Q1.
1250 × 380 = ______________ is the number of kīrtanas composed by Purandaradāsa according to legends. How many years did he live to compose so many songs? At what age did he start composing songs? If he composed 4,75,000 songs, how many songs per year did he have to compose?
Answer
The hidden number is 4,75,000.
1250 × 380
= 1250 × 38 × 10
= 47,500 × 10
= 4,75,000
Indian system: four lakh seventy five thousand
American system: four hundred seventy five thousand
= 1250 × 38 × 10
= 47,500 × 10
= 4,75,000
Indian system: four lakh seventy five thousand
American system: four hundred seventy five thousand
How many songs per year? Purandaradāsa is said to have lived about 80 years (1484–1564).
If he composed for all 80 years:
4,75,000 ÷ 80 = about 5,938 songs a year
= about 16 songs every single day
If he began at about age 30 and composed for 50 years:
4,75,000 ÷ 50 = 9,500 songs a year
= about 26 songs every day
4,75,000 ÷ 80 = about 5,938 songs a year
= about 16 songs every single day
If he began at about age 30 and composed for 50 years:
4,75,000 ÷ 50 = 9,500 songs a year
= about 26 songs every day
Why it happens: Working out the rate is what shows how astonishing the legend is — 16 complete songs a day, every day, for eighty years. Most historians therefore treat 4,75,000 as a traditional figure rather than an exact count; a few hundred of his kīrtanas survive today.
Did you know? Purandaradāsa, a 15th-century composer and singer, is called the Pitāmaha (grandfather) of Carnatic music. The graded lessons he designed are still the first thing a Carnatic student learns.