Haridasa movement
Also called: Dasa Sahitya · Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Haridasa movement was a Vaishnava bhakti movement in Karnataka. "Haridasa" means "servant of Hari", which is another name for Vishnu. It was linked to the Dvaita (dualism) teaching of Madhvacharya (13th century). Dvaita holds that God and the human soul are always separate. The saints of this movement wrote simple devotional songs in Kannada, the language of ordinary people, not in Sanskrit. Their songs are called Dasa Sahitya ("literature of the servants"). The movement grew strongest in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the time of the Vijayanagara kingdom. It matters because it carried bhakti to common people through music and the local language, and its songs became part of Carnatic music.
Example
Purandara Dasa (c. 15th–16th centuries) wrote thousands of Kannada songs to Vishnu. He is remembered as the "father of Carnatic music". Kanaka Dasa, who came from a shepherd family, used his songs to criticise caste.
Don't confuse with
- Virashaiva (Lingayat) movement: this also came from Karnataka and also used Kannada. But it was devoted to Shiva, was started by Basavanna (12th century), and used prose sayings called vachanas. Haridasas worshipped Vishnu and sang songs.
Related concepts
- Adi Shankaracharya
- Advaita Vedanta
- Shankaracharya mathas
- Ramanuja
- Vishishtadvaita
- Madhvacharya
- Purandara Dasa
- Kanaka Dasa
- Annamacharya
- Basavanna