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A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3: Kannada

A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3

Language
English

Kannada

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Among South Indian languages, after Tamil, Kannada possesses the oldest literature. Its beginnings are not clearly traceable, but a considerable volume of prose and poetry must have come into existence before the date of Nripatuṅga’s Kavirājamārga (850), the earliest extant work on rhetoric in Kannada. In that work the Kannada country is said to have extended from the Kaveri to the Godāvari, and thus included much territory in the north where now Marathi is the spoken language. The district round about Puligere was held to be the well of pure Kannada undefiled. Durvinīta, mentioned in the same book as one of the best writers of Kannada prose, might well have been the Gaṅga monarch of the sixth century. Another early writer was the celebrated Śrīvardhadeva, also called Tumubulūrācārya from the place of his birth; his Cūḍāmaṇi, a commentary on the Tattvārtha-mahāśāstra, in 96,000 verses, was known to the great Kannada grammarian Bhaṭṭākalaṅka (1604) who calls it the greatest work in the language. Another writer of this early period (c. 650) was Śyāmakundācārya. Both these ācāryas, like most early Kannada writers, were Jains.

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The *Kavirājamārga* is based in part on Dandin’s *Kāvyādarśa*, and must have been inspired if not actually composed by the Rāshṭrakūṭa emperor Nripatunga Amoghavarsha I, its ostensible author. But the first extant work of real literature is the *Vaḍḍārādhane* of Śivakōṭi (c. A.D. 900), a prose work on the lives of the older Jaina saints, written mostly in the oldest Kannada style called *pūrva-haḷa-kannaḍa*. Then we have Pampa, who came of a family from Vengi and flourished in the court of a feudatory of Rāshṭrakūṭa Krishna III, Arikesari II of Vemulavāḍa. Pampa is said to have composed two great poems at the relatively early age of thirty-nine (941). His *Ādipurāṇa* narrates the life-story of the first Jaina Tirthankara; the other work, *Vikramārjuna Vijaya*, contains the author’s own version of the *Mahābhārata* story, and is called *Pampa-Bhārata* on that account; the poet makes Arjuna the hero of the poem and identifies him with his patron Arikesari and introduces into the narrative many interesting details of contemporary history. Critics have unanimously hailed Pampa as the most eminent among Kannada poets. Pampa’s junior contemporary was Ponna whose principal work is the *Śantipurāṇa*, the legendary history of the sixteenth Tirthankara. He wrote also the *Bhuvanaikarāmābhyudaya* now known only from citations in later works, and the *Jināksharamāle*, ‘an acrostic poem in praise of the Jinas’. His family also had its origin in Vengi. He got the title *Ubhaya-kavicakravarti*, ‘supreme poet in two languages (Sanskrit and Kannada)’ from Krishna III.

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Ranna, who, with Pampa and Ponna, completes ‘the Three Gems’ who usher in Kannada literature in full panoply, adorned the court of the Chālukya king Taila II and his successor. Born in 949 of a family of bangle-sellers in Muduvoḷal, Ranna rose to the rank of Kavicakravarti (poet-laureate) in the Chālukya court and enjoyed the honours of the golden rod, *chauri*, elephant and umbrella. His *Ajitapurāṇa* (993) is a *Campū* in twelve *āśvāsas* on the life of the second Tirthankara. The poem was written at the request of Attimabbe, the pious wife of general Nāgavarma, who survived her husband for some years and promoted the cause of Jainism in many ways. The *Sāhasabhīmavijaya* or *Gadāyuddha* (982) is also a *Campū* of ten *āśvāsas* which reviews the story of the *Mahābhārata* with particular reference to the last fight with clubs (*gadā*) between Bhīma and Duryodhana, as well as the wars and achievements of Irivabeḍanga Satyāśraya on whom the poet confers the title Sāhasa-bhīma (‘daring Bhīma’). Two other works of Ranna—Paraśurāma-carita and Cakreśvara-carita are no longer extant; and a lexicon Ranna Kanda in which the verses generally end with kaviratna may well be his production also.

