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Today Makara Sankramana. The idol of Lord Sri Krishna (Bala Krishna) at Udupi temple was installed by Sri Madhvacharya on this sacred day of Makara Sankramana.
It is popularly believed that Sri Madhvacharya had composed Dwadasa Stotra while installing the Vigraha of BalaKrishna at Udupi;
priINayaaAmo vaAsudevaM devataAmaNDalAkhaNDamaNDanaM,
Sri Madhvacharya in his famous Dwaadasa Stothra (8th canto) eulogizes the Supreme God and recommend to Propitiate Lord Vaasudeva who is the most precious jewel (SarvaDevasikhaamanih) in the august gathering of Gods headed by Lord Brahma.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanaka_Dasa
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Thimmappa Nayaka was his original name and he belonged to a chieftain family of Kaginele in Haveri district. He was born to the couple Beerappa and Bachchamma at Baada village, near Bankapura and he was warrior at Bankapura fort. Kanaka Dasa was well educated and capable of analyzing the society microscopically. Based on one of his compositions it is interpreted that after he severely got injured in a war and was miraculously saved, he gave up his profession as a warrior and devoted his life to composing music and literature with philosophy explained in common man's language. At a young age he authored poetries titled Narasimha stotra, Ramadhyana Mantra, and Mohanatarangini. Bankapura fort was defeated by Adilshahi in 1567.
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In Udupi
Kanakadasa has a special association with Udupi as he was the follower of Vyasatirtha Swamiji. On the request of Vyasaraya Swamiji of Vyasaraja Matt he had come to Udupi. But it was an era when discrimination on the basis of caste was at its peak. The Brahmin priests would not let him enter the temple as he was from a "low" caste though Vyasaraya swamiji asked them to let Kanakadasa into the temple. Kanakadasa was outside the temple meditating on Lord Krishna and singing songs in praise of his Lord Krishna. He did this for weeks, he is believed to have camped outside the temple for weeks cooking his own food and during this time he was so distraught, he composed poems in praise of Lord Krishna and composed Kirthanas (Poems) which are relevant even today about how all humans are equal, every one is born the same way physically, everyone shares the same water, same sun for their life on earth. Hindu temples and the deity in a Hindu temple always faces east. But in Udupi, Lord Krishna, the deity faces west.
It is believed that something unnatural happened those days, when Kanakadasa was outside the temple for days waiting to see Lord Krishna and waiting to be let into the temple. It is believed that the during those days, Kanaka was not allowed to have darshan of Lord Krishna, so with devotion when he sang kirthanas for his dear Lord, the temple wall fell down and the deity of Lord Krishna turned around and there was a crack in the outer walls of the temple through which the ardent devotee of Krishna, Kanakadasa was able to see his Lord. This left the orthodox community flabbergasted as to why something like this happened. Since then the Krishna deity has been facing west even though the main entrance has been facing east and this has remained a mystery every since. Today that window (commonly called as "Kanakana Kindi") stands as a tribute to Kanakadasa. The devotees who visit Udupi Krishna temple try to have a darshan of the Lord Krishna through this small window wishing to relive the ecstasy where Kanakadasa had the divine ‘darshan’. It is also a memorial to Kanakadasa and a testimony to the eclectic Hindu belief that devotion, poetry and sainthood are above caste and creed and certainty above orthodoxy. It is said that Kanakadasa lived in a hut in this place in front of the “gopura”. Later, a small shrine was built in his memory and it came to be known as “Kanakana Kindi” or “Kanakana Mandira”.
Although many saints such as Purandaradasa and Vijayadasa visited Udupi and were devotees of Lord Krishna, it is Kanakadasa's association to Lord Krishna, which has a deeper meaning.
His writing started showing his innovativeness in using day-to-day activities of common man. For e.g. Ramadhanya Charite is a poetic expression of conflicts between rich and poor classes where he uses Ramadhanya ragi (staple food of poor and high in nutrients) and rice (main food of rich but not as rich in nutrients) to synonymously represent poor and rich. He joined Haridasa movement and became a follower of Vyasaraja who named him as Kanakadasa. His poems and krithi deal with many aspects of life and expose the futility of external rituals. They stress the need for cultivation of moral values in life. His compositions addressed social issues in addition to devotional aspect. Kanaka Dasa was very aggressive and straight forward in criticizing evils of society such as superiority claims using caste system. His poem "Kula Kula Kulavendu hodedhadadiri" asks humans not to segregate themselves from one another, because every human is born the same way, everyone eats the same food and drinks the same water, hence none is superior or inferior to one another.
