- Sripadaraya
Sripadaraya, (Kannada: ಶ್ರೀಪಾದ ರಾಯರು) a
haridasa , is also known as Sripadaraja or Lakshminarayana Tirtha (1404 – 1502).Sripadaraya was born in Abburu in Chennapattana taluk (near modern Bangalore) of
Karnataka state. It is believed that he was the incarnation of "dhruva". His contributions to dvaita philosophy, haridasa sahitya, and the then existing social and political circumstances in theVijayanagar empire were considerable. He was also the guru of SriVyasatirtha (who was the guru ofPurandaradasa andKanakadasa ). Sripadaraya was the "Rajaguru" of theVijayanagar kings of that time.ainthood and Contributions
Once as a child when Lakshminarayana was playing with his friends, a pontiff named Svarnavarna Tirtha happened to come across them and asked them how far the village Abbur was. Lakshminarayana gave him a clever answer. He said "Look at the setting sun, and look at us playing here. Now you guess how far Abburu is!". The pontiff was taken aback by the answer but the meaning was not lost to him. The clever boy meant "even though the sun is so close to setting, we are still playing. We can reach our homes quickly before it gets too dark."The pontiff then proceeded to make the boy his pupil and took him into sainthood.
The name Sripadaraya was given to him by Sri Raghunatha tiirtha of
Uttaradi matha .Sripadaraja earned great fame by removing the ruling Vijayanagara King's "Brahmahatya dosha" (the sin of killing brahmins), which is considered to be the most heinous of all sins.Sripadaraya was a great scholar and poet. He was also known for singing "devaranama" or devotional songs in
Kannada with "bhakti". Some of his important compositions were
* "Bhramaragita"
* "Venugita"
* "Gopigita"
* "Madhvanama"Some of his famous devaranama are
* "Ne ittahange iruveno hariye"...
* "Kangalidyathako kaveri rangana nodada"...
* "Bhushanake Bhushana"... The "brindavana" is in Narasimha Theertha ,Mulbagal inKolar District . His discipleVyasatirtha also composed songs in praise of his master.References
* [http://www.sripadarajamutt.org/ Sri Sripadaraja Mutt Official Web Site]
* [http://www.dvaita.org/haridasa Haridasas of Karnataka]
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