Sarvajna of Karnataka - The Peoples Poet

Sarvajna of Karnataka:

The People's Poet

In the realm of Kannada literature, that rich expression of the life of Karnataka and of the various grand phases of her experience through the ages, are the glorious demesnes of great poets, great philosophers. Among them stand in the forefront such ‘poet-kings’ as Pampa, Ponna and Ranna. They are not poets of Karnataka merely, but world poets. They can, with justice, be classed with Milton, Dante and Goethe, in the quality of their contribution to the literature of the world, and consequently, as interpreters of divine truths to man.

But it is a fact which is generally recognised that poets like Milton or Dante secure but a small number of readers. Their intensity of vision and their richness of expression cannot stir the masses and illumine the dark corners of their souls. In a word, they are not popular. That is exactly the case with our own poets like Pampa. The praise of these poets is universal and yet the intelligent appreciation, or even the perusal of their works, is limited to a few. Is it the fault of exalted genius that its expression is incomprehensible, or the fault of the people that they cannot understand them?

Among the popular poets who are distinguished by a certain poetic plainness of expression as contrasted with the poetic magnificence and ‘aloofness’ of the literary giants, but not unlike them in their realization of Truth, which all pursue, Sarvajna stands supreme. His verses are on the lips of every countryman of his, rich or poor, learned or unlearned. If Pampa and others are poets of the ‘grand’ style, Sarvajna is the poet of the simple, the lucid current style. If the former express eternal truths in a magically beautiful language, surrounding them with a certain highly imaginative atmosphere, the latter expresses the same in verses couched in plain and terse language, which, by their very plainness and terseness, are pleasing and penetrating. But this should not be understood to apply to all his verses. His real poetry comes in when Sarvajna stands as a ‘Yogi’ with the vision of the Eternal before him, singing his own rich experience of the Beyond. Secondly, he brings this vision of his to bear upon the society of his time, denouncing its sophistry, its idolatry, its complicated and soul-killing system of castes and creeds. Not that idolatry, as such, is to be condemned; but when people have lost or misunderstood its purpose and have made it an end in itself, then the Sarvajnas have to rise and roll up the curtain of darkness that hinders the true vision of the people. The verses that express this phase of Sarvajna may be called verses of social satire, instruction and criticism. Then in the third category, stand his miscellaneous verses such as those on astrology, weather-lore and the like-terse and pithy expressions of almost all the sides of Karnataka culture. There are even riddles written by him and verses which prophesy the events taking place in the future, such as the one foretelling the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire. Thus Sarvajna is a typical Kannadiga, one who knew himself and his country and who understood the secret of the well-being of the society of his time, and devoted his life to the uplift of his countrymen.

The time in which Sarvajna lived is doubtful. There have been other Sarvajnas probably, who also composed verses in the ‘Tripadi’ metre, and confusion as to which of these is the real Sarvajna, is the result. And yet, it is fairly well-established that he lived in the sixteenth century, some years before the decline of the Vijayanagara Empire. It was the time when great preachers like Purandaradasa of Karnataka, Tukaram of Maharashtra and Vemana of Andhra Desa lived and preached ‘the need of sincerity in life’, devotion, puritanism and renunciation. All of them agreed in denouncing low indulgence, lowly conduct and a life without, love for God. And the burden of Sarvajna's verses is the same. The sternness of their rebuke, the saintliness of their lives, and an almost similar undertone in their preaching, lead us to conclude that all of them lived in a time of spiritual laxity and brought about a spiritual renaissance which served greatly to lift the people from their degradation. It is definitely known that Purandaradasa, Tukaram and Vemanna lived near the close of the sixteenth century. We can also consider Sarvajna as their contemporary, as we find some of Sarvajna's verses selected by Sampadaneya Siddha Viranacharya for his book of selections from ‘Vachanakaras.’ This great compiler lived somewhere about 1600. There are internal evidences also. His conception of ideal kings and ministers, for instance, reminds us of the glorious time of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Sarvajna himself tells us that he was the son of Basavarasa, a Shaiva Brahmin of Masur in the District of Dharwar, by a potter's widow named Mali. Basavarasa had gone on a pilgrimage to Kashi where he had been told by the God Vishwanath (in his dream) that he would be blessed with a son endowed with many virtues. He met Mali in a village called Ambalur on his way to his native place, fell in love and lived with her. Sarvajna was the fruit of their union.

