Kannada vacanas

[Robert Zydenbos]

Replies to msg 10 May 98: indology at listserv.liv.ac.uk (S Krishna)

 mC> I had written in my earlier posting:

 mC> <<This is a very interesting explanation and I'm surprised to
 mC> know that kanakadAsa came from a zrIvaiSNava background..
 mC> From what I know, he came from a wealthy buNT i.e.
 mC> (shepherd?) family near mangaLUru and was orphaned early in
 mC> life. HE then wandered around and finally settled down in
 mC> uDupi and most of his songs were composed in uDupi. I was
 mC> also under>>

 mC> "Bunt" does not not refer to the shepherd community; the
 mC> correct term for this is "kuruba"..I apologize for the
 mC> mistake and would like to express my heartfelt thanks to
 mC> Nikhil Rao(nrao at caip.rutgers.edu) for bringing this to my
 mC> attention.

Bunts are the largely (but certainly not entirely) agricultural community in southwestern Karnataka (around Udupi and Mangalore). Kurubas are traditionally (but again, no longer exclusively of course) shepherds; Kanakadaasa was a Kuruba by birth (from central Karnataka if I am not mistaken), but apparently a successful military man before he became a daasa.

Robert Zydenbos
zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl