Article from The Hindu: Sent to you by V.Sadagopan

[Guest guest]

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 )

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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,KambodhiMohana"(?), 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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