PAPER 5 DANCE, POETS AND POETRY, RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHY AND INDIAN CLASSICAL DANCE MODULE 19 MAHARAJA SWATHI THIRUNAL AND PURANDERADASA PURANDARA DASA (1494 AD -1564 AD) was born to a pawn broker Varadappa Naik in Pandarapura in Karnataka. Varadappa Nayaka and his wife Lakshmi Bai had been childless for several years, and finally, after praying to Lord Srinivasa of Tirupati, they had a son whom they called Srinivasa. Srinivasa Nayaka grew up and took over his father's business. However, unlike his father, he was a miser, so much so that it is said that he even shied away from spending money on his father's treatment when the latter was ill. His wife Saraswatibai on the other hand always gave in charity, much to the displeasure of her husband. One day, Lord Vishnu in the guise of a poor priest visited Srinivasa Nayaka's shop asking for alms to perform the thread ceremony of his son. Srinivasa Nayaka kept putting him off for six months. Finally, fed up with the Brahmin's persistence, he gave him a fake coin that he played with as a child. Lord Vishnu as the priest then went to Srinivasa Nayak’s wife and narrated the pitiful story of how a miserly pawnbroker made him come to his shop every day for six months only to give him a fake coin in the end. Saraswathibai's heart melted and she gave the Brahmin her nose ring which was a gift from her parents. The priest promptly took the nose ring back to Srinivasa Nayaka's shop, asking to pawn it for money. The pawnbroker recognized 1 it as his wife’s and locking it up in his safe, hurried home. He asked Saraswathibai’s for her nose ring. Struck with fear, Saraswathibai locked herself in the kitchen and tried to swallow poison. Miraculously, the nose ring dropped from the heavens into her cup of poison and she was able to show it to her husband. Puzzled, he returned to his shop and opened the safe, only to find that the nose ring in the safe had vanished. This made him realise that the priest was none other than the Lord himself and he felt extremely ashamed of his behavior. He recalled all the incidents that had transpired in the previous six months and decided to renounce all material belongings and become a dasa (servant) of god. Purandara Dasa became a disciple of the great Vyasa Raya, who titled him "Purandara Vitthala / ऩुरंदर विट्ठऱ," which became his signature, which he uses in all his compositions. In gratitude for this transformation in his life, he would later compose a song dedicated to his wife, for having shown him the path to God. From that day onwards he became a devotee of the Lord. The man who had turned away countless people away, now himself went around collecting alms and living the life of a mendicant. He had an immense influence on Carnatic music and Kannada literature. Though initially a moneylender and known to be a miser, Navakoti Narayana as he was called had a life- changing experience that caused him to give up all his riches and pursue a spiritual life. He became a disciple of Vyasaraya who titled him "Purandara Vittala," which became his signature. He is said to have composed 475,000 songs in both Kannada and Sanskrit. In addition to these, other compositions attributed to him are ‘Gajendramoksham / गजेन्द्रमोऺम’, ‘Draupadi Vastrabhaharanam / ’, ’Sudama Charite रौऩदी िस्त्राभहरणं / 2 सुदामा चररते ’ and ‘Baratatvasara / भरत配िसार’. About a thousand of his compositions have been handed down through the generations and some of these are actively sung till today. However, the original tunes for many of these compositions have been lost to us. Purandaradasa realised the importance of teaching music and is responsible for systematizing the raga, tala and prachara / प्रचार. He is credited with creating the building blocks for students of Carnatic music by formalizing the early music lessons, Swaravalis / स्त्िरािऱी, Saptatala alankaras / सप्तताऱ अऱंकार, Pillari Gitas / वऩ쥍ऱारी गीत , etc and also choosing Mayamalavagowla as the raga to be used for these. The famous geetam ‘Sri Gananatha / श्री गणनाथ ’ (Malahari) is also attributed to him. It is incredible that even four centuries later, Purandaradasa's teaching models have been handed down to us with no variation. The Malahari raga gitas are ideal dvidhatu prabandhas / 饍विधातु प्रबंध. Purandara Dasa’s compositions cover the following musical types: Kritis, Kirtanas, Padas, Lavanis / ऱािणी, Kandapadya / कन्द्दऩ饍य, Ugabhoga / उगाभोग (also Umabhoga), Bodabudika among others. He has also used Misra gati, Ratimala / रततमाऱा and other rare musical models. Purandara Dasa’s kritis, in simple Kannada, use colloquial language and are often set to folk ragas, thus being understood and remembered by the common man. He identified 84 ragas, including ragas such as 3 kalyani, varali, todi, bhairavi, and