In the footsteps of the teacher – Sripadaraya & Vyasaraya

by May 3, 2016 Environment

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Henry Adams

Sripadaraya (1422-1480) is believed to have laid the foundation of the Haridasa movement in Karnataka. He was a teacher of the Madhavacharya school of philosophy. He was the advisor to one of the kings of the Vijayayanagara empire, Saluva Narasimha. Sripadaraya expressed his lofty thoughts through his songs and poems using colloquial Kannada which resonated with the common man. In a harikatha performance of Haridasa compositions today, the invocation usually begins with a tribute to this saint. He used rangavittala as his nom de plume in his devarnamas. Here is a beautiful ugabhoga of Sripadaraya presented by M.S.Sheela: Smarisi Bhajisiro Sripadaraya

Sripadaraya was the guru of Vyasaraya who spear-headed the Haridasa movement. While Sripadaraya is believed to be an incarnation of Dhruva, his disciple Vyasaraja is believed to be an incarnation of Prahlada. Vyasaraya was the advisor to the royal king Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara. There are many stories that describe how this saint helped the king in times of distress. One of Vyasaraya’s most famous composition is Krishna Nee Begane in raga Yamun Kalyani where the saint entreats the Lord to come to him soon. Here is a rendition of the song by Bombay Jayashri.

Sections:

About Chitra Srikrishna

Chitra Srikrishna is a Carnatic vocalist and writer living in Bengaluru & Columbus. Chitra blogs for Sruti, runs the podcast Raga Ruminations and produces RaagTime, a radio show on Indian music. Her albums include devotional poetry of Tamil Alwars & Dasa kritis, & thematic compositions on Rama and Hanuman. She's the musical half of a multimedia performance duo HumRaag. Her program BHAKTHI explores the journey of the mystics of India. Her latest Antah Prerna -A Musical Telling of an Entrepreneur's Journey debuted at Bangalore International Centre in 2018.
Read more by Chitra Srikrishna

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Mumbaikars are fighting for their mangroves. Here’s how you can join them

by April 11, 2026 Environment
Mumbai is about to face a monumental loss—its mangroves are being cut to build the coastal road. Citizens, however, have not given up the fight to save them.

​“What happens when we remove this natural infrastructure of the city? What happens if it floods? What happens if the air quality (index) goes really high?” asks Pooja Domadia, a member of the Save Mumbai Mangroves campaign. These are questions that many Mumbaikars have as work begins on the Versova-Bhayandar Coastal Road, which is set to affect 45,000 mangrove trees. In March this year, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition challenging the Bombay High Court order to greenlight the cutting of mangroves for the project. Is the SC decision a fatal blow to the movement? The BMC has already begun…

Continue reading

Similar Story

Where are the pollinators in Bengaluru?

by , , , , and April 6, 2026 Environment
Despite the volumes of citizen-generated data on the city's biodiversity, pollinators who sustain the urban ecosystem do not seem to be getting their due attention.

Urban biodiversity is often discussed in terms of tree cover, lakes, or flagship species, but far less attention is paid to pollinators—the insects and birds that quietly sustain urban ecosystems. In Bengaluru, a rapidly urbanising city with a strong culture of citizen science, large volumes of biodiversity data are now being generated by the public. But what does this data tell us about pollinators in the city? This article draws from a data jam hosted by OpenCity in Bengaluru that explored pollinator observations using publicly available, citizen-generated datasets. By analysing long-term observation records and spatial data on land use and…

Continue reading