Kanaka Dasa: They Would Not Let Him In, So It Turned Around

The story he is known for.

Udupi is the seat of the Krishna temple established by Madhvacharya in the thirteenth century, and the centre of the Dvaita tradition, with eight mathas administering it in rotation.

Kanaka Dasa came there.

And he was not allowed in, because of his caste.

What he did: he stayed outside, on the western side of the temple, and sang.

What the tradition says happened:

• The wall on the western side cracked, or opened
• And the image of Krishna, which faced east, turned around to face west, toward him
• So that he could see it through the opening

What is there now: the Kanakana Kindi, Kanaka's window, a small aperture in the western wall of the Udupi Krishna temple.

And this is the part that matters: all darshan at Udupi is taken through that window.

Not through the main door. Everybody, of every caste and every status, sees the Krishna of Udupi through the small opening in the wall where a man of the shepherd caste was made to stand outside.

The honest historical note

Since this app states what is disputed:

• The west facing orientation of the Udupi image and the arrangement of darshan through the window are the established practice and are not in question
• Whether that orientation predates Kanaka Dasa is debated by historians, and some argue the arrangement is older and the story attached to it later
• Kanaka Dasa's exclusion by caste is entirely consistent with the period and is not seriously questioned
• The turning is a devotional account

What is not disputed: a man was kept out of a temple because of his birth, and the tradition's response to that memory was to make his window the only way anybody gets to see.

How to hold it

Compare it with the two Maharashtrian cases in this series:

• Chokhamela is buried at the step, outside the Pandharpur temple, because caste kept him out
• Kanhopatra is buried inside the same temple, at the southern door
• Kanaka Dasa has the window, and everybody now looks through it

Three saints, three doors, one problem.

And the same honest observation applies to all three: the veneration afterwards was real, and it did not undo the exclusion, and the exclusion continued for centuries after each of them.

Untouchability and caste exclusion from temples are illegal in India, under Article 17 of the Constitution, the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, and the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989, which specifically covers denial of temple entry. The National SC Commission helpline is 1800-180-0203, and complaints may be filed at any police station.

Udupi today:

• The Krishna Matha, with the Kanakana Kindi on the western wall
• The ashta mathas, eight monasteries founded by Madhvacharya's direct disciples, which take charge in rotation
• The Paryaya, the biennial handover ceremony between mathas, in January of even years
• The Kanaka Gopura above the window
• The temple's anna dana kitchens, which feed very large numbers daily

His most remarkable work, and one of the most unusual poems in any Indian language.

Ramadhanya Charitre, the story of Rama's grain.

The premise: two grains come before Rama to be judged, each claiming to be the superior one.

Rice, in Kannada akki or vri: the prestige grain. The food of the wealthy, the food of ceremony, the grain used in ritual, white, refined, and expensive.

Ragi, finger millet: the food of the poor. Coarse, dark, cheap, the grain that grows on bad land with little water, and the staple of labouring people in Karnataka.

They argue.

Rice states his superiority: he is offered to gods, he is eaten by kings, he is served at weddings, he is what people aspire to.

Ragi answers that he feeds people who work.

The test Rama sets: both grains are to be locked in a storeroom for six months, and then examined.

What happens: after six months the room is opened.

The rice has rotted. It has spoiled, it is infested, and it is worthless.

The ragi is intact. It has kept perfectly and is exactly as it was.

And Rama gives judgement for ragi, and it takes the name Raghava dhanya, Rama's grain, which is where the title comes from.

What the poem is

It is an allegory of caste and class, and it is not subtle, and it is not meant to be.

Rice is the upper caste, the wealthy, the ceremonially pure, the socially prestigious.

Ragi is the labouring poor, the communities that grow and eat it, and Kanaka Dasa's own people.

And the test is durability. Not refinement, not prestige, not ritual purity, not what the gods are offered. Which one is still there after six months of neglect.

Written by a man of the Kuruba shepherd community who was refused entry to a temple.

The other thing it is: an accurate agricultural observation. Ragi genuinely does store far better than rice, keeps for years, and is drought resistant, which is why it is the food security crop of the Deccan.

So the allegory is not a stretch. It is a real property of a real grain, used to make a point about people.

His other works

• Mohanatarangini, on Krishna's life, in the sangatya metre, around 2,800 verses
• Nalacharitre, the story of Nala and Damayanti
• Haribhaktisara, in bhamini shatpadi, over a hundred verses on devotion, which is widely recited and is his most commonly read work
• Ramadhanya Charitre
• Around 240 or more keertanas and devaranamas

The best known songs:

• Kula Kula Kulavendu Hodedaduvira: why do you keep fighting about caste, caste, caste. It asks what the caste of the soul is, what caste the elements are, and what happens to caste at death
• Ellaru Maduvudu Hottegaagi: everything everybody does is for the sake of the stomach. A song about how much religious display, learning and posturing reduces to earning a living
• Tallanisadiru Kandya Talu Manave: do not be agitated, be patient, my mind
• Baradhe Karunanidhi: will you not come
• Neenyako Ninna Hangyako: I do not need you or your obligation, addressed to the deity, and among his sharpest

Kula kula kulavendu is the one to know. It is the Haridasa movement's most direct statement on caste and it is sung constantly in Karnataka.

Kula kula kulavendu hodedaduvira is worth going through, because it is a sustained argument and not a slogan.

Its questions, in substance:

• You keep fighting about caste. What is the caste of the soul
• The five elements make up every body. What caste are they
• When a person dies, what caste is the corpse
• The water everybody drinks, the fire everybody cooks on, the air everybody breathes: whose caste are they
• The cow gives milk and the milk is pure, and the cow eats what it eats
• What is the caste of a person who has understood

And the closing move: he says that the person who knows the truth of it has no caste, and signs it Kaginele Adikeshava.