The deity he worshiped was Adhikeshava of Kaginele, presently in Haveri district of Karnataka. Kaginele, now a village, was a prosperous place and trading center in the Middle Ages. Out of the many of his compositions, about 240 (see Ref 2) are fully accountable today. All his Karnataka Music compositions end with mudra (signature) Kaginele Adhikeshava. In addition to being a poet he worked as a social reformer by down playing dogmatic communities that were suppressing the disadvantaged communities. Kanakadasa made extreme effort in reforming the disadvantaged communities by convincing them to give up their age old obsolete social practices and adapt to the changing world. He effectively used music to convey his philosophy. He lived at Tirupathi in his last days. He is one of the greatest musicians, composers, poets, social reformers, philosophers and saints that India has ever seen.'
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(from kanakadasa thread in composers) -rasikas.org
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kanakadAsa while said to be from the kuruba or shepherd community, was the son of a chieftain, and it is clear that he had a classic education in sanskRt and kannaDa. He has a wide variety of compositions ranging from simple nAmAvaLI-s and mangalams, to songs with obscure sanskRt constructs like kApathika, for one who takes the wrong way/ road, and other high-flown samAsa-s/ compound words. He also has songs in the colloquial dialects that were probably in vogue then, in counterpoint to songs in highly sanskrtised kannaDa.
There are children’s riddles, philosophical riddles and also epistemological investigations disguised as song, in kanakadAsa’s corpus. There is a genre of the riddle/ prahElika/ pahElI in haridAsa literature called the maNDigE/ muNDigE, that KanakadAsa excelled at.
He has scrupulously adhered to the prAsa conventions of the pada and kIrtana format; even in a challenging song like abhYAsavanu mADabEkO. He has preserved prAsa by using srI-gu-|-rubhyO namaH endu…
KanakadAsa has used several poetic devices like yamakAnuprAsa,and also handled repetition of a word with different meanings each time.
There are several songs referring to the dashAvatAra-s. .
kanakadAsa was named timmappa, for the deity of tirupati, who is known to the kannadiga-s as timmappa or timmarAya. He has refered to vEnkaTEsa in many of his songs as shESagirivAsa, and kOnETi timma – in a manner reminiscent of annamayya, who has used the epithet ‘kOnEti-rAya’.
AdikEshava and kAginele AdikEshava are titles he uses to refer to the deity at his village, kAginele. There are also songs addressed to the deity at the hoysaLa shrine of bElUr – kEshava, vElApuri kEshava, chennakEshava and chenniga (rAya).
mElukOTe or yAdavagiri is a kshEtra that KanakadAsa seems to have visited, and there are songs on the ‘cheluvarAya’ – celvanArAyana, the splendor of the pushkarini tank called ‘kalyANI’ and the shrine of Narasimha on a hillock.
Songs on hanuman, vAyu and madhvAcArya, often in the same song, sometimes in exclusive songs – these three are an important triad in madhva theology, being the avatAras of the vAyu taatva in each yuga.
He has a song on ‘kadaramaDagiya karuNi hanumarAya’ which refers to a place kadaramaDagi bADi, near kAginelE.
There are songs extolling shiva and exhorting the shiva-sharaNa-s to take pride in their faith.
yEke nInillli pavaDiside [sAvErI/rEguptI] is addressed to ‘paschima-ranga-dhAma’ – the deity at srIrangapaTTana. The song is in the form of a question posed to ranganAtha as to why he is reclining here, in the midst of the kAvEri, and offers potential reasons for his fatigue, that prompted him to lie down in such an unlikely place. This song has strong reflections in yEn paLLI koNDIrayyA of arunAcalakavi.
Besides composing on madhvAcArya, whose philosophy kanakadAsa eventually aligned to, there is kIrtana on rAmAnuja attributed to him.
| rAmAnujarE namO namO| swami lakSmaNa-rUpa namO namo ||
| piDidirE daNDikA – vESTi - mRttikA- | nidu-shikhe yagnOpavItadinda |
|toDeda dvAdasha-nAma srIcUrNadi oppuva | oDeya rAmAnujarE namO namO ||
| pankaja-nAbhana pAvana-mUruti |shankeyillade nenevara pAlipane ||
| munkoNDu shruti-vimata-cArVakara geddu |Omkara – mUruti namO namO! ||
| kEshava – pAdAmbuja – madhukara |pASaNDA – mada-hara guru-tilaka! ||
|shESAvatAri munIsha-vandita Adi - | - kEshava-mUruti namO! namO! ||
There is a great deal of social commentary in kanakadAsa’s songs, that sets him in a very contemporary mould. Besides the usual themes of bhakti, vairAgya, nAmasankirtana and praising the lIla-s or glories of several deities, he questions notions of maDi/ AcAram that have been reduced to ritual orthodoxy, rigid notions of castle and kula, false pride in wealth and possessions.
There are songs exhorting people to be brave, vIra-bhAgavata-s as well as songs about the invincibility of fate, and how the gods and demigods too were subject to the vagaries of destiny. [see bhartRhari’s gaja-bhujanga-vihangama-bandhanam… vidhirahO balavAniti mE matiH ||]
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