PurandaraDasa (1484-1564) was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, and a poet and saint. He was the disciple of the great saint Sree Vyasatirtha, and along with Kanakadasa he has written many bhakti songs on Lord Hari. Vyasatirtha has praised him for his great efficiency in writing and singing songs in praise of Lord Vishnu. He contributed a lot to the Carnatic music. He is also praised by the people as the master of Carnatic music. He is considered as an avatar of the divine sage Narada Maharishi, also known as Devarishi Narada.

Purandara Dasa was a big merchant of gold, silver and other jewelry items hailed from Karnataka, who had donated his entire wealth to the poor for serving Lord Hari. He mesmerized the people through his melodious songs. He was one of the most important scholars of India. 

LIFE

He was named as Srinivasa Nayak and brought up by his parents in a comfortable manner. He was well educated in basic education and in the languages Kannada, Sanskrit and devotional music. At his younger age itself, he was married to a noble young girl. After the death of his parents, he started doing his father’s business of dealing with jewelry and pawn broking. Due to his good concentration on business, very soon he has become rich and was called as Navakoti Narayana.

Though he was a rich man, he was a miser by nature. He never gave money for any charitable services or donated money to the poor. Once, due to the grace of the Lord, Lord Srinivasa took the form of a poor man, and approached Srinivasa Nayak and asked for some money.

Srinivasa Nayak didn’t show any mercy on the poor person and sent him out from his place. But Srinivasa Nayak’s wife felt pity with the old man and she gave away one of her precious nose rings, to the poor man. The poor man tried to sell the nose ring to his husband SrinivasaNayak himself! SrinivasaNayak was astonished on seeing the nose ring and understood that the old man had got the ring from his wife.

He got very angry with his wife and immediately went to his home and called her for enquiring about the incident. His wife was very much afraid and prayed to the god. To her great surprise, she found her nose ring in front of her. She got very happy and narrated the entire incident to her husband, and both of them searched for the old man and they couldn’t find him anywhere in the surrounding area. Both of them immediately realized that the old man was none other than their beloved god Srinivasa himself. Immediately he donated his entire wealth to the poor people, and left his house along with family to live a saintly life. He lived his life by taking alms and sang the glory of the lord and become a great HARIDASA.

After some time, he met the great saint Sree Vyasatirtha, a madhwa saint and the Guru of Krishnadevaraya, the emperor of Vijayanagara kingdom. He was given the title PurandaraDasa by his guru. PurandaraDasa travelled throughout Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Dwaraka and Pandharpur and composed beautiful songs on Lord Hari. At his later stage, he settled down in Hampi.

A mandap was built in Hampi for honoring him and it was known as PurandaraDasa Mandapa. He died on 1564 at the age of 80. He had composed lakhs of songs. Sri PurandaraDasa Memorial Trust was started in Bangalore in 2007, and involved in promoting and researching the life and works of PurandaraDasa. A big sized hall known as ‘PurandaraMantapa’, has been erected on the premises of the Trust.

PurandaraDasa’s aradhana is held on the pushyabahula amavasya  in (February–March). Musicians from south india and devotees of Purandaradasa celebrate his aradhana with much interest and enthusiasm

Let us worship him and be blessed.

“OM SREE PURANDARA DASARE NAMAHA”

“OM SREE VYASARAJARE NAMAHA”

“OM NAMO NARAYANAYA NAMAHA”

WRITTEN BY R.HARISHANKAR