Purandara Dasa (1470–1564)
Born 1470 CE, died 1564 CE.
Purandara Dasa (IAST: Purandara Dāsa; (c.1470 – c.1564) was a composer, singer and a Haridasa philosopher from present-day Karnataka, India. He was a follower of Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy. He was one of the chief founding proponents that shaped modern Carnatic music. In honor of his contributions to Carnatic music, he is referred to as the Pitamaha (lit. "grandsire") of Carnatic music. According to a legend, he is considered as an incarnation of Narada. Purandara Dasa was a wealthy merchant of gold, silver and other miscellaneous jewellery from Karnataka, who gave away all his material riches to become a Haridasa (literally meaning a servant of Vishnu or Krishna), a devotional singer who made the difficult Sanskrit tenets of Bhagavata Purana available to everyone in simple and melodious songs. He was one of the most important music scholars of medieval India. He formulated the basic lessons of teaching Carnatic music by structuring graded exercises known as Svaravalis and Alankaras
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