Purandaradasa

As we have observed in the preceding articles in the series, the period between the 13th century and the 16th century witnessed a spiritual renaissance all over the country. Karnataka witnessed the emergence of God-realised souls collectively known as Haridasa-s who spread the bhakti cult through devotional songs called keertana-s. The earliest among them were Sreepadaraya and Narahari Teertha. Purandaradasa was the most illustrious of the Haridasa-s.

The story of Purandaradasa's life has been extensively dealt with in the Series for Youngsters [Sruti 228). We will therefore touch upon it, if only for the sake of completeness, and then proceed to expatiate on his substantive contribution to the formation of Carnatic classical music.