On the lines of the Tyagaraja aradhana at Thiruvaiyaru in Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru is all set to celebrate the works of one of Karnataka’s great saint-composers: Purandaradasa.
For three days from July 7, 200 senior musicians and dancers and 200 junior artistes will come together to recreate the magic of the 16th century composer’s colossal body of work. ‘Purandara Darshana’, being organised by the Karnataka Fine Arts Council, a federation of the city’s 10 sabhas, at the Karanji Anjaneyaswamy temple, Basavanagudi, is likely to become a yearly affair.
Although the aradhana celebrations for Purandaradasa — known as the Pitamaha of Carnatic music — in the State coincides with that of Tyagaraja’s in January, the former event is not as popular and has seen a lot of disruption in the yearly programmes conducted by smaller groups. At Hampi, where Purandaradasa lived, Purandara Dasara Aradhana Samithi Trust conducted annual programmes for a few years, but later changed the venue to Mulbagal in Kolar district, where Vyasatirtha, Purandaradasa’s guru, lived. Though it is being held for 45 years, the programme has not been an instant draw among the public because of the venue’s location and the organisers not promoting the event enough fearing unmanageable crowds.
However, the KFAC officer-bearers feel that Purandara Darshana will be a crowd puller, given that it is being organised in Bengaluru and popular musicians and dancers have shown their “willingness to participate”. “Tyagaraja considered Purandaradasa his guru. But it is ironic that a grand homage is being paid to Tyagaraja for the last 150 years, while nothing on that scale has been done for Purandaradasa. The KFAC wants to fill this void, and express gratitude to the greatest saint through our State’s musicians,” said Arvind Brahmakal, president of the KFAC, who has received a grant from the Department of Kannada and Culture and other government agencies to organise the programme.
“We want Purandara Darshana to become our Naada Habba (State festival) and will request the State Tourism Department to support the programme,” said Mr. Brahmakal. Vocalist R.K. Padmanabha who introduced the goshti concept at Rudrapatna in Arkalgud taluk of Hassan district, where he celebrates the saint-composers every year, said, “It is good that Bengaluru will be hosting senior musicians to celebrate the works of Purandaradasa.” Mr. Padmanabha, who has composed Purandaradasa’s kritis in 72 mela ragas, will also conduct a lec-dem (on July 9 at 6 p.m.) on some of the Vivadi Melas he has used for the Dasa’s kritis.
Goshti Gayana
The KFAC feels that Purandaradasa’s greatness cannot be shown just through vocal renderings by artistes. His works lend themselves to different art forms. “Look at the repertoire offered by Purandaradasa. He not just fashioned a series of graded lessons — considered a primary entry into Carnatic music — but aslo has a body of work that includes prabandha, ugabhoga, geethe, suladi, and kriti. Therefore, artistes will be performing Carnatic, Hindustani, Bharatanatyam, and Kathak, and there will be discourses as part of the programme,” said Mr. Brahmakal.
Nearly 50 shows, each of 30 minute duration, will be staged on the three days, apart from Goshti Gayana of Purandaradasa’s Navaratna Kritis by artistes associated with the Karnataka Ganakala Parishath on July 9 at 10 a.m. This would be telecast live on Doordarshan Chandana.
A pioneer of the Bhakti movement
According to scholars, Purandaradasa, one of the pioneers of the Bhakti movement in Karnataka, is said to have composed 4,75,000 songs, but barely 3,000 have been retrieved and less than half of them are in circulation.
As per available evidences, Purandaradasa was born in 1484 CE at Kshemapura, near Thirthahalli, in Shivamogga district, and spent his life at Hampi as a wandering minstrel. He died in 1564, a year before the fall of the Vijayanagar empire. Purandaradasa, born to a jeweller and originally named Srinivasa Nayaka is said to have been obsessed with material wealth and renounced everythingwhen he was around 40 year old and became a wandering minstrel, and travelled the entire Vijayanagara Empire with a Tambura bringing out his devotional compositions and lyrical hymns in simple Kannada. The Vijayanagar king Sri Krishnadevaraya, a devotee of the Dasa, built a mantapa and dedicated it to Purandaradasa. Sri Krishnadevaraya used to listen to Purandaradasa’s compositions at his darbar and at the Vittala temple often.
In praise of Krishna
The lyrics of one of the well-known kritis of Purandaradasa, ‘Jagadodharana’ in Kapi raga, are etched in granite in the 11th century temple of Aprameya at Malur on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, near Channapatna. Legend has it that the saint-composer penned the song in the temple after he was mesmerised by the idol of Krishna as a toddler that is consecrated there.
How it all started
In the early 1970s, when Jayachamaraja Wadiyar of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family expressed regret that Purandaradasa was not given the status in Karnataka that Tyagaraja enjoyed in Tamil Nadu, Kannada journalist N.A. Murthy was inspired to start Purandara Dasara Aradhana at Hampi. Murthy organised the annual programme from 1974 to 76. After his death, his son Raja Rao took charge and has been organising the annual programme at Purandara Vittala Devalaya, Mulbagal. “The best of yesteryear musicians such as R.R. Keshavamurthy, Chintalapalli Ramachandra Rao, Swaramurthy V.N. Rao, Bellary Brothers, Anoor Suryanarayana, and H.R. Seetharama Shastry have performed at the programme. We have been able to pull off the three-day aradhana with grants from musicians, patrons and the public and receive nothing from government. Our aradhana is for Purandaradasa, not for publicity,” said Mr. Rao.
