Kanakadasa: The Golden Servant of Lord Hari

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Kanakadasa, born in a shepherd community of Karnataka, was a precocious child and exhibited remarkable talent in the composition of religious poetry. He renounced the householder's life and turned an ascetic and went on wandering to different places of pilgrimage. He developed an ardent devotion to Lord Hari, preached spirituality to the people around him and composed many devotional poems and kirtanas in his inimitable musical style. He belongs to the galaxy of the saint poets like Basaveshwara, Akkamahadevi, Purandaradasa, Eknath, Tukaram, Chaitanya, Lalleswari, Mira, Kabir etc.

About the Author:

Dr. Basavaraj Naikar, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt. (California), Professor and Chairman, Department of English, Karnatak University, Dharwad is a bilingual writer. He has published more than twelve books in Kannada including Gilgamesh Mahakavya and translations of J.M. Synge's plays. He has published more than ten books in English including shakespeare's Last Plays: A Study in Epic Affirmation; The Folk Theatre of North-Karnataka etc.

Preface:

I was deeply influenced by Kanakadasa's songs popularised by a Kannada film on the saint-poet during my childhood days in nineteen sixties when his fourth centenary was celebrated all over Karnataka with great jubilation. Ever since, I have been enjoying the beauty and moral depth of his devotional poetry. I am very thankful to the authorities of National Book Trust, India for providing me an opportunity to consolidate my study of Kanakadasa's poetic output and present it in a systematic manner. I would like to remind the reader, not to mistake this monograph for a thesis, but to take it as a critical introduction to the life and poetry of Kanakadasa.

My intention is not to quench the intellectual curiosity of the reader but only to arouse it so that he may go to the original works by and on Kanakadasa in Kannada for a fuller enjoyment of his poetry and philosophy. The panoramic picture of Kanakadasa's life and poetry offered in this monograph should lead the future researcher to attempt a comparative study of Kanakadasa's poetry with that of other saint-poets of the world in a detailed fashion and arrive at universal patterns of mystic experience.

I am thankful to all the well wishers, especially to Dr. Buddanna Hingamire, Dr. M. M. Kalburgi and Dr. H. J. Lakkappagowda for their encouragement to pursue such literary studies.

Basavaraj Naikar

Dharwad