Book Description

The Haridasa (literally meaning ‘the servants of Lord Sri Hari’) movement originated in Karnataka, India around 13th century and spread to other parts of India such as Maharashtra, Bengal etc. This movement grew tremendously over the next 6 centuries and the Haridasas made immense contributions to life, music, arts, and literature over many centuries. Sri Madhwacharya of Udupi is often recognized as the original Haridasa for his composition Dwadasha Strotra and many of the saints in the Madhwa order who followed him started compositions in Kannada. Prominent among them are Sri Narahari Teertha, Sri Sripadaraja Teertha, Sri Vyasa Teertha, Sri Vadiraja Teertha and Sri Raghavendra Teertha. But the foremost among Haridasas was Sri Purandara Dasa who revolutionized this movement by composing lakhs of songs. He was followed by other great Haridasas such as Sri Kanaka Dasa, Sri Mahipati Dasa, Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasa, Sri Vijaya Dasa, Sri Gopala Dasa, Smt Helavanakatte Giriyamma, Sri Jagannatha Dasa, Sri Mohana Dasa, Sri Venugopala Dasa, and Sri Guru Jagannatha Dasa etc. This booklet is about the life and contributions of 3 great seers namely Sripadaraja Teertha, Sri Vyasa Teertha, Sri Vadiraja Teertha and 6 great Haridasas namely, Sri Purandara Dasa, Sri Kanaka Dasa, Sri Vijaya Dasa, Sri Prasanna Venkata Dasa, Sri Gopala Dasa and Sri Jagannatha Dasa.