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Chāvundarāya, one of Ranna’s early patrons, was a feudatory of Ganga Rācamalla IV who conferred on him the title Rāya for his having set up the colossus of Gommaṭeśvara at Śravana Belgola. He composed in 978 the Cāvuṇḍarāya-purāṇa or Trishashṭi-lakshaṇamahāpurāṇa, one of the earliest extant prose works in Kannada, treating of the legends of twenty-four Tirthankaras, twelve Cakravartis, nine Balabhadras, nine Nārāyaṇas and nine Pratinārāyaṇas, sixty-three in all. Nāgavarma I was another protégé of Chāvundarāya, and like him, a pupil of Ajitasena. He came of a Brahmin family which like Pampa’s came from the Vengi country. His Chandombudhi, ‘ocean of prosody’, addressed by the author to his wife, is the earliest work on the subject in Kannada. The Karṇāṭaka-Kādambari is a Campū based on Bāṇa’s prose romance in Sanskrit; its sweet and flowing style is valued highly by critics.

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The next writer of note was Durgasimha, a Brahmin Śaiva minister under Jayasimha II Jagadekamalla; his Pañcatantra is a Campū professedly based on Guṇāḍhya’s Brihatkathā; it is a learned work perhaps too full of sound jingles (prāsa) to suit modern taste. Durgasimha mentions many of his predecessors and contemporaries. Among the latter was Chandrarāja, a Brahmin polyhistor of the Vājigotra, whose Madanatilaka, a Campū in eighteen adhikaraṇas, is a work on erotics in the form of a dialogue between his patron and his wife; the author claims that he has used the most modern language of his time (posa-kannaḍa). Another Brahmin Advaita Śaiva protégé of Jayasimha was Chāvuṇḍarāya, author of Lokopakāra (A.D. 1025), a guide to daily life, a cyclopaedic miscellany in good verse on various subjects such as astronomy and astrology, sculpture, construction of buildings, omens, divination of water, medicinal herbs and their uses, scents, cookery and toxicology. Śridharācārya, a Jaina Brahmin, showed his capacity for scientific writing (śāstrakavitva) in his Jātaka-tilaka (1049), the earliest work on astrology in Kannada, and his capacity in belles lettres (kāvya kavitva) in his Candraprabhacarite, no longer extant. The Advaiti Nāgavarmācārya, patronized by Ganga Udayāditya (1070), a feudatory of Someśvara II at Banavase, was the author of *Candracūḍāmaṇi-śataka*, a centum of easy verses in *mattebha* metre on the ethics of renunciation.

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The next great writer was Nāgacandra (c. 1105) a Jain and a man of means who built the Mallinātha Jinālaya dedicated to the nineteenth Tīrthankara at Bijapur and also wrote the *Mallinātha-purāṇa*, a Campū. But Nāgacandra is best known for his *Rāmacandra-caritapurāṇa* which gives the Jaina version of the Rāma legend in a Campū of sixteen sections, the story proper beginning only with the third. The poem was a necessary complement to the *Bhārata* of Pampa, and earned for its author the title Abhinava (new) Pampa. The story differs in many ways from Vālmīki's; Rāma gets the *Jinadīkṣā*, becomes a Jaina ascetic and attains *Nirvāṇa* at the end. To the first quarter of the twelfth century belong also a Jaina polemic *Samayaparīkṣe* of Brahmaśiva which seeks to establish the superiority of Jainism over all other creeds, and the *Gōvaidya* of Kīrttivarma, a work on veterinary science, half-medicine and half-magic. Round about 1145, Karṇapārya wrote the life of the twenty-second *Tīrthankara* in his *Nēminātha-purāṇa*, a Campū in fourteen *āśvāsas* in which the story of Krishna and the *Mahābhārata* are also cleverly worked in. To the same time belongs Nāgavarma II, the author of *Kāvyāvalōkana*, an important work on the grammar and rhetoric of Kannada in five sections; it takes the form of Sūtras in verse illustrated by examples from literature. Another work of Nāgavarma on grammar is the *Karṇāṭakabhāṣābhūṣaṇa*; here the Sūtras and a short explanation are both in Sanskrit, while the illustrations come from Kannada literature. The *Vāstukōśa*, a third work of Nāgavarma II, is a relatively short lexicon of 800 *granthas*, giving Kannada equivalents of Sanskrit terms. Nāgavarma was *Kaṭakopādhyāya* (camp-teacher) under Jagadekamalla II, whom he survived for many years, becoming the teacher of poet Janna (c. 1209). *Udayādityālaṅkāra* (c. 1150) is a short work on the art of poetry based on Dandin's *Kāvyādarśa* by a Chola prince whose name it bears. A work on medicine, Pūjyapāda's *Kalyāṇakāraka*, was translated from Sanskrit into Kannada at this time by a Jaina author Jagaddala Sōmanātha; 'the treatment it prescribes is entirely vegetarian and non-alcoholic.' Rājāditya (1190), a Jain of Pūvinabāge, showed great skill in reducing to easy verse the mathematical subjects he dealt with in several *gaṇita* works like *Vyavahāra-gaṇita*, *Kṣetra-gaṇita* and *Līlāvati*.

