Hymns and Songs of Purandaradasa

Poetry. South Asian Studies. The uniqueness of Purandaradasa's hymns and songs lies in the fact that his was a vehicle not solely powered by the bhakti doctrine contained in them, but the daily language of intercourse that ordinary people could hear, remember and sing. If the French were to term Guillaume Dufay their Purandaradasa, then one could judge the universal reach of this composer from Karnataka, whose compositions are sung in every part of South India, in places where his language, Kannada, is not necessarily spoken.