The other song, Ellaru maduvudu hottegaagi, is doing something different and arguably harder.

Its claim: everything everybody does is for the sake of the stomach.

He then goes through the list: the person who learns the scriptures, the person who does penance, the person who takes up renunciation, the person who performs rituals, the person who sings devotional songs. All of it, he says, is for the stomach.

That is a poet who sings devotional songs for a living, saying that singing devotional songs is for the stomach.

Why the song is admired: because it does not exempt him. It is a piece of self implicating honesty of a kind that is rare in any devotional literature.

And the point is not cynicism. The song's function is to strip away the assumption that religious activity is automatically of a higher order than any other work. Once that assumption is gone, what is left is whatever is actually there.

Kanaka Dasa's position among the Haridasas

• Purandara Dasa: the systematiser, the composer of the syllabus, the one who made the tradition teachable
• Kanaka Dasa: the outsider, the one whose caste was held against him, and the one who wrote the social criticism

Both were disciples of Vyasatirtha. They knew each other, and the tradition has stories of Purandara Dasa defending Kanaka against the other students who objected to his presence.

One such story has Vyasatirtha asking why the others were disturbed, and Purandara answering that Kanaka was ahead of all of them, and the banana episode is generally told in that setting.

Kanaka Dasa Jayanti is observed as a public event in Karnataka, generally in November, in the month of Kartika, with programmes, processions and singing.

Kaginele, in Haveri district, has the Adikeshava temple and a Kanaka Dasa memorial, and is the source of his ankita.

One. The window.

Whatever the historical sequence, the arrangement that exists at Udupi now is that nobody enters by the main door. Everybody, of every status, takes darshan through the small opening in the wall where a shepherd caste singer was made to stand.

As a principle: the place where somebody was excluded is the place everybody should have to stand.

Two. The ragi test.

When two things are competing for status, ignore the refinement, the prestige, the ceremony and the price, and ask which is still there after six months of neglect.

That applies to people, to work, to institutions, and to your own practice. The grain that keeps is the grain that keeps.

Three. What is the caste of the soul.

His song asks a chain of questions with only one possible set of answers: what caste are the five elements, the water everybody drinks, the fire everybody cooks on, the corpse.

And the modern statement that goes with it: caste exclusion from temples is illegal in India under Article 17, the 1955 Act and the 1989 Act, and it is reportable, at any police station, with the National SC Commission helpline at 1800-180-0203.

Four. Everything is for the stomach.

His hardest song refuses to exempt religious activity, including his own, from ordinary human motivation.

Used properly, that is not cynicism; it is a way of removing the automatic prestige of religious behaviour so that you can see what is underneath it. It is also an excellent test to apply to anybody making a living from religion, including anybody charging you for a blessing, a remedy, a stone or a pooja.

Five. If the I goes, it may go.

His answer to Vyasatirtha, which works as a pun and as a doctrine at the same time.

A daily practice from this entry:

• Kula Kula Kulavendu or Tallanisadiru Kandya, listened to or sung. Both are widely recorded
• The Haribhaktisara, a verse at a time, which is his most read work
• The ragi question, applied once in a while to whatever you are ranking
• At Udupi, the darshan through the Kanakana Kindi, knowing why it is there
• On Kanaka Dasa Jayanti, in Kartika, generally November

A closing thought

A shepherd caste chieftain was badly wounded in a battle, recovered, gave up his territory, and went to Hampi to learn.

The other students objected to his being there.

He wrote a poem in which a grain of rice and a grain of ragi come before Rama arguing about which of them is superior, and Rama locks both in a room for six months, and when the room is opened the rice has rotted and the ragi is exactly as it was.

And when he went to the great Krishna temple at Udupi they would not let him in because of his birth, so he stood outside the western wall and sang.

And every person who takes darshan at Udupi today, of any caste, of any country, looks through the window that opened where he was standing.

Who: Kanaka Dasa, roughly 1509 to 1609, born Thimmappa Nayaka at Baada near Bankapura in Haveri district, Karnataka, of the Kuruba shepherd community. He was a chieftain and military commander who was badly wounded in battle, and afterwards gave up his position and became a Haridasa.

His guru: Vyasatirtha at Hampi, the same teacher who initiated Purandara Dasa.

His ankita: Kaginele Adikeshava.

The Udupi story: he was refused entry to the Krishna temple because of his caste, stayed outside on the western side and sang, and the tradition says the wall opened and the image turned to face him. The Kanakana Kindi, Kanaka's window, is in the western wall today, and all darshan at Udupi is taken through it rather than through the main door. Historians debate whether the west facing arrangement predates him; his exclusion by caste is not seriously questioned.

Ramadhanya Charitre: his most remarkable work, in which rice and ragi come before Rama arguing about which is superior. Rama locks both in a storeroom for six months, and when it is opened the rice has rotted and the ragi is intact. It is an allegory of caste and class, and it is also an accurate agricultural fact.

His other works: Mohanatarangini, Nalacharitre, Haribhaktisara, and around 240 keertanas. The best known songs are Kula Kula Kulavendu Hodedaduvira, which asks what caste the soul and the elements and the corpse are, and Ellaru Maduvudu Hottegaagi, which says everything everybody does, including his own singing, is for the stomach.

Kanaka Dasa Jayanti: observed publicly in Karnataka, generally November, in Kartika.

What to keep: ask which grain is still there after six months.