saveri, which are popular in use today. Being both a devotee and composer, Purandara Dasa had a very strong influence on Tyagaraja, who praises him in ‘Prahalada Bhakti Vijayam’. For being a vaggeyakara, a lakshanakara, and the founder of musical pedagogy and given the enormous influence that he had on Carnatic music, musicologists call Purandara Dasa the ‘Sangeeta Pitamaha / संगीत वऩतामह’ (grandfather) of Carnatic music. The verses he sang were his own compositions on a variety of themes. Some of them described Sri Krishna's adventures in this world. Some others sang about God's kindness to man. A few more verses were simple compositions expounding the philosophy contained in the Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita in simple words. In yet other verses Purandaradasa praises Lord Krishna affectionately. In some verses Purandaradasa has even made fun of the Lord. His songs which preached surrender to Vittala have a distinct flavour, poetic fervor, extraordinary logic as well as satire. Purandara Dasa set the highest value on good conduct. The strength and greatness of Sri Hari’s name have been beautifully enshrined and sung in this world. People who do not know Sanskrit find it hard to understand the Vedas and Upanishads. But Purandaradasa has successfully presented the quintessence of both the Upanishads and Puranas in his devaranamas. The language of the devaranama , though simple, so as to be understood by the layman, contains lofty and sublime thoughts, beautiful similies as well as thought-provoking 4 proverbs. He conveyed through his songs that God was easily approachable by all irrespective of status or caste. He is to be remembered at all times and our tongue is to be used to sing about his glory. He advocated offering simple worship within one’s means with sincerity. He held the views that elaborate rituals or ostentatious worship without involvement was of no use. He was irked by intolerance of people on the basis of caste, caste discrimination and other social ills. He would break out into a song whenever anything bothered him. Purandaradasa’s devaranamas are immensely popular among both dancers as well as musicians. The most popular kritis for dance include Chandrachooda Shiva Shankara Parvati / चंरचूड शिि िंकर ऩािवती in Ragamalika, Sharanu Siddhi Vinayaka / िरणु सीवि विनायक in Saurashtram, Neene anatha bandhu / नीने अना थ बंधू in Mayamalavagowla, Gajavadana beduve / गजिदन बेदिू े in Hamsadvani, Gummana Kareyadire / गु륍मान करेयाददरे in Telang, Entha Cheluvage / एन्द्थ चेऱुिागे , a ninda stuti on Siva in Abheri, Adidano Ranga / आदददानो रंगा in Arabhi, Aada Hodalle Makkalu / अदा होद쥍ऱे मक्काऱू in Ragamalika, Bhagyada Lakshmi baramma in Sri raga, Mella mellane bandane in Mohanam, Jaganmohanane Krishna / जगनमोहनने कृ ष्णा in Ragamalika, among several others. His Ugabhogas(verses with no rhythm) are also very popular among both, singers as well as dancers. The ugabhoga-Baliya Manege Vamana bandante, Aaneyu Karedare Aadimoola 5 Bandante and several more are used as preludes by musicians and dancers to devaranamas. They give excellent scope to introduce stories from mythology and make for very interesting viewing and provide ample scope for histrionics. Several dancers have performed dance dramas based on Purandaradasa’s compositions. Leela Samson with the Kalakshetra troupe had staged Purandara Krishna. I had presented thirteen of his compositions in Purandara Vaibhava, a dance production staged for the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha a year ago. His compositions can be presented as varnams, tillanas, padams and so on as they give ample scope for choreography. He practiced in his life what he preached. It is important to note this aspect of his life. He gifted away all his wealth and lived the life of renunciation which he preached to others. Although he took to the life of renunciation and asceticism he did not desert his wife and children. He lived with them. He made it clear to others by his conduct how it was possible to achieve purity of thought, word and deed regardless of caste, religion or creed. He did not believe that man could understand God by mere external purity unless it was accompanied by purity of mind. He stayed in Hampi for many years. He shed his mortal coil on 2nd January 1564. SWATI TIRUNAL (1813 AD - 1846 AD) Maharaja Swati Tirunal was born into the Travancore royal family. Swathi Thirunal was deeply interested in music right from childhood. He learnt the languages in which he found good music. Thus Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Persian, Hindi and Marathi were taught to him, besides his mother- tongue. His education in music started with the first lessons 6 from Karamana Subrahmania Bhagavathar and Karamana Padmanabha Bhagavathar.