kanaka dAsa

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

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

kanaka dAsa

I have been thinking about initiating a thread on kanaka dAsa as a vAggEyakAra for about two years and finally attempted to initiate one on the Forum yesterday. It vanished into a blackhole before I could upload it. I am writing this again (this time on MS Word!) with a hope that this will trigger a good discussion on kanaka dAsa kRtis.

There are many semiclassical version cassettes and CDs of kanaka dAsa songs that are popular in karnAtaka households. I would like to see more classical renditions of kanaka dAsa kRtis in live concerts!

kanaka dAsa was a contemporary of purandara dAsa and was under vyAsarAya swamy’s tutelage during the same time as purandara dAsa. He is believed to have lived a long life of 98 years and lived a few years beyond purandara dAsa’s life span. He was born in a small place called byADa, near present day DhAravAra in karnAtaka.

There are many legends about kanaka dAsa such as the story behind his name being changed to kanaka, the story about kanaka leading an army in a battle, the episode with the young kanaka not eating his banana fruit and the famous episode about the uDupi kRSHNa temple (kanakana kinDi episode)

I would like to focus on kanaka dAsa, the poet and composer of many songs that are rich in lyrical values and poetic beauty. kanaka dAsa’s kRtis are deep in philosophical aspects also. One such song is nI mAyeyoLagO ninnoLu mAyeyO.

Much like purandara dAsa, kanaka dAsa mingled with the common man in the society and provided commentary on the prevailing social issues and human values. In doing so, he urged that one should lead life practising higher values.

kanaka dAsa’s songs can also be called padas or dEvara nAmas and can be grouped under the general umbrella of haridAsa sAhitya. His anikta was kAgineleyAdi kESava.

It is believed kanaka dAsa has also penned the poetic volumes hariBhakti sAra, mOhana tarangiNi and rAmadhyAna carite.

It is believed kanaka dAsa preferred the Eka nAda instrument while purandara dAsa’s choice was the tambUri.

purandara dAsa held kanaka dAsa in high esteem and has shown his appreciation for kanaka dAsa in the song kanaka dAsana mEle dayamADu.

In 1960 a kannaDa movie Bhakta kanakadAsa was made with an excellent background music scored by M Venkataraju and songs by P B Srinivas. Video clips are available on YouTube for such all time favourite songs as kula kula kulavendu hoDedADadiri, bAgilanu teredu sEveyanu koDo hariye, badukidenu badukidenu and ItanIga vAsudEvanu. VCD of this movie is available commercially.



I have read that Ankita book house in Gandhi Bazar, Bangalore has published a collection of 263 songs with the title kanaka dAsara janapriya kIrtanegaLu, edited by
H R Satya Narayan. I was pleasantly surprised to read that so many songs were available.

Ankita book house has also published Vidwan C K Shankara Narayana Rao’s book
sRi kanakadAsara kRtigaLu (with swara and sAhitya), which includes 54 songs.


Some of my favourite kanaka dAsa songs are:
1a nAnu nInu ennadIru hIna mAnava (I have great memories of my Father
Veena Raja Rao singing this song in sAma rAga. Sri. Shankara Narayana Rao has included this song in his book mentioned above)

1b. salladO kRSHNa salladO srI vallabha nInida nODi pAlipudO. Again very good memories of my Father singing this in dhanyAsi.

2. nammamma Sarade umA mahEshwari in mOhana rAga, popularized by VidyaBhuSHana.

3. ELu nArAyaNa Elu lakSHmI ramaNa in BhouLi. Nagamni Srinath’s version is excellent.

4. bArO kriSHNayya

5. tallaNisadiru kaMDya tALu manave in kEdAra gowLa

6. ISa ninna caraNa Bhjane ASe inda mADuvenu "¦"¦"¦.

I hope this thread will grow rich with some uploads of good audio files!

Sreeni Rajarao
Last edited by Sreeni Rajarao on 05 Nov 2009, 22:41, edited 1 time in total.

vs_manjunath
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Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Post by vs_manjunath »

Sreeni- Nice to read this thread created by you.

One of my favourites , in addition to the above songs is " Kashtapattaru Illa; kalavalisidarilla " sung excellently by Dr Balamurali in kharaharapriya. These type of songs were broadcasted by AIR, Bangalore in the morning " Geetharadhana" between 6:10 to 6:30 AM. The mentioned song I don't have the AUDIO clip, if some one has it, they are most welcome to U/L.

