Dear SrI Raama BhakthAs: SrI Purandara Daasar has composed
many krithis on Lord Raamachandran and His vaibhavam.
I request knowledgable devotees to post these songs on
Raama during this Raama Navami season .
NamO SrI RaamachandrAya ,
V.Sadagopan
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Source: The Hindu
(http://www.hinduonnet.com/br/2002/09/03/stories/2002090300120302.htm)
Songs of Purandara Dasa
SRI PURANDARA DASARA JANAPRIYA KEERTHANEGALU: Srinivasa Havanoor and H. R.
Satyanarayana Rao — Editors; Ankita Pustaka, 53, Sahsingh Complex, Gandhi
Bazaar Main Rod, Basavanagudi, Bangalore-560004. Rs. 90.
SOME FACTS about Purandara Dasa's songs are not so well known. The Dasa passed
away in 1564 A.D. and the next year the Vijayanagar Empire collapsed at the
battle of Talikota. In the chaos that followed the saint's sons moved from
Hampi to their native Purandaragad near Poona taking with them whatever
material they had like the text of the saint's songs as noted down by them.
These were in Marathi script, were brought to Mysore 200 years later and
transliterated into Kannada script. Then followed printing of these songs in
any number of books, paying little attention to the correctness of the texts.
Many faults were there naturally. Many good editions have also been brought
out, the latest being the one by the Karnataka State Government and edited by
S. K. Ramachandra Rao.
The present compilers felt that even the best editions contained many mistakes
like those relating to Northern Kannada usage, repetition of many songs in
slightly different forms and so on. They set about collecting the most
authentic versions, made necessary corrections and have brought out this book
with 311 songs. It is a creditable work.
But the literary side is less than half the work needed. To Purandara Dasa's
reforms on the music side we owe the present Carnatic system. Carnatic music,
after separating from Hindustani music, had started showing signs of breaking
up into a number of local variations. It was the Dasa who arrested this trend
with his farsighted reforms.
Among others he restricted the number of ragas to around 35-called Batteesa
ragas. All his compositions were in these ragas. It is therefore surprising
that in this book the ragas mentioned for many songs were not there in the
saint's time. Some of these ragas are "Peelu," "Hindusthani Kapi," "Behag,"
"Kharaharapriya," "Kambodhi" "Mohana"(?), and "Dahanasri". The tunes of these
songs are obviously by half-baked pseudo composers. Care should have been taken
to point out these oddities. It is somewhat easy to differentiate an original
Purandara Dasa composition from others. He had brought about a complete fusion
of the three ingredients of a song — raga, sahitya and tala. It is to be
noted that the only other composer to have achieved perfection in this respect
is Thyagaraja himself.
The mood or rasa of a raga matches well with the sahitya in these compositions
and the sahitya has been composed in such a way that the number of syllables
matches perfectly the beat of the tala.
With this advantage it becomes easy to spot out the real original tunes and the
spurious ones. Attempts to ensure the authenticity of the songs on the music
side would have enhanced the value of the book.
G.D.
Copyright: 1995 - 2002 The Hindu
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