Shripadaraya’s Contribution to Vernacular Bhakti Music: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

As a pivotal figure in the spread of bhakti enthusiasm and worship at a popular level in South India, the originator of Kannada kirtans, Sripad­araya is important to our understanding of Vaishnava history and culture in that region. Shripadaraya was born in 1422 and grew up in a poor family in Abburu village of Chennapattana taluk, which is now in Bangalore District, in Karnataka. His father, Seshagiriappa, was a village accountant. Svararnava Tirtha was the guru who initiated him. According to traditional stories, the boy
who as an adult would be known as “Shripadaraya” made good use of spare moments while taking care of the cattle entrusted to him, sedulously reading Sanskrit texts. Yet it was his knowledge of the life and the vernacular language common to the farmers and merchants which played a distinctive part in his cultural work in later life. When he became a sannyasin his name was Lakshminarayana Tirtha, but eventually people began calling him “Shripadaraya” in honor of his achievements in spreading knowledge and serving a guru to a Vijayanagara emperor, Saluva Narasimha.