kanaka dAsa

Carnatic composers (other than performing vidwans)
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Sreeni Rajarao
Posts: 1283
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:19

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

Manjunath,
I have a book where this poem is attributed to Muppina Shadakshari. The lyrics are a little different from what you have posted.
I am surprised that the book you have mentioned attributes this poem to Kanaka Dasa.

And I am 100% sure that the poem was attributed to Muppina Shadakshari in my 4th standard kannDa book also!!
Looks like Smt. Savitri and I are on the same page on this one!!

Perhaps I should start another thread on Muppina Shadakshari.
R S Ramakant (R K Srikantan's son) has beautifully sung ‘Sakalakellake nIne akalanka guruvendu’ by Muppina Shadakshari in mandAri rAga. I may be able to upload that file also. I will need some time to do that.
Last edited by Sreeni Rajarao on 18 May 2011, 17:35, edited 1 time in total.

vs_manjunath
Posts: 1466
Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

We are not interested in any serious dispute abt the authorship of this famous kannada poem which every house holder of the previous generation knows and enjoys. You are most welcome to create another thread on Muppina Shadakshari and include this song in that thread. I have absolutely NO ISSUES at all

I have heard a lovely rendition by Dr BMK of ' sakalakellake' in Pantuvarali. You can u/l Ramakanth's rendition whenever u have time.

Sreeni Rajarao
Posts: 1283
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:19

Re:

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

Sreeni Rajarao wrote:kanaka dAsa

Some of my favourite kanaka dAsa songs are:
1b. salladO kRSHNa salladO srI vallabha nInida nODi pAlipudO. Again very good memories of my Father singing this in dhanyAsi.
I need to make a correction here : sallado krishna sallado is a composition of Purandara Dasa. I had incorrectly attirbuted it to Kanaka Dasa when I initiated the thread.

I feel bad I have taken this long to make this correction eventhough I had realized my error long time back!

Sreeni Rajarao

keerthi
Posts: 1309
Joined: 12 Oct 2008, 14:10

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by keerthi »

kanakadAsa while said to be from the kuruba or shepherd community, was the song of a chieftain, and it is clear that he had a classic education in sanskRt and kannaDa. He has a wide variety of compositions ranging from simple nAmAvaLI-s and mangalams, to songs with obscure sanskRt constructs like kApathika, for one who takes the wrong way/ road, and other high-flown samAsa-s/ compound words. He also has songs in the colloquial dialects that were probably in vogue then, in counterpoint to songs in highly sanskrtised kannaDa.
There are children’s riddles, philosophical riddles and also epistemological investigations disguised as song, in kanakadAsa’s corpus. There is a genre of the riddle/ prahElika/ pahElI in haridAsa literature called the maNDigE/ muNDigE, that KanakadAsa excelled at.
He has scrupulously adhered to the prAsa conventions of the pada and kIrtana format; even in a challenging song like abhYAsavanu mADabEkO. He has preserved prAsa by using srI-gu-|-rubhyO namaH endu…
KanakadAsa has used several poetic devices like yamakAnuprAsa,and also handled repetition of a word with different meanings each time.
There are several songs referring to the dashAvatAra-s. The ninth he refers to is the vaiSNava ‘bAuddhAvatAra’ that deluded the people of the Tripura-s, and led them on the non-vedic path, and went about nude, and seduced the women of the tripura-s. This isn’t the shAkyamuni siddhArtha Buddha.
kanakadAsa was named timmappa, for the deity of tirupati, who is known to the kannadiga-s as timmappa or timmarAya. He has refered to vEnkaTEsa in many of his songs as shESagirivAsa, and kOnETi timma – in a manner reminiscent of annamayya, who has used the epithet ‘kOnEti-rAya’.
AdikEshava and kAginele AdikEshava are titles he uses to refer to the deity at his village, kAginele. There are also songs addressed to the deity at the hoysaLa shrine of bElUr – kEshava, vElApuri kEshava, chennakEshava and chenniga (rAya).
mElukOTe or yAdavagiri is a kshEtra that KanakadAsa seems to have visited, and there are songs on the ‘cheluvarAya’ – celvanArAyana, the splendor of the pushkarini tank called ‘kalyANI’ and the shrine of Narasimha on a hillock.
Songs on hanuman, vAyu and madhvAcArya, often in the same song, sometimes in exclusive songs – these three are an important triad in madhva theology, being the avatAras of the vAyu taatva in each yuga.
He has a song on ‘kadaramaDagiya karuNi hanumarAya’ which refers to a place kadaramaDagi bADi, near kAginelE.
There are songs extolling shiva and exhorting the shiva-sharaNa-s to take pride in their faith.