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Most of the writers so far mentioned were Jains, and it may be well to continue and complete the account of Jaina authors before turning to those of the two other classes, Vira-śaivas and Vaishnavas, who began to influence Kannada literature from the twelfth and fifteenth centuries respectively.

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Jaina writers continued to flourish under the later Hoysalas, and the lives of the Tirthankaras formed the theme of many Purāṇas in the form of Campūs. Nemichandra, court-poet under Vira Ballāla, wrote the Lilāvati, a plain romance with Banavase as its scene of action, where a prince and princess dream of each other, meet after delays, and are wedded to live happily for ever. Nemichandra undertook to write the Nemināthapurāṇa, at the instance of Ballāla's minister, but died before completing it, and the work came to be known as Ardha Nemi, ‘unfinished (life of) Nemi’. Janna was not only a poet but a minister and a builder of temples; he wrote the Yaśodharacarite (1209), the story of a king who was about to sacrifice two boys to Māriamma, but on hearing their story gave up the idea, released them and abandoned the practice of sacrificing live victims. The Anantanāthapurāṇa (1230) on the life of the fourteenth Tirthankara was also his work; his style is noted for its dignity and grace. Bandhuvarma, a vaiśya, wrote the Harivamśābhyudaya and Jiva Sambodhana. The latter is a work on morals and renunciation in the form of an address to the soul. A new form of composition, sāṅgatya, meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a musical instrument, was introduced by Śiśumāyaṇa (c. 1232) who wrote two works in this style—Añjanā-carita and Tripura-dahana; the latter is an allegorical poem on the destruction of the triple fortress of Birth, Decay and Death. Aṇḍayya's Madana Vijaya (Triumph of Cupid), composed about 1235, is remarkable for its total avoidance of assimilated Sanskrit words (tatsamas), limiting itself to indigenous (deśya) and naturalized Sanskrit (tadbhava) words; the experiment was not continued by later authors. The story of the poem is that Śiva imprisoned the moon, and Cupid, in his anger, assailed Śiva with his arrows and was cursed by him to be separated from his bride; he contrived, however, to free himself of the curse and rejoin his bride. The work is known by other names—Kāvana Gella (‘Victory of Kāma’), Kabbigara Kāva (‘Poets’ Defender’), and Sobagina Suggi (‘Harvest of Beauty’). A brother-in-law of Janna was Mallikārjuna (c. 1245), an ascetic who compiled an anthology Sūkti-sudhārṇava, which arranges extracts from many works under eighteen topical headings, of which only fifteen have yet been found. Keśirāja (c. 1260), the son of Mallikārjuna, was the author of Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa (‘Mirror of Word-jewels’), the standard grammar of Kannada. The rules are set forth in kanda metre and followed by a prose commentary by the author himself; like other works of its class it refers to the usage of writers of repute and is of high scientific and historical value to the student of the language. Kumudendu (c. 1275) wrote a Rāmāyaṇa according to Jaina tradition in shaṭpadi metre; the work was largely influenced by the Pampa Rāmāyaṇa already noticed. Other works of note produced under the Hoysalas were: Raṭṭa-Mālā or Raṭṭasūtra (c. 1300) of Raṭṭa-kavi, treating of ‘natural phenomena such as rain, earthquakes, lightning, planets and omens’; Puṇyāsrava (c. 1331) of Nāgarāja, a Campū containing fifty-two tales of Purāṇic heroes said to be translated from Sanskrit for the guidance of house-holders; and a work on toxicology, Khagēndra-maṇi-darpaṇa (c. 1360), by Mangarāja I.

