Since the eighteenth century, kriti has been the most vital song-type of Carnatic music.The origins of kriti can be traced back to the kirtana, a genre of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. During these times, many great musicians of South India were bhaktas, individuals who expressed their religious devotion through song. One of the greatest was Purandara Dasa, a sixteenth-century saint who composed many kirtanas in order to make his religious preaching more appealing to the masses. Purandara Dasa is often referred to as the "father of Carnatic music," both because he initiated the methodical study of music and because he established a precedent by composing songs in the vernacular rather than in Sanskrit. Kirtanas remain in currency today. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, kriti attained prominence through the works of three of South India's most famous composers, Tyagaraja, Syama Sastri, and Muttuswami Dikshitar, all of whom were born in the same village, Tiruvarur in Tanjore. Their works still dominate the Carnatic musical scene.

Kriti, genres of Carnatic music. IndiaNetzone.com. (2010, October 5). Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.indianetzone.com/47/kriti.htm.