purandara Vittala, bestowed by
Shri Vyaasaraja
- Purandara Dasa, 'Dasa', since he was
an ardent follower of Vishnu
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| Avatar (believed) : |
Sage Narada
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Sri Purandara Dasa (1494-1564) ("the follower (dasa) of Lord Purandara Vittala [Lord Vishnu in one of his many avatars.]") is known as the father (Pitamaha) of Carnatic music. The dasas, among them Sripadaraya , Sri Kanaka Dasa, Sri Jagannatha Dasa , Sri Vijaya Dasa , and Sri Kamalesha Vittala , propounded bhakti to the Lord through music over several years.
Purandara Dasa is believed to be an avatar of Sage Narada. Sri Purandara Dasa always concluded his songs with a salute to Lord Purandara Vittala. He is believed to have composed around 475,000 songs, although only a thousand or so of them are known today. All his musical compositions are in Kannada, the state language of Karnataka. He was part of the Bakthi Movement in India and most of his compositions are designed to reach the common man allowing him to comprehend the glory of God. Today in Carnatic music, no artist’s concert is complete without the rendering of a few of his compositions.
1 Life and work
1.1 Upbringing
Sri Purandara Dasa was born to a pawnbroker named Varadappa Nayaka. Varadappa Nayaka and his wife Lakshmi Saraswati Bai had been childless for several years, and finally, after praying to Lord Srinivasa of TirupatiTowns and cities of Andhra Pradesh Hindu holy cities General Tirupati is a temple town located on the foot hills of Tirumala. Tirupati or Aadhi Varaha Kshetra as it is known in the Puranas (Scriptures on Hindu Mythology) is an imperative moutainous pilgri, they became proud parents of a child whom they called Srinivasa.
Srinivasa Nayaka grew up and entered his father's business. However, unlike his father, he was a miser, so musch so that he even balked at spending money on treatment for his father's illness. His wife Lakshmi was the opposite: always wishing to contribute to charity much to the displeasure of her husband.
His family is supposed to have come from Pandarapur in modern day Maharashtra but he lived in HampiUN World Heritage Sites in India Hampi (anglicized from the original Hampe in the Kannada language) is a village within the bounds of the ruined city of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara empire, in northern Karnataka, India. The village during the latter part of his life.