yEke nInillli pavaDiside [sAvErI/rEguptI] is addressed to ‘paschima-ranga-dhAma’ – the deity at srIrangapaTTana. The song is in the form of a question posed to ranganAtha as to why he is reclining here, in the midst of the kAvEri, and offers potential reasons for his fatigue, that prompted him to lie down in such an unlikely place. This song has strong reflections in yEn paLLI koNDIrayyA of arunAcalakavi.
Besides composing on madhvAcArya, whose philosophy kanakadAsa eventually aligned to, there is kIrtana on rAmAnuja attributed to him.

| rAmAnujarE namO namO| swami lakSmaNa-rUpa namO namo ||

| piDidirE daNDikA – vESTi - mRttikA- | nidu-shikhe yagnOpavItadinda |
|toDeda dvAdasha-nAma srIcUrNadi oppuva | oDeya rAmAnujarE namO namO ||

| pankaja-nAbhana pAvana-mUruti |shankeyillade nenevara pAlipane ||
| munkoNDu shruti-vimata-cArVakara geddu |Omkara – mUruti namO namO! ||

| kEshava – pAdAmbuja – madhukara |pASaNDA – mada-hara guru-tilaka! ||
|shESAvatAri munIsha-vandita Adi - | - kEshava-mUruti namO! namO! ||

There is a great deal of social commentary in kanakadAsa’s songs, that sets him in a very contemporary mould. Besides the usual themes of bhakti, vairAgya, nAmasankirtana and praising the lIla-s or glories of several deities, he questions notions of maDi/ AcAram that have been reduced to ritual orthodoxy, rigid notions of castle and kula, false pride in wealth and possessions.
There are songs exhorting people to be brave, vIra-bhAgavata-s as well as songs about the invincibility of fate, and how the gods and demigods too were subject to the vagaries of destiny. [see bhartRhari’s gaja-bhujanga-vihangama-bandhanam… vidhirahO balavAniti mE matiH ||]

Sreeni Rajarao
Posts: 1283
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:19

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

Keerthi,
Back in Octobere 2009, when I initiated the thread, I had written "I am writing this again with a hope that this will trigger a good discussion on kanaka dAsa kRtis"

Thank you for your invaluable post today!

We (you, me , V S Manjunath, Smt. Savitri, Ramakriya and others) need to bring to light on this forum the great work of Kanaka Dasa.

I have more material with me that I would like to add to this thread, hopefully soon!!

vs_manjunath
Posts: 1466
Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

keerthi- Thanks for your excellent post on kanakadAsa.

Sreeni Rajarao
Posts: 1283
Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:19

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

https://archive.org/details/NaanuNeenuE ... eenaKinhal

One more song that I cherish from my childhood.

Naanu neenu ennadiru heena maanava by Kanaka Dasaru, set to sAma rAga and rUpaka tALa by Veena Raja Rao (1909 - 1979)

Performed by Smt Veena Kinhal (San Diego) - a home recording on a cell phone.

RSR
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Joined: 11 Oct 2015, 23:31

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by RSR »

I am beginning to create a website at
'sites.google.com/site/4carnaticmusic', beginning with Purandhara dasa. followed by Kanakadasa. I have tried to arrange the pages for the composers , in a chronological order. coming upto 1936. ( about 25 famous composers). While searching for images and notes, I came across the best write up in wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Dasa
I was particularly impressed by his denunciation of casteism and social discrimination and empty 'orthodox' rules and rituals without mental purity. Why not some Kannada scholars in this forum create a website on the lines of Thyagaraja Vaibavam, giving the text in English and Devanaagari and provide (gist)meaning in English?
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Are there any songs tuned by himself ( in oral tradition) sung by famous vocalists of Karnataka and Tamilnadu of early twentieth century? Are they available as audio or in youtube?

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