Story of Purandaradasa for children

Many years ago in Tirthalli village of Shimmoga District, there lived a wealthy diamond merchant named Srinivasa Nayaka. He was educated and was well versed in Sanskrit and Kannada. He was also trained in music.
But Srinivasa Nayaka was a shrewd and greedy man.
One day, poor man and went and begged for some money from Srinivasa Nayaka to take care of his family.
Srinivasa Nayaka mercilessly rejected, mocked and asked the poor man to leave.
The poor man did not give up. He went to the back door and begged Srinivasa Nayaka’s wife to offer some money.
Srinivasa Nayaka’s wife was a gentle, spiritual and generous person.
But since she did not have any money with her, she offered him her nose ring to sell and use it for his requirements.
The poor man, came back to the front door and asked Srinivasa Nayaka to take the nose ring and give some money in return.
But the moment he saw the nose ring, the shrewd merchant understood it was his wife’s and rushed inside his house angrily to question her about the secret donation.
Realizing that her husband was in great anger and unable to give a proper answer about the disappearing nose ring, his wife, Saraswathi Bai, rushed to the kitchen to drink poison.
She prayed to Lord Krishna and opened the cup of poison to drink it. But lo Behold! She found her nose ring inside the cup!
Saraswati Bai ran to her husband to narrate the entire incident.
Listening patiently to his wife, Srinivasa Nayaka held both the nose-rings and rushed to the front door to meet the poor man.
But the poor man had disappeared by then! Srinvasa Nayaka searched for the man all over the village for the full day, still he was unable to trace or find him.
He returned home in shame due to his greed and harsh words towards the mysterious man.
He donated his entire wealth to charity and left his home to lead a life of a beggar.
After many years of wandering he met the Holy Sage- Sri Vyasatirtha Guru who enlightened him about his hidden unique talent- Music composition and singing.
Sri Vyasatirtha Guru also bestowed the name Purandara Dasa to him.
Once Purandara Dasa started composing and singing songs, there was nothing stopping him. He composed over 400,000 songs and each song unique, simple and mostly in praise of Maha Vishnu in the name of Purandara Vittala. There are his famous compositions on Devatas also
Purandara Dasa is said to be the father of present day classical Carnatic music.
If you are learning Carnatic music and training on swaravalis, janti swaras, alankaras, geetas, prabandhas, kritis, and Raga Mayamalavagowla, it was all structured and introduced by the great Purandaradasa.
His great devotion to Maha Vishnu or Lord Narayana and Mahalakshmi, his exceptional singing and composing abilities made people believe that he is an avatara of Narada Muni.
It is also believed that the poor man that came looking for money in Srinivasa Nayaka’s house long ago, was none other than Maha Vishnu himself!