Purandara Dasa's Lakshana

The pioneer of Carnatic music Purandara Dasa (1484-1564) was a prolific composer and he has written in many genres. He is believed to have composed scores of Lakshana Geeta of which only a handful have survived.

For Purandara Dasa, the Lakshya or Lakshana geete was the most suitable medium for beginners to learn music. He, therefore, kept the geete simple and even today it is sung from beginning to end without any variation or repetition. 

When Purandara Dasa decided to simplify Carnatic music and make it easier for students to learn, he first went about composing the geete in a medium tempo. He also ensured that there was not much complication in the raga, taala or swara. 

Generally, the lakshana geete does not have pallavi, anupallavi and charana as its tempo is uniform. This makes the Lakshana a continuous composition.

Today, these compositions have historical and academic value, as many of the ragas contained therein have become obscure. Though many of his Lakshana geete are lost, a few do survive. Some of them have two or more sections. But all these compositions are simple and easy on the beginners.

Purandara Dasa’s introductory geetas in praise of  Ganesha, Shiva or Maheswara and Vishnu are sometimes called as Pillari geetas which are in praise of a chosen deity. Many of these were composed in Malahari and the most famous is “Lambodara Lakumikara”, which is one of the finest composition on Ganapathy.

Many of the geetas are sung from the beginning to the end without repeating the avarthas.

When the geetas have two sections, they are called as Khandikas. In a few of his geetas, Purandara Dasa has concluded these compositions by repeating a part or full portion of the opening lines.

Apart from the Pillari geeta, the Sanchari geeta too are in praise of a chosen deity. The sanchari geete is also called as samanya or  sadharana geete.   

Unfortunately, a major portion of the Lakshana geete of  Purandara Dasa appears to have been irrevocably lost. Noted Dwaitha scholar and philosopher, BNK Murthy, regrets that many of these geetas have not survived. He blames the Haridasas subsequent to Purandara Dasa for this act and says the shifting of the centre of gravity of Carnatic music from Vijayanagar in 1565 sounded the death knell of the Dasa Sahitya.

The style of the Haridasas

In earlier posts, we had dealt with some Haridasas and their works. There was also a post on suladis.

However, the suladi is not the only vehicle of language that the Haridasas deployed. They wrote a range of poetry encompassing several forms, each with its own uniqueness and distinctness.

All the Haridasa writings are a harmonious bend of music and language. Purandara dasa was the first to systematize these and others followed suit.

Today, we are fortunate that Haridasa literature has emerged as a distinct genre and it is much different from mainstream literature.

Haridasa literature is purely devotional and it is religious, moralistic spiritual and even ethical.

Haridasa sahitya is popular even today unlike other forms of literature and this is because of its nearness to the common man and a deep and abiding understanding of  the trials and tribulations of the common man.  

The Haridasas preach the glory of Hari and some like Purandara pick on common ay events and themes to drive in their message. Kanaka Dasa talks of  a casteless, classless society.

Today, the Haridasa sahitya has become so popular that it has gone beyond the Vaishnava houses and mathas and the Haridasas have seen new readers and singers from all over the world, heralding their composition.      

The Haridasas used a variety of forms to compose and they include pada or prose: suladi: Ugabhoga: Tattva-suvali: Shloka: Kanda: Vachana: Vrittanama: Dvipadi: Tripadi: Choupadi: Shatpadi: Ashtapadi: Ragale and Yalapada.

The first ever Suladi in Haridasa sahitya can be ascribed to Narahari Theertha, one of the four direct disciple of Madhwacharya. He is the first Madhwa Yati or seer (I am not including Madhwacharya here as he is a class apart and he is the fountainhead of all Haridasa and Vaishnava literature) to compose songs on Sri Hari and his inspiration was his guru, Madhwacharya. Today, only three of his compositions survive and they are Entu Marulade Nanentu: Hariye Idu Sariye and Tilako Ninnolage Nine.

He is the first to use the Pada for music and this was later developed by others who followed him . The next to use the Suladi to great effect and also make an everlasting to Haridasa Sahitya was Sripadaraya of Mulabagal (1406-1504).

