The story of a tamburi

Mention Tamburi and the image that comes to our mind is that of Purandara Dasa wandering around south India with a tamburi in hand, bells on his feet and a melodious voice that spreads the message of Madhwa philosophy.

The first mention of  an instrument similar to the tamburi in Indian texts is when we are given a beautiful description of Sage Narada who goes around all the worlds, with his divine veene in hand.

Both the tamburi and the veene are plucked string instruments and both are used in Indian music.

The tamburi come in different sizes and it can have four or five wire strings. These strings are plucked one after the other to create a harmonic resonance on the basic note. This basic note is called as the Shruti.
If the Haridasa used tamburi extensively, Carnatic musicians prefer the veene.
However, the first mention of the tamburi as an accompaniment of a Haridasa is when Achalananda, who is regarded as the first ever Hari dasa, goes all over India, singing the glory of Narasimha with a tamburi in hand.

Many centuries later, the tamburi is mentioned for the first time ever in a composition by Sripadaraja, the seer of Sripadaraja  Matha of Mulabagal. The tamburi suited Sripadaraja as he sang in Adhara Sadja and the drone instrument that the tamburi was, was perfect for Haridasa bhajan.         

The Tamburi then is used with great dexterity by Vyasa Raja or Vyasa Theertha (1447-1539) who passes on its skill to Purandara Dasa (1484-1564).

It is Purandara Dasa who popularises the tamburi throughout South India. He goes around, propagating Dwaitha siddantha, with bells tied to his feet and with his famous tamburi in hand.

There are several instances when Purandara goes around the city of Vijayanagar or Hampi singing the glory of Hari with Tamburi in hand. The tamburi remains Purandara Dasa’s constant companion.

After Purandara Dasa, this instrument was used by Kanaka Dasa, Belur Vaikunta Dasa and Vijaya Dasa.

Vijaya Dasa revives the Haridasa tradition and he went around India singing the glories of Hari with tamburi and gejje and collected alms. Vijaya Dasaru’s wife would cook all the collected food items and the couple would have food after Vijay Dasa did   naivedya.

Vijaya dasa and his wife never stored any food articles as they cooked all of it the Dasa had collected.

Vijaya Dasa had a close affinity with tamburi as he had been given the instrument in a dream by Purandara Das who also gave him his ankita nama.  

The word tamburi comes from Tan and pura. If it is tanpura in north India, the same instrument is called Tamburi in the south.  Like the tamburi, the Tanpura too is a drone instrument. 

Tamburi closely resembles a sitar except that it has no frets (fret is a raised element on the neck of a stringed instrument). Generally, the tamburi has four strings tuned to the tonic.

The tanpura and of course the tamburi is known for its very rich sound. There are three main styles; the Miraj style of Maharashtra, the Tanjore style of Tamil Nadu and the small instrumental version sometimes called tamburi.

The Miraj style is the typical north Indian tanpura and this is mainly used by Hindustani musicians. The Tanjore style is south Indian and it is extensively used by Carnatic musicians.

The Hari dasas used tamburi to set the sruti and also conjure up the imagined notes of the Raga to be sung. These dasas considered tamburi to be sacred as it represents the Sruti or the pitch and Tala or the time measure.

Purandara Dasa felt that Sruti and Tala are the two fundamental aspects of music and they are often referred to as the Mother and Father of music respectively. He, therefore, preferred the tamburi to all other instruments.

Subsequently, all Haridasas, without exception have used the tamburi. Today, we can se the tamburi of  Jagannatha Dasa in his house in Manvi in Raichur district. (Manvi is on way to Raichur from Bangalore). The tamburi of Vijaya Dasa also can be seen.  

One of the best compositions on this instrument is by Purandara Dasa.It is called “Tamburi Meetidava”.  

This is a beautiful Ugabhoga and the Enlgish translation goes as follows:

“Tamburi meeTidava

bhavAbdi dATidava

tAlava taTTidava

surarolu sEridava

gejjeya kaTTidava

kalaredeya meTTidava

gAyana pADidava

harimurthi nODidava

puraMdara viTTalana nODidava

vaikuMTakke ODidava”

Here, he describes that a Haridasa can reach Hari only by holding the tamburi and surrendering himself completely to the supreme being.

