The story of the suladi

The suladis were a form of poetry that were introduced in this world by the Haridasa of Karnataka.

The first among the Haridasas and saint-composers of Karnataka to use this form extensively to express his devotion to Hari was Sripadaraja (1412-1504) of Mulabagal near Kolar in Karnataka.

Sripadaraja used the suladi to describe Hari and he taught this form to his favourite disciple, Vyasa Raja or Vyasa Theertha (1447-1539)who then passed it on to Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa, Belur Vaikunta Dasa of the Dasa Koota and Vadiraja Theertha, Vijendra Theertha of the Vyasa Koota.

The word Suladi comes from the Sanskrit word Suda, which means gita. The Suladi is a composition rather very similar to the gita, another musical genre, in its arrangement and its musical structure. The Suladi is unique in the sense that for centuries after Sripadaraja it was composed only by Haridasas.

Musicians and musicologist trace the origin of Suladis to Salaga Suda (prabandha). The Salaga Suda was first described in detail in the 13^th century by Sarangadeva. These prabhandas comprised seven closely related sub-types all of the same tala. The first recorded Salaga Suda Prabhanda was called Dhruva Salaga Prabhanda and Sripadaraja, an incarnation of Dhruva, was among the first to use this form.

The content of the suladis by the Haridasa is more devotional and they are composed in different tempos such as vilambita, madhya and druta.

In a Suladi, each section is independent by itself. The pallavi (Pallavi generally is a single-line composition set to a single cycle of tala. The tala could range from the simple to the complex and there may also be different gatis being employed). is not sung at the conclusion of each section in a Suladi. In Suladis, some sections are sung in different tempos.

Usually, Haridasas, who were masters of music and literature,  composed their suladis in such a manner that a given Suladi will have a single raaga but multiple talas-generally seven. These talas will be set in place in a Suladi in succeeding parts. Some times, the Haridasas are such intricate masters of this genre that  there is a variation in raaga too. As such, it is not easy to compose Suladis. It requires mastery over music to render them properly. All the suladis of Haridasas have mythological, spiritual and religious themes. They do have an undercurrent of ethics too.

Purandara Dasa used the Suladi to focus on the conflicts of human life and Kanaka Dasa uses them to demolish the caste system. Vijaya Dasa uses them to exhort people to surrender to Hari and not to lead a decadent life.

Thus we see that the Suladi is an important vehicle for the Haridasas to give us a unique and thought provoking combination of intricate poetry with seamless music. The Suladis are lengthier compositions than the Ugabhogas and they are set to specific raagas and taalas.

Apart from Sripadaraya, other Dwaitha saints and Haridasas who composed Suladis were Vyasa Raya (1447-1539), Purandara Dasa (1484-1564), Kanaka Dasa (1509-1609) Vadiraja (1480-1600), Vijaya Dasa (1682-1755), Gopala Dasa (1722-1762) and Jagannatha Dasa of Manvi (1722-1809).

However, it must be remembered that it was Narahari Theertha, one of the four direct disciples of Madhwacharya, who first used this form to address Sri Hari. However, these suladis were in Snaskrit and his ankita here was Raghu Kula. After him, it fell into disuse and it was left to Sripadaraja to popularise it and compose in Kannada.

Sripadaraja taught the nuances of suladi to Vyasa Raja who in turn handed the baton to Purandara Dasa. Interestingly, Vyasa Raja follows his guru in writing a highly autobiographical suladi. In the Namasmarana Suladi, Vyas speaks of the many distractions and asks Hari to help him overcome them. He agrees that he has committed many sins and says he can get over them only by the grace of Sri Hari.

In Vyasa Raja’s next avatar as Raghavendra Swamy (1595-1671), he composed his only suladi- Avatara Traya Mukhyaprana Suladi – called Maruta Ninnaya Mahime.  

Vijaya Dasa in his suladi, “Dasa Purandara,” praises Purandara Dasa as his guru. He has also composed a suladi detailing the greatness of Sripadaraja.

In Andhra, Annamacharya composed the lone Suladi in Telugu and it has seven sections with each in a different raga. The suladi starts in Malavagaula and ends with Sriraga. The other ragas used in between are Daruva, Matya, Rupaka, Jhampa, Trivida, Ata and Eka. This Suladi figures in the Tirupathi copper plate No: 41. In Tamil Nadu, Sahu Maharaja (1684-1720), the son of Shiavji’s half brother Ekoji, composed a suladi with seven sections in the order of  the following ragas- Malavagaula, Kedaragaula, Ritigaula, Kannadagaula, Narayanagaula, Purvagaula and Chhayagaula.

Much earlier, in Karnataka, Purandara Dasa had written  “navavidha bhakti prasamsa”, a Suladi where a particular bhakti mudra was introduced in each of the seven sections.   

