Purandara Dasa (1484-1564), originally Srinivas Naik, is considered to be the founder of Carnatic music. He was a saint and poet. A disciple of Guru Vyasa Raya, he wrote 4,75,000 compositions in
Kannada and
Sanskrit. In addition, he is credited with the founding of Dasa Sahitya, a genre of devotional literature.