Prasanna Venkata Dasa (1680-1752) gets a tamburi from Lord Venkateshwara in Tirumala. He is sent to Tirumala by none other than Raghavendra Swamy himself.

When Hari himself gives the tamburi to a Dasa and asks him to spread his message, tha tamburi attains a divine status. With Purandara Dasa, an amsha of Narada and Vijaya Dasa an amsha of  Brigu Muni and Sripadaraja, an amsha of Dhruva and Vyasa Raja an avatar of Prahalada, all using the tamburi, the instrument gains wide acceptance and popularity.     

Raghavendra inspired this Haridasa

September 27 is an important date in Haridasa movement. It is the Aradhana of Prasanna Venkata Dasaru.

This Haridasa saint ocupies an important place in Haridasa Sahitya. For one, it was Raghavendra Swami who sent him on way to Tirupathi for Darshana of Srinivasa when Prasanna Venkata (As a boy he was known as Venkanna) was just 12 years old. 
Once he reached Tirupathi and had darshan of Srinivasa, it was the lord himself who scribbled the ankita nama Prasanna Venkata on Venkanna's tongue. Not only that, Srinivasa appeared in the dream of the then Chief Priest of the Srinivasa Temple and asked him to hand over a packet and other items, including a tamboori, to Venkata Dasa.

Venkanna was the second son of Narasappiah and Laskhmi of Bagalkot and he was born in 1680. Venkanna's elder brother was Raghavendra. Narasappaiah belonged to the famous Kakhandiki family in Kakhandiki near Bijapur.
Prasanna Venkata Dasa was a contemporary of other Haridasa greats such as Jagannatha Dasa (the writer of Hari Kathamrutasara), Vijaya Dasaru amd Gopala Dasaru. Not many people know that another notable Haridasa-Mahipati Dasa- was also from the same village and the same agrahara-Brahamanara Agrahara of Kakhandiki in Bijapur.

When Aurangzeb conquered Bijapur in 1686 and took the last Adil Shahi Sultan, Sikander prisoner, he named a Moghul Governor for Bijapur. The Mughals, unlike the Adil Shahis, began harassing Hindus, particularly Brahmins. Many Brahmin families, including Venkanna's father, left Kakhandiki and decided to settle down at Bagalkot which was under Maratha rule. The family choose Bagalkot as it hosted some of  the best known Dwaitha and Vedas schools of the region. 

Narasapaiah and his family settled down on 70th Street which then was known as Killa street, where a large number of Brahmin and Veda pandits lived. It was here that Venkanna was born.By this time, Venkanna's parents were pretty old but they were determined to make Venkanna an erudite Dwaitha scholar like their first son Raghavendra. They performed Upanayanam of Venkanna when he was eight years old. Venkanna's parents died thereafter.

Raghavendra then married Cauvery. He took up job as a priest. Venkanna was left unattended-his brother did not have the time and his sister-in-law too could not take good care of Venkanna.
One day, Venkanna decided to go away from home and joins a group of pilgrims going to Tirupathi. He was just 12 years old then and it is from here that his remarkable journey as a Haridasa starts.

Haridasa, as a movement, began in Karnataka. The Haridasas were essentially in love with Hari or Vishnu and sang his praises. The first Haridasa is Achalananda of Bangalore. He lived in the ninth century. After him, there was a lull and the movement resurfaced during the time of Madhwacharya.
One of Madhwacharya's  direct disciples, Narahari, wrote several devotional songs. It was with the arrival of Sripada Rayaru that the movement really took off. Sripadaraja is generally termed as the pioneer of the movement as for the very first time he wrote songs in Kannada which till then was unheard of. After him came Vyasa Theertha, Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa and other Dasas and this period which corresponded to the Vijayanagar era was the peak of Haridasa movement.       

The Dasa movement waned again and it is then left to Gopala Dasa, Jagannatha Dasa, and Prasanna Venkata Dasa to give it a second lease of life.

After his Tirupathi trip, Prasanna Venkata Dasa visited Mantralaya and saw Guru Raghavendra sitting in the Brindavana. Both have a talk and then Dasaru proceeds towards Bagalkot where he rejoins his brother and sister-in-law. He writes scores of songs and also meets Jagannatha Dasa at his home in Bagalkot.