There is also an Exclusive Kanaka Dasa Sahithya Manjari( ?) published by Dept of Kannada & Culture. I'll locate this book in my home and provide more details.
Last edited by vs_manjunath on 19 Oct 2009, 21:43, edited 1 time in total.

kmrasika
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Joined: 10 Mar 2006, 07:55

Post by kmrasika »

Some titles on this composer:

1. Svara samÌ£yoÌ„jane sahita SÃŒÂÂ

braindrain
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Joined: 03 Feb 2010, 09:25

Post by braindrain »

I've heard Sankaran Namboodiri singing "dAsa dAsara maneya" in hindOLam.

keerthi
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Post by keerthi »

The song bhajisi badukelo manava, describes the greatness of Hari's feet, and is similar in content to the annamayya song 'brahma-kadigina pAdamu'.

My teacher jokingly refers to him as K.D (for kanaka dAsa)! and to purandara dasa as P.D..

she has always remarked about the high philsophical content of many of his songs..Ones which i have been impressed by include IshTu dina I vaikunTha yeshTu dUravu.. and the sublime nI mAyeyoLagO ninnolu mayeyO.

vs_manjunath
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Post by vs_manjunath »

KD has a different meaning in Kannada & PD is Project Director for DRDO guys!

gravikiran
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Post by gravikiran »

may i please request any links to online recordings?

kmrasika
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Post by kmrasika »

One must listen to the AthANA version of "bAgilanu teredu." MLV's evergreen rendition of the "yAdava rAya" also never fails to strike a cord with listerners.

There is a commercial album entitled "kanaka tarangiNI" containing some songs of this composer rendered by vidvAn kurudi veNkaNNAcAr. kanaka signs his works with " kAgineleyAdi kESava" (guessing this is the presiding deity of the village where he lived).
Last edited by kmrasika on 21 Oct 2009, 19:51, edited 1 time in total.

rshankar
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Post by rshankar »

kmrasika wrote: MLV's evergreen rendition of the "yAdava rAya" also never fails to strike a cord with listerners.
I agree - that is an evocative rendition; but I have to say that Smt. Alarmel Valli's interprettation of this devarnAma is actually sublime....

svkashyap
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007, 15:25

Post by svkashyap »

Dear rasikas,

On the occasion of Kanakadasa Jayanthi on November 5th, Sunaada presents "Kanaka namana" - a special program featuring life and compositions of Sri Kanakadasa on 5th and 6th of November.

Hope you will enjoy the programme . Please give your valuable feedback and suggestions to mail@sunaada.in.

Keep Listening
Team Sunaada

Sreeni Rajarao
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Joined: 04 Feb 2010, 08:19

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

Satvik Kashyap and team:
Congratulations! I enjoyed the special broadcast of kanaka namana! The commentary in English and song selection were excellent.

I hope others who are not much familiar with kanakadAsa and his works had a chance to listen to this program.

svkashyap
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Joined: 12 Jan 2007, 15:25

Post by svkashyap »

Thank you Sreeni Sir.
For those who missed, Kanaka Namana can be listened to again today.

Ramprasad
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Ramprasad »

Kanaka dasa a saint who composed the truth of life and rendered with the same straight forwardness mercilessly. It is just as merciless as Yama Dharmaraja's justice. All his compositions are stomach stirrers. Unlike Sri Purandaradasa who was very kind as interesting as Narada Muni and his boss Lord Narayana himself. Sri Purandaradasa tried to imbibe the truth with some soft and sweet mixture to attract people towards good virtues. Both had the same objective though.
Kanakadaasa's 'thoredu jeevisa bahudey hari ninna charaNagaLa', Yaaroo sangaDa baahorillaa, NaaraayaNana naama nere baahodalladey...' Amazing. At times I have got scared to sing that song and some times I have cried thinking about Lords kindness. These composers.......no words to describe....they are beyond descriptions.......Great Souls.We Indians are blessed to be born in the same Karma bhoomi where these greats were born and lived.

Ramprasad
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Ramprasad »

Can someone quickly provide me the lyrics of the song...KashTapaTTaru illa...KaLavaLIsidarilla.....I will be very grateful. Thanks in Advance. You can also mail me on prasad.vasan@gmail.com. May Lord bless you.

ganeshkant
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Joined: 05 Feb 2010, 11:59

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by ganeshkant »

Watch kannada film kanakadAsa today @ 9 p.m or tomorrow (10/04/11) @ 2p.m @ LOksabha channel.

Somashekar
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Somashekar »

Very pleased to see this discussion thread on Kanakadasa.
Daasanagabeko "Sadaa"shivana Daasanagabeku set to Hamsanandi tuned by Chintalapalli Ramachandra Rao is also a very popular devaranama.

