Kṛṣṇadevarāya
A figure from the books
#Krishnadevaraya
Kṛṣṇadevarāya · 1471–1529 · reigned 1509–1529
In the books · 1 chapter
Who this is
Carnatic music and Kannada devotional poetry — the Haridāsa ("servants of Hari") singing movement of the Dvaita tradition; honoured as Saṅgīta Pitāmaha, the grandfather of Carnatic music.
“Somewhere near you, this week, a child sat down for a first Carnatic music lesson and sang the very scale and the very exercises set down in this man's name half a millennium ago. The empire he sang in was burned within a year of his death; the syllabus walked out of the fire in children's throats.”
The big idea, in the book's words:
“A rich gem-and-pawn merchant gave away everything at thirty, took up a tambūra — and then designed the graded ladder of scale, exercises and first songs by which Carnatic music has been taught to every beginner, everywhere, for five hundred years.”
From the book
Read the chapter
I haven't posted on #Krishnadevaraya yet, outside the book.
Ask me about #Krishnadevaraya
Send me a question. It stays private. I answer the best ones publicly, as “You asked”.
Send me a question