475,000 Devotional Songs

Purandaradas (1484-1564), the famous bhakti poet and musician, is credited with having composed 475,000 devotional songs. He also standardized Carnatic music for teaching and pioneered a system of notation still used today.

The first raga, musical scale, is believed to be the Hindustani Bhairav, equivalent to the Carnatic Mayamalvagoula, which Purandaradasa instituted as the scale that singers begin their study with. This raga is said to have emanated from Lord Shiva.