Career
Along with contemporary haridasa saints such as Gopala Dasa, Helevankatte Giriamma, Jagannatha Dasa and Prasanna Venkata Dasa, he propagated the virtues of the philosophy of Madhwacharya across South India through devotional songs called devaranama written in the Kannada language. These compositions can be more specifically categorized as keertanas, suladis,ugabhogas, and simply padas. Vijaya Dasa was born in a poor Brahmin family in Cheekalaparvi in Manvi taluk of Raichur district, Karnataka state.
He left home at a young age and studied Sanskrit in Varanasi for four years.
One night, he had a dream in which the 16th century Carnatic composer and wandering saint Purandara Dasa initiated him into the Haridasa tradition and gave him the nom de plume (ankita nama) Vijaya Vittala. His 25,000 extant compositions earned him the title Dasa Shrestha (noble among the dasas).
His compositions which use many Sanskrit words come under the category of Kalasha and Urasu creations and are considered an important component of Kannada literature (Kannada Sahitya). He is among the group credited with starting the practice of singing devotional songs while walking up the Tirumala hills in modern Andhra Pradesh.