He was the first Madhwa seer to introduce rhythm oriented compositions set to seven talas called Suladis and excluded other talas such as Misra, Marga, Sankara and Desi.

He also composed Ugabhogas, Devaranamas and exclusive compositions for dance called Narthana Sevakritis, Bhramara Geethe and Viraha Geethe. He has also composed the only Dandaka or Uddanda in Kannada literature. Many of his compositions are in Kannada.

He also composed Gopi Geethe, Venu Geetha and lullabies and set his own compositions to music. Many of them are based on Bhagavath Geeta. The Vrittanama was perhaps the creation of  Sripadaraja himself. Its main features are that it comprises sections which are tala bound and unbound by tala and they occur alternately.

He is also the first to compose kirtanas or Keertanas in Kannada, which was subsequenbtly followed by other Madhwa seers and all the Haridasas.

Sripadaraja thus laid the foundation for Sangeeta by composing a variety of songs in different genres. The Haridasas like Puradara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa and Vijaya Dasa and Madhwa seers after him like Vyasa raja, Vadiraja and Vijendra Theertha composed in these forms and they range from biographical to religious, philosophical, social, ethical, ritualistic and  introspective.

Purandara Dasa also composed the famous pillari geetas, which is the basic foundation for students to learn Carnatic music even today.

Sripadaraja also commenced the genre of Vrittinama where verses are sung with tala first and without next. Apart from Sripadaraja, it was Purandara who mastered this difficult form.

The Haridasas also used ugabhogas, where the verses were set to  ragas. However, ughabhogas do not have any prescribed ragas.

The Ughabhoga is generally divided into tow parts called Udgraha and Abhoga and in between are the Melapaka, Dhruva andAntara. These compositions are four to twelve lines in length. Haridasas such as Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa have excelled in using this form.

It is very similar to the Vachanas.  

Keertanas or devaranamas are perhaps the most attractive compositon of Haridasas. The emphasis here is on its aesthetic excellence and the raga and tala aspects are adhered to.

The Vrittinama is a combination of  word and hymn. After Sripadaraja, we find Vadiraja Theertha (1480-1600) using it extensively. Gopala Dasa has used this to excellent effect in “Rakshiso Venktatagiri Raja, ravishta teja Ashritakalpa bhUja”. All of them-Sripadaraja, Vadiraja and Gopala Dasa- used Sanskrit words in these compositions.

One of the rarest forms of composition is the Dandaka. This alternates between the text form and poetical form. In this form, one pada constitutes 20 matras and it is again subdivided into five  matras each. Sripadaraja has composed the seventh chapter of Bhagavath  Geeta in this style.

Jagannatha Dasa of Manvi used Tripadi extensively, particularly in his Tatwa Suvali, while the Shatpadi have been used by Vadiraja Theertha in Vaikunta Varnane (description of Vishnu’s Vaikunta) and Kanaka Dasa in his Nala Charitre and Hari Bhakta Sara.

Jagannatha Dasa has also used the shatpadi in Sriharikathamruthasara, his magnum opus.

In Kavya genre, the Sriharikathamrutasara is an unparalleled composition. These are highly philosophical in nature.   

Jagannatha Dasa was a master of Tatwa Suvali. He has written a composition by that name and dedicated it to his daughter-in-law.

The musical genius of Mulabagal

He is commonly called the Bheeshma Pita of Haridasa Sahitya. He is also credited with having given an impetus to Carnatic music. A man of the masses, he composed, sang and even preached in Kannada-the language of the locals of Karnataka.

This was not done today or decades ago but several centuries ago when Sankrit was the medium of education in India and of course Karnataka. It was Sripadaraja Theertha who broke this tradition first.

He did write a text in Sanskrit. Of course, he was a Sanskrit scholar.  But he did write in Kannada and he made the religious and philosophical tenets available to the local populace which for centuries had been denied the wisdom from these books.