His real name was Pushpadatta. While yet a child, he defied his father and his mother and refused to acknowledge them as his parents, telling them that they were mere agents of a Divine will in bringing about his birth; and that his real parents were Shiva and Parvati, the god and goddess of Kailasa. Naturally, the parents were incensed at this strange conduct of their son, and finding all persuasive methods of bringing him to his senses (as they thought him deranged) futile, they banished him from home. From that time up to his death, Sarvajna was an exile from home and parents. A lonely, virtuous man, with unconventional ways of thought, and a true heart yearning after the mysteries of God, he wandered from one end of Karnataka to the other, assimilating the quintessence of its culture and singing, as he went, his verses of mystic experience and elevated preaching.

All of Sarvajna's verses are in the popular ‘Tripadi’ metre, a fit medium for conveying great ideas in a brief and effective manner. It is hard to believe that he himself wrote them down: he never cared to write. He wandered from place to place awakening the people with the chanting of his verses which invariably end in his name ‘Sarvajna’ or that of his sole Deity, the one God, the one supreme Being having its abode in him; and that was all that he cared for his verses. But the people could not throw away such wondrous gems of splendid hues, even if they had no value for their owner. They carefully stored his verses up in their memory, handing them down orally from generation to generation and some wrote them down in manuscripts of palm leaves. There were many interpolaters, as also in the case of Tukaram and Vemana. It was comparatively easy to compose verses in the ‘Tripadi’ metre and they palmed off their own verses as his, rounding them off with a formal ‘Sarvajna’ at the end. But their verses lack the high moral tone and sincerity of Sarvajna and can easily be distinguished. Nearly two thousand verses of Sarvajna are now extant and it is believed that many more may still be found with a little exertion.

One could imagine Sarvajna rising early in the morning when the dawn still lingered like a maiden with her sandaled feet, and walking majestically towards the river flowing near the temple where he had passed his night in gentle sleep or unbroken meditation, murmuring to himself in clear ringing tones with a passionate voice–the many hymns and verses–of others and of himself–that he loved to linger over. One could, again, picture to himself Sarvajna wandering from door to door with an alms-bowl in his hand, declaring the immortal truths and principles of Hinduism in his clear, liquid voice, and in the brief and memorable verses of his, waiting for the simple charity that would assuredly come to him. His mind could never have lain idle in the meanwhile. He would be busy noting the petty vanities and antics of his fellow creatures, their hustle and bustle, and their interest in all the petty things that surrounded them. This would cause a slight smile to pass over his lips and a pretty verse to be coined in his memory. How vain and strange, he would think, were the ways of men when Truth lay flowering in their own garden! How they cursed, shrieked and laughed and gloried in the worship of images of clay! But it was not scorn or mere indignation that stirred his whole being. It was sheer pity, the pity of Buddha and of Christ that made him bear with the follies of his fellowmen and seek to lift them out of the mire in which they were hopelessly struggling. His was the duty, he thought, to let a gleam of sunshine into the darkness of their chamber which might light their path to Heaven. Now and then he would catch a glimpse of a righteous face in the crowd and reverence it in his own heart. He would then go to his place, eat what had been given and then wander away in the afternoon to the next town or village which would, on the morrow, ring with the message that he had to impart.