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In the Age of Vijayanagar (1336-1650) the Jains were being steadily pushed out by the rising influence of Śaivas of different schools and Vaiṣṇavas; yet they continued to write in Kannada on the lives of Tirthankaras and other holy persons. Madhura (1385), patronized by ministers of Harihara II and Devarāya I, wrote Dharmanāthapurāṇa on the fifteenth Tirthankara and a short poem in praise of Gommaṭēśvara of Śravaṇa Belgola; his style resembled that of the earlier Jaina poets. There was also Vritta Vilāsa, author of Dharmaparīkshe, a Kannada version of a Sanskrit original of the same name by Amitagati, and Śāstrasāra, both works of quasi-religious import. The life of Jivandhararāja was a favourite subject and was handled three times over in shaṭpadi metre by Bhāskara of Penugonda (1424), Bommarasa of Teṟkaṇāmbi (c. 1485) and Koṭeśvara of Tuluvadeśa (c. 1500). Bāhubali of Śringeri (c. 1560) narrated the story of Nāga-Kumāra who despised riches and took to a religious life.

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Jainism flourished in the Tuluva country more than anywhere else in this period, when two colossal Jaina statues were erected—one at Kārkala in 1431 and the other at Yēnūr in 1603. Accordingly we have four authors from that country. First was Abhinava Vādi Vidyānanda of Gersoppa, an able champion of Jainism in public debates at Vijayanagar and many provincial capitals; in 1533 he compiled the *Kāvyasāra*, an anthology with forty-five different heads, similar to, but much more useful than, Mallikārjuna’s *Sūkti-sudhārṇava*, as he gives the names of many of the poets of the period 900-1430. Sālva (c. 1550), court-poet of a petty prince of Konkan, produced a Jaina version of the *Bhārata*, in *shaṭpadi* in sixteen *parvas*; this was perhaps meant to be a rival to the *Kṛishṇa Rāya Bhārata* which had completed the Vaishnava version about 1510. Ratnākara-varni, a Kshatriya of Mudabidire, wrote a number of works; his *Trilōkasāra* (1557) is an account of Jaina cosmogony; the *Aparājita-śataka* treats of philosophy, morals and renunciation; the *Bharatēśvara-carita* gives the story of the legendary emperor Bharata, the son of the first Tirthankara who turned Jaina ascetic. Many songs by this author are still current among Jains and are known as *Annagaḷapada*, ‘songs of the brothers’. Nemanna’s *Jñāna-bhāskara-carite* (1559) exalts meditation and study as means of emancipation above rites and austerities.

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Lastly may be mentioned a poet of uncertain date assigned by some to c. 1400, Āyata-varma whose *Ratna-karaṇḍaka*, a Campū translated from Sanskrit, treats of ‘the beliefs and duties of the Jains under the heads of the three Jaina “jewels”—right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct’.

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After the Jains, the Vīra-śaivas did most for the development of Kannada language and literature; they wrote many religious works in Kannada and showed a decided preference for the prose medium. Basava and his contemporaries (twelfth century) brought into existence the Vacana literature in simple prose easily understood by the common folk and well calculated to popularize the new creed. There were over two hundred writers, many women among them, with Mahādēviyakka at their head. E. P. Rice characterizes their work thus: ‘In form the Vacanas are brief disconnected paragraphs, each ending with one or another of the numerous local names under which Śiva is worshipped. In style they are epigrammatical, parallelistic and allusive. They dwell on the vanity of riches, the valuelessness of mere rites or book-learning, the uncertainty of life, and the spiritual privileges of the Śivabhakta. They call upon men to give up the desire for worldly wealth and ease, to live lives of sobriety and detachment from the world, and to turn to Śiva for refuge. They are seldom controversial, but almost entirely hortatory, devotional, and expository.’

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They are still recited by Lingāyat ācāryas for the