He became the first Madhwa saint to write a variety of Kannada songs- Devaranamas. They were written in different styles and not one single Madhwa saint had attempted before Sripadaraja to write Suladis in Kannada.  (Narahari Theertha composed Suladis but they were in Sanskrit).
Sripadaraja began writing in Suladis and by the time he entered Brindavana in 1502, he had composed 130 of them. He was the pioneer in introducing rhythm oriented compositions set to seven talas called the Suladis.

This tradition of Suladis was carried forward first by Vyasa Theertha, the disciple of  Sripadaraja and subsequently by Vyasa Theertha’s large body of disciples such as Vijendra Theertha, Sudheendra Theertha, Vadiraja, Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa and even Vaikunta Dasa.

It was the large body of Suladis by Sripadaraja that laid the foundation for the Haridasas of both the Dasa Koota and Vyasa Koota-both founded by Vyasa Theertha-to compose in this genre of composition.

The word Suladi comes from the Sanskrit word Suda which also means Gita. A Suladi is very much like the Gita (simple melodies where the tempo is even) in musical structure and in its arrangement. But they differ from the Gita in syllables and standard. Moreover, in a Suladi, the writing is devotional.

Thus, I can say that Sripadaraja commenced the movement where the Suladi became a unique musical genre composed only by Haridasa saints. They evolved from the Salaga Suda (prabandha). The suladis of Haridasas has verses where each is in one of the seven main suladi talas. In short, suladis are a metrical form employing different ragas and talas. Sripadaraja was a master in this and he taught Vyasa Theertha and also Vadiraja the nuances of this composition.

It is perhaps more than fitting to the great seer of Mulabagal that Vijaya Dasa has composed a suladi describing the greatness of Sripadaraja Theertha.

Apart from Karnataka, Suladis became popular in Andhra Pradesh too when Annamacharya took it up and composed several devotional songs in this metre.

Well, I would be doing a great disservice if I confined Sripadaraja’s contribution to music to only suladis. The seer was also a past master of Vrittanama, Ubabhoga, prabhandas and even kirtanas and Dandakas.

The vrittanama seems to have evolved from the prabandhas and in this the composition alternates between verses sung without tala and those sung with a tala.

Ugabhogas are verses sung to ragas and they are similar to  vrithams. The main difference between them are the Ugabhigas are not set to any metre and each line can be of variable length. By the way, most ugabogas do not have set ragas.

In these two genres too, Sripadara contributed to their initial development. He composed three ugabhogas and several kirtanas and set the stage for the rest of the Haridasas to follow.

On their part, all the Haridasas have extolled the glory and greatness of  Sripadaraja in their compositions.

In several of his compositions be it in any genre,  Sripadaraja has evocatively held bhakthi and the five fold approach of Shanta, Dasya , Sakhya , Madhura and Vastalya  as the vehicle to understand Hari.

His Madhwanama is a gift to the world of music. Ranga Vittala, as he was known in his music, composed hundreds of kirtanas in a simple style with full of devotion and love of god.

Before he took the ankita of Ranga Vittala , he was Gopinatha. He has composed scores of  Kritis in Carnatic and even Hindustani ragas. One such versatile kriti is “Nana nanadana paahi, which can be sung in nine Ragas, whew.
In addition to the vast body of songs, Sripadaraja composed Gopi Geetha, Venu geetha, Bhramara geetha, Lakshmi Narasimha raadurbhava Dhandaka and  Rukmini-Sathya Bhama Vilasa.

The Madhwanama today is widely popular and sung in almost all Madhwa households.

He was the first saint to pioneer pada and set it to a form in music. 

His “Endhendhu siriyarasanendhu

Shruthi saaruthidhe Bhandhudhigenu

Siriyo Krishna,” is full of  deep love and affection to the playful Krishna.
Sripadaraja is at his best in “ Kangalidhyathako cauvery rangana nodadha,”  where he goes into ecstasy at the sight of Ranganatha of Srirangam.  Bhimsen Joshi has brought out this composition in his inimitable style.
Truly as Vyasa Raja said of Sripadaraja , “Mahime saladhe, Ishte mahime saladhe.” The mystical Vadiraja also paid glowing tributes to Sripadaraja, saying “ Sripadarayara dhivya sripaadhava bhajisuva”.