By the way, the only available three notated Suladis composed by Purandara Dasa are contained in the Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini written by Subbarama Dikshitar, a Telugu scholar and composer. It contains sections on composers, musicology and ragas of south Indian music. This book was first published in 1904.

Jagannatha Dasa of Manvi composed a suladi on Narasimha. It is a beautiful song and it shows us how much this dasa was devoted to his Narasimha. Gopala Dasa has written the suladi Virachita Rayara. In another suladi, he describes how Narahari, Rama, Krishna, Veda Vyasa can be seen atop the Brindavana of rayaru in Mantralaya and how they accept the offerings.

Kanaka Dasa has set his songs to Suladi as it is his most preferred genre.

Almost all the Haridasas have wriiten suladis and it would be well impossible to enumerate all of them. The suladi was one of the most popular forms of expression and in them, the Haridasas restructured music, made it more appealing and soul stirring. The Haridasas hewed the system to ensure that the suladis became the vehicle for propagation of Dwaitha philosophy in which Hari was supreme and Taratamya a way of life.    

The Haridasa tradition

There are more than a thousand Haridasas from Karnataka alone and all of hem have contributed their mite to the development of Haridasa or Vaishnava literature.

Unfortunately, many of these Haridasas are only heard of and their compositions have either disappeared or lost forever. Though the first ever recorded Haridasa would be Naraharti Theertha, one of the four disciples of  Madhwacharya (1238-1317), the Haridasa tradition is believed to have started sometime around 880 When Achalananda, who lived near Bangalore, began composing songs.

However, Achalananda’s songs and the compositions of others, which Prof. B.N.K. Sharma calls as Adyas, has not survived.

Prof. Sharma surmises that these Adyas could be Smarthas and that they could have lived and composed songs in the period between Narahari Theertha and Sripadaraja of Mulabagal.

Whatever be the context and setting, there is not much Haridasa literature till the advent of Madhacharya and his disciples.

Narahari Theertha, therefore, must be regarded as the first Madhwa saint to have written several Devara Namas and he can therefore be rightfully considered to be the first Haridasa.

However, Haridasa experts say the Dasa tradition goes back several centuries earlier to Narahari Theertha. They agree that the Haridasa tradition got a huge boost during the life and time of Madhwacharya.

Though Madhwacharya composed several works and many of them are still existing, all of them are in Sanskrit. Since he lived in and around Udupi, and since his parents belonged to the same area, there is no doubt that he knew and spoke Kannada and Tulu. Yet, there are no composition and works of his in Kannada though he is believed to have written a few.

By the way, only three songs of Narahari Theertha has been discovered so far. They are “yanthu marulade nanenthu”. Narahari here is saying that he has so far been deluded and it is only now that he has become enlightened. His second composition is “hariye idu sariye”. This could perhaps be the first ever composition on Hari and here Narahari is asking Hari himself whether this is proper. The third composition is “tiliko ninnologe neene” meaning knowing within thyself. He had his Ankita as “Narahari” or “Narahari Raghupathi’’.

Before Narahari, it was the turn of Padmanabha Theertha to inspire people to take to the Dwaitha way of life. An ardent disciple of  Madhwacharya, he was the first to write commentaries on works of  Madhwacharya. Though he is credited with having written 16 works,  he appears not have written any Devara Namas. Yet, his influence over other Madhwa seers such as Jayatheertha, Sripadaraja, Vyasaraja cannot be underestimated and the last two are among the foremost among Haridasa composers.  

Similarly, while many hundred compositions of Purandara Dasa out of his supposed 4,75,000 are available, that of  his wife who too was a composer and their sons, including Madhwapathi, are lost. However, only a few compositions of Madhwapathi are available though he was as prolific a composer as his father. Very few compositions of Purandara’s other two sons-Hebbana Dasa and Lakshmana Dasa- are available.

Even before Purandara turned to god, his wife Saraswati Bai, was a highly religious person and it was she who had brought up her sons and a daughter in a highly religious and orthodox manner. Except for this fact, very little is known of her literary achievements.

He had his formal initiation at the hands of Vyasaraja in 1525 when he was about 40 years old.

Purandara then writes his first song. This is Ana Le Kara in Shudha Savaeri raga and set to Triputa tala, where he laments how he wasted so many years of his life in going after materialistic things.

We also have no information about the literary career of  Gopikambe, mother of Raghavendra Swamy. Even she is supposed to have composed several Devara Namas and she sang them even as her husband, Thimanna Bhat, played the Veene. No wonder, our Rayaru too was proficient in both-playing the Veene and composing.

Another prolific composer is Mahipati Dasa (1715-1790). He hailed from Kakandhiki in Bijapur district. His son too was a well-known Haridasa of the times but Krishna Dasa’s compositions are very few. While we have a fairly large body of literature belonging to Mahipati, the same cannot be said of Krishna Dasa.