His poetry is a revolt against all conventions. Its spirit is the spirit of independence and highmindedness–which is the true spirit of poetry. Its distinguishing note is its humanness. Mere scholarship has no place in it, for Sarvajna has little art in him, but abundance of poetry. He has not the pedantry of learning which shows itself in the laboriously cultivated ‘alankaras’ of other poets and their gymnastics in expression and hard twists of style. Nor can we find in him a sustained poetic endeavour which is the work of an essentially artistic temperament, rather than that of the purely human. But the simple graces of style one can here find in plenty, and can light upon rare jewels of idioms as often as one likes. Indeed, the chief feature of Sarvajna's style is its wealth of idioms bound together by a natural lucidity of expression. His verses are popular even to the present day as saws and wise sayings, proverbs and epigrams, and constitute the chief part of the stock of learning of the masses. Anyone cannot but be pleased by the variety, cleverness and appropriateness of Sarvajna's expression.

Nor can a lover of conventions bear with the lashes of satire and the unflinching statements of the naked truth that Sarvajna employed when exposing the moral laxities of his age. But a man–and here lies Sarvajna's glory–a man with his eyes open and with his wits about him, can well love and adore Sarvajna for the world of meaning that he conveys to him. Here is the eternal longing for the one thing that is supremely worth having–God–expressed with such rare charm. Here is described with infinite wealth of power and of truth the way to the fulfillment of those aspirations. And here is also to be found something of the joy of realisation which it has been the glory of Indian seers to sing about. The whole spirit of the ‘Vedanta’ is clearly and admirably epitomised. But the verses of Sarvajna are not merely a re-statement of Vedantic principles or a summary of the Holy Books. Those very principles hover about us all the time, but informed with the life-breath of poetry for they had filled the Poet's being. This it is that distinguishes Sarvajna from lifeless moralists and sermonisers, and places him on a higher level, with the saints and great men of all times.

We shall not concern ourselves here with his verses of folk-lore, astrology and other sciences. Suffice it to say that Sarvajna has given a fitting expression to the folk-lore of Karnataka, to his knowledge of the different parts of the country and the seasons of the year, –to the code of our typical morals, manners and religious customs, –‘to what oft was said but never so well expressed’. His verses concerning astrology and other sciences reveal his thorough knowledge of these and his steady application to the same, and can well be passed over when we come to consider his poetry. But this much must be said about them: he has selected from them certain poetical situations to which he gives simple expression. We will not likewise give to his riddles and prophetic verses more than a casual attention. His riddles have much wit, beauty and fancy in them, and show us what a fine and versatile mind Sarvajna's was. Consider the following fanciful one: - "a monkey came out of a horse; and there came also an elephant with two horns. Both of them fought together in the sky." Who will not be amused with the light fancy of the Poet, when he comes to know that he touches here upon the changing phenomena of the clouds? Here is his prophesy about the battle of Talikota which signalised the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire:

"The corpses will be strewn for many a mile
Around the field, and innumerable come
The kites and crows that feed upon the dead."

But this part of Sarvajna's works claims separate treatment with similar works of other bards of our province and this is not the place to enter into detail on that subject.

Coming to Sarvajna's poetry which was but part of what he wrote or composed, we breathe again the calm and cool air of pure philosophy and moral purity and beauty. His most striking characteristic is his invincible faith in God, the creator, the giver and the ordainer of all things:

"Who made the rose and filled it with perfume?
Who deposited water nectar-sweet
In the soft heart of palm? Bow down! Bow down!
He made all things and made the ‘kokil’ sing."

It is greatly to Sarvajna's credit that he saw through the foul mist of castes and creeds in an age blinded by the same:

"No sense of narrowness is to the pure;
No difference of caste a ‘yogi’ knows;
Unaided, undivided by the rows
Of pillars, stands the high roof of the sky."

He realised fully the eternal truth:

"Look to thy Lord who lives and moves over all;
Nev'r in His net of faint illusions fall;
Women all fleeting shadows, wealth a dream,
Truth doth with constant light through ages beam."

The very life of a ‘Brahmacharin’ that he lived shows the full realisation of the high ideal that he had before him. Yet the universality of his outlook could not but lead him to pay his tribute to women:

"In woman is centred the world's happiness;
Woman is the guide to heaven.
She gives man prosperity nor makes it less."