Pratyaksham Bala
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Pratyaksham Bala »

Sreeni Rajarao:
Thanks a lot for starting this interesting thread.

vs_manjunath
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

One of the very famous song of KD which every kannada house holder recites as a poem is:

thirukanOrvanUra mundhe
muruku dharmashAleyalli
oragirutHalondu kanasu kandananthane
purada arasu satHanavage
vara kumArarilLadirulu
kariya kaili kusuma mAleitHu puradolu || 1 ||

It has 8 charanams.
The pallavi is:

Dhareya bHogavaNu nambi
hariya marethu kedalu bEda
Dhareya bHoga kanasinanthe kElu mAnava | P |

Sreeni Rajarao
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by Sreeni Rajarao »

Manjunath,
I am not sure the above mentioned song tirukanOrvanoora munde ............. is by Kanaka Dasa. I thought it was by Muppina Shadakshari. I will look into this further and get back.

Sreeni

vs_manjunath
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Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

This is Kanaka Dasa's composiotion only. (Ref. Kanaka Dasara Keerthanegalu maTHu mundigegalu,Publ Dept of Kannada & Culture, Govt Karnataka)

For the benefit of everyone, a free english translation is attempted. Corrections are most welcome.

KD conveys:
Pallavi:
Don't get trapped in worldly pleasures and don't get spoiled by forgetting Hari.
Take the worldly pleasures as a dream.

Charanam:
An analogy is drawn of a beggar's dream

A beggar sleeping in an old unkept city's Dharmashala had a "Dream"
The State's King has died who had no children to take care of the state.
An elephant with a garland on it's tusk is locating for a fit person to rule the kingdom.
( the person who gets garlanded by the elephant would become the ruler and the elephant garlands this beggar and the beggar becomes the " King" )
( to be continued with other charanams)

vs_manjunath
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

Charanam 2
bidaladAra koralinaLi
thodarisalke avara paTa
dhodeyaraNu mAlpevendhu biTaraLiye
odane thaNa koralinaLi
thodarisuvudha kandu thiruka
podaviyAnmanAdenendu hiGutHiDanu

aaaaabbbbb
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Joined: 31 Jan 2010, 14:19

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by aaaaabbbbb »

Some corrections::
Charana[2] biDaladAra koraLinalli
toDarisalke avara patta
doDeyarannu mALpevendu bittarallige
odane tanna koraLinalli
toDarisuvuda kandu tiruka
poDaviyANmanAdenendu higgutiddanu.

Srini Rajarao avarige,Shubhodaya.
This poem is credited to muppina Shadakshari.
Sri Kanaka dasaru is supposed to have written 'Nala charitre'.
This has been collected and edited by Sri H M Shankaranarayana Rao,
way back in 1972

vs_manjunath
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

In the last charanam as given in the referred book publ by Dept of Kannada & Culture, Govt of Karnataka "Adi kEshava" appears :

mereyuthidda Bhagyavella
haridhu hOyithendhu thiruka
thiruvudakke nAchuthidda maruLanandadi
siriyu kanasinanthe kElu
arithu Adhi kEshavanna
harashudinda bhajisi nithya sukhavaneevanu

This book is exclusively on Kanaka Daasa's compositions only !!!

Leaving apart all, aaaabbbb- Pl do translate for the benefit of all. I am sure ur referrd book also has all the charanams ! My post was just to revive this thread and let us discuss one by one all his compositions and make it more popular for the benefit of rasikas. My book has 316 songs by Kanaka Daasa. Will keep us busy easily for an year and also will learn so many facts in this process.

aaaaabbbbb
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Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by aaaaabbbbb »

I am not having any printed script of ‘tirukana kanasu’.
I quoted from memory.I had this song and another
‘Sakalakellake nIne akalanka guruvendu’ by Muppina Shadakshari
in my kannada text book during my middle school days, way back in 1951.
If you can provide the text [because I feel many changes have taken place]
I will do the needful.

aaaaabbbbb
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Joined: 31 Jan 2010, 14:19

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by aaaaabbbbb »

One more correction::
Srini Rajarao avarige,It is not'rAmadhyana charite'
It is 'rAma dhAnya charite' where an interesting
conversation takes place between 'rice' and 'rAgi'!

Sreeni Rajarao
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Joined: 29 Sep 2006, 19:37

Re: kanaka dAsa

Post by vs_manjunath »

keerthi- Thanks for your excellent post on kanakadAsa.

Sreeni Rajarao
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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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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?
------------------------------------
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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