01Thimmappa Nayaka
Born Thimmappa Nayaka at Bada in Haveri district, he was a soldier and local chief who, the tradition says, found buried treasure and spent it on temples, which gave him the name Kanaka, gold. After a wound in battle he turned to the Lord, became the disciple of Vyasatirtha at Vijayanagara, and took the signature Kaginele Adikeshava. Alongside his songs he wrote longer Kannada works: the Mohanatarangini, the Nalacharitre, the Haribhaktisara, and the Ramadhanya Charitre, a debate between rice and ragi in which the poor man’s millet wins.
02The window at Udupi
When he came to Udupi he was not let into the shrine. He stood at the back wall of the temple and sang. The Udupi tradition says the image of Krishna turned around, the wall cracked, and Kanaka saw his Lord through the gap. A window was later set there, the Kanakana Kindi, and devotees still take their first darshan of Udupi Krishna through it. Karnataka keeps Kanaka Jayanti as a state holiday in Kartika.
