Orthodox opinion holds that Purundara Dasa is an avatara of sage Narada, the wandering divine singer. He was born in Karnataka in a rich house-hold and enhanced his wealth many-fold by his business acumen. His spiritual enlightenment came by a miraculous intervention in his life by the lord himself. Then he started on a long pilgrimage and travelled throughout the length and breadth of India. he finally settled in Pandharpur in Maharashtra. He was one of the earliest composers of devotional songs in the vernacular. He is in fact regarded as the originator of Carnatic music. His compositions on Lord Vithala of Pandharpur, all set to music by himself, number more than 2000. His compositions are sung in almost all religious congregations in the South and in all music performances. The Lord put him to the severest test by subjecting him to a nasty scandal and, finally, when the law was all set to have him publicly whipped, at the crucial moment the whip was simply snatched away by the Lord Himself in the form of the Vithala idol of pandharpur and Purandara Dasa stood redeemed.