There is also little information on the life and times and of course compositions of  Vittala Dasa, Vijata Dasa, Venkata Dasa and Krishna Dasa. The last three dasas belonged to Udupi. Nekkar Krishna Dasa  or Krishna Dasa was also called Varaha Thimmappa. He was a scholarly  person of the Dasa Parampara. Many of his poems are reported to have been plagiarised by singers.

Varaha Thimmappa Dasa lived during the time of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. When Sagar in Shimoga district fell into the hands of Hyder, he fled to Tirupathi. He was a contemporary of Madhwa Dasa of Udupi.

So, we see that not all Dasas have got their rightful due. There are several other Dasas whose compositions are not well known or have disappeared, but that is for another post to report.  

Madhwacharya and Yakshagana

Madhwacharya is known all over the world as the pioneer of the Dwaitha system of philosophy. To millions of Hindus he is the avatar of Hanumantha and Bheema.
Scores of swamis, seers and others, including the Haridasas have eulogised him and sang peans in  their compositions. Madhwas rever him as the son of Vayu, the God of Wind. His contribution to the vast reportire of Dwaitha literature is immense and mind boggling. Hundreds of years after Jaya Theertha or better known as Teekachar wrote commentaries on the works of Madhwacharya, books and compilations on the Acharya continue to be written.
However, what is not  very well known is that the Acharya was not only a great philosopher but also the founder of the present day performance of  Yakshagana.
Please remember that the term Yakshagana is only a recent scholastic name given for a genre of arts called Kelike, Aata, Bayalaata and Dashavatara.
Historians and researchers trace the origin of Yakshagana to a native musical system known as Ghandharva Grama. This system is totally extinct now. The earliest mention of the term Yakshagana is around 1200 AD in the book Sangeetha Ratnakara of Saranga Deva. It was then better known as Jakka.
The term Yakshagana, which we use today, can be traced to Madhwacharya and his second direct disciple Narahari Theertha. (The Acharya ordained four disciples first into the Dwaitha pontificate. They are Padmanabha Theertha, Narahari Theertha, Madhava Theertha and Akshoba Theertha).
The Acharya and his disciples travelled all over India propagating the Dwaitha system. The Acharya travelled to Badari twice. In those days, such tours, called sanchara, were undertaken by foot. The Acharya and his large number of followers halted at several places enroute to their destinations in south and north India. During such times, some of the disciples were inspired by the Acharya and Narahari Theertha to enact some incidents from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
These performances were entirely based on the epics and here good always triumphed over evil.  The language used was also what was written in the epic. The Acharya too is supposed to have watched these performances and given suggestions.

Noted scholar Bannanje Govindacharya, in his speeches and writings, has said that Narahari Theertha had staged a performance around 1300 AD and this play was based on the dashavatara.
This performance became very popular and people flocked in large numbers to see it. Thus Narahari Theertha, with the blessings of the Acharya, started the first Yakshagana troupe which gave performances in Udupi. These performances were mainly called Dashavatara Aata. 
People of the coastal districts took to this form of  performance and slowly buy surely it spread far and wide and today it is better known as Yakshagana. People living in Kerala also adopted this form in their own distinctive style and this came to be known as Kuchipudi.
During the next few centuries Yakshagana took deep roots in and the coastal districts of  Karnataka.                
Did you know that the Wodeyar King, Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar 2 in the early part of the 18^th century authored 14 Yakshagana texts. His works on Yakshagana would have gone unnoticed but there were discovered in the Government library at Chennai a few decades ago. Another Wodeyar King, Mummadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar has written several Yakshagana texts. Even the Bheeshma of Carnatic music, Purandara Dasa has authored Yakshagana songs. Other Yakshagana poets include  Parti Subba, Ajapura Vishnu, Muddanna, Nagire Subba and others.
The first inscription about the Yakshagana is found at the Lakshminarayana temple at Kurugodu at Somasamudra in Bellary district. This inscription is dated to 1556 AD. Thes inscription says land has been donated to Yakshanagan  performers of  tala maddale programmes.  Yakshagana also finds mention in a palm leaf book Virata Parva by Vishnu. This manuscript was discovered at Ajapura  which is now known as Banavara. There is another palm-leaf manuscript  on Yakshagana called Sabhalakshana .
Yakshagana has drawn episodes from Torvi Ramayana written by Kumara Valmiki, a Brahmin who lived near Bijapur. The Vaishnava Bhakti movement of the Haridasas gave an impetus to the Yakshagana movement.  
No article on Yakshagana would be complete without mentioning the contribution of  Shivarama Karanth.  Today, Yakshagana has transcended all boundaries and is known all over India and abroad.
Even today, the Yakshagana draws heavily from the epics and this is a testimony to the influences that the Acharya and his disciples wielded.