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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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This article has been sent to you by V.Sadagopan ( sgopan@xxxxxxxxxxxx )
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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

Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly 
prohibited without the consent of The Hindu



 
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