Purandara Dāsa
15th–16th century · Karnataka · Haridāsa (Dvaita)
Purandara Dāsa is honoured as the Karnāṭaka Saṅgīta Pitāmaha, the grandfather of Carnatic music. Born Śrīnivāsa Nāyaka, a wealthy and famously miserly merchant, he gave away his riches, became a disciple of Vyāsatīrtha and wandered as a Haridāsa, a servant of Hari, singing in Kannada.
Tradition says he composed hundreds of thousands of songs, signed “Purandara Viṭṭhala”; a few thousand survive. He set out the graded lessons — sarali, janṭi and alaṅkāra in rāga Māyāmāḷavagauḷa — with which every student of Carnatic music still begins.
Tradition says a poor Brahmin begged the miserly merchant for help and was turned away, so he went to the merchant’s wife, who gave him her nose-ring. When the ring appeared in the merchant’s own shop, he rushed home in suspicion — and his wife, praying, found the ring miraculously back in a cup. Shaken, he saw the Lord’s hand in it and renounced his wealth.
Father of Carnatic music · Haridāsa · Mudrā: Purandara Viṭṭhala