He could exclaim in his exalted moments when he attained the vision of Truth:

"Truth shines at last and knowledge comes like dawn,
And darkness lifts itself from me away;
The emblem of His high love have I won;
The sober clouds of misery one by one
Have vanished far and I have found my way.
What more? Salvation sure! I journey on and on!"

These lines, summing up as they do the whole personality of Sarvajna, verify for us the truth of his religious experience by their unfaltering tone and sureness of vision. In his pure joy of living and his unbounded love of humanity, he could also find words to say:

"The people in every town are my relations;
The men in every quarter are my friends;
Whom shall I leave behind?"

As Sarvajna himself said in a pretty verse, a ‘Jnani’ is known by his silence, a fool by his talk. And Sarvajna would not have men learn like parrots, but to earn pure knowledge for the realisation of truth. It is difficult indeed to distinguish from among his verses those which came out of his experience, and those where he sought inspiration in lifting up his fellowmen. The one thing is the other. For he never preached what he did not practise, nor practised what he did not preach. His whole life runs parallel to his achievements as an angel among men.

The first point which he emphasises for the benefit of all men is the necessity of a ‘Guru’ without whom redemption is impossible. He declares again and again that a ‘Guru’ himself is God, that in the service of a ‘Guru’ alone lies the one solution of the problem of life for man. According to Sarvajna, caste and creed are mere words to a seeker after his ‘Guru’.

Secondly, Sarvajna shows us in his poetry the absurdity of customs and conventions and their worthlessness and futility in contributing to true knowledge. Pilgrimages to holy places are of no use whatsoever when man cannot see the right way to truth:

"What if man bathes in holy waters far,
The waters of the calm Godavari
The gentle Krishna–knowing not the star
That shines on him–he never can be free."

He declares again and again that there is only one God, the omniscient, the shapeless and the infinite, and no blind worship of images of clay can lead man to Him. He directs his criticism against all castes when he sees that they have dwindled down to soulless institutions, Brahmanism, Jainism and Lingayatism. This inspiring criticism was one of his chief qualities as a poet. But it is also worth nothing that he loves whole-heartedly the good features of each of them.

Thirdly, he asks us to take up the attitude of ‘Vairagya’ towards the pleasures of this world and towards the world itself, in order to obtain pure happiness and eternal bliss. It is noticeable here, however, that he does not ask us to relinquish our share in the activities of the world. What is required is only an understanding of the true nature of things. Hence he explains the many duties of men in their own sphere, of a king or a minister, and describes the various temptations of the world and the way to avoid them. Do not consider, he says, the life of prosperity to be the one enduring thing for you. It is as a crowd gathered at a fair and vanishing the very next moment after it is over. Is a lake or well always full to the brim? Do not think prosperity to be always there for you. Poverty follows it at its very heels.

He gives paramount importance to the fact that every one has to bend to his destiny–man or god. There is no escaping it. Even the ‘Trimurtis’ are bound by it. And he goes on to give a wealth of illustrations from our fertile mythology–Krishna, the king of kings, meeting his death through an arrow from the bow of a blunt woodman; Shiva, the greatest of the gods, wandering like a lunatic, his body grey with ashes and with no other ornaments but snakes to adorn him. Moreover:

"When Krishna guided all the Pandavas,
The Pandavas themselves being great and brave,
When he himself had borne him like a god,
Fate willed and none could Abhimanyu save."

One reaches the crowning heights of attainment, according to Sarvajna, when in one blend together the two essentials of ‘Bhakti’ and ‘Jnana’. Mere ‘Jnana’ is also worthy of being sought after and mere ‘Bhakti’ also is the glory of its possessor; but where the two meet and mingle, there bursts into full bloom the flower of Realisation. And yet both ‘Jnana’ and ‘Bhakti’ are one and the same in their essence. He also explains the technicalities of certain modes of worship and forms of meditation as a means to this end:

"Place on the lotus-leaf of your own frame
The gem of your own soul, the brightest gem!
And meditate upon it till you live
In its own splendour as His brightest gem."

He thus describes the purest form of meditation. He describes the vain attempts of men to seek God by laborious paths and says that the Kingdom of God is within us:

"Truth is the tree that in your garden grows;
Seek not in vain in far-off lands unknown,
For the few petals of a single rose,
Whenmany a rose is in your garden blown."

The greatest tribute of Sarvajna, perhaps, is to the ‘Dani’ –tohim who has given a way his all in charity:

"Say not that he is of the common crew;
He comes with endless fortune at his will
To enrich the world!"

He finds no difference between a God and a giver whatsoever, for a giver also gives his all to his fellowmen, while God gives life and food to the world. Charity is an attribute of God Himself. He unhesitatingly declares that a ‘Dani’ is a splendour among men:

"The art of music doth mark out a man,
Chaste woman shines like to an evening star,
A giver outshines all."

Again and again he warns men to be charitable. Death is inevitable, do not lavish your wealth on the maids that fit your fancy, for others will feed upon it; give it away in charity. "What you have given away is yours; what you hug and hide as yours goes to other men. Do not think that you were charitable in vain. The glories of its rewards await you in heaven."

A short review of Sarvajna's poetry thus involves a consideration of his philosophy as well. For, Sarvajna was essentially a philosopher as much as he was a poet, and made use of his innate poetic qualities to give expression to this side of his personality. He did not invoke his poetical faculties to call forth beautiful imagery and to give to his imagination ‘a local habitation and a name’. That would not have been in consonance with his achievements as an itinerant bard, awakening the long-dormant moral and religious sense of the people by means of pithy verses, destined to carryon his work in other lands and in other generations long after he had passed away. And what work was done by him was uniquely and wonderfully done. For, he bequeathed to later generations poetry of a singularly chaste and beautiful kind, and a wealth of beautiful expressions and idioms which have become part of the everyday life of his countrymen.

Sarvajna, as the very name expresses, is an all-comprehensive personality. There was scarcely any side of Karnataka culture to which he did not give expression in his poetry. Yet it testifies to his modesty and nobleness of mind that he never plumed himself upon his knowledge. That knowledge was, as he himself has told us, gathered from various sources and learnt from various persons. An occasional word from a passing stranger, or the meaningless talk of a group of persons as he casually passed by them, would suddenly illumine many things to him and throw light upon facts and ideas that he had not known before. It did not come to him by learning from books but by earning it from all quarters. What was his, essentially, was above all God-gifted.

Sarvajna considered himself as the servant of his fellowmen from the very beginning. He studied the likes and dislikes and the good and bad tendencies of his countrymen, and devoted himself to their uplifting at any cost. It was a great sacrifice, no doubt, but Sarvajna saw the real and only glory of his life in serving the cause of others. He was an apostle of freedom in both life and literature. He himself has told us: "It is freedom alone that I love in this world." He had his own independent way of thinking and shunned any glory–even the home of his parents–when it came into conflict with his ideas and principles. He did not add to old beauties that had outgrown themselves in poetry, but created an entire newness in it. What significance and excuse is there to tread upon the same paths which many have trodden before us which were in accord with their tastes but are in discord with our own? Sarvajna feared none. He unflinchingly expressed his opinions before anybody and everybody and mercilessly denounced the evils of contemporary society which others would fain pass over. He belonged to no religion but his own–that which acknowledged but one Sarvajna, though others might assign him to any caste they liked.

But the prime force and power that give this incontestable strength to Sarvajna's lovable personality, was his faith in God and his unwavering love and devotion for the Creator of all things. Herein lies the key-note to his wonderful personality. Herein is to be found the secret of his achievements as a poet and friend of humanity. He suffered much to help those that suffered. He himself struggled in the dark to plant there the rays of light. He bore patiently with the many ill-doings of his fellow-men, to do them good in return. But in all this, there was not a single selfish motive that could be traced to the spot-less character of Sarvajnamurti. Life meant nothing else to him but the service of his fellowmen, which was the service of God. And this is what his poetry voices forth with so much truth and fervour for all time.¹

1 I cannot leave unmentioned Mr. Uttangi's admirable edition of Sarvajna's verses to which every subsequent writer on the Poet must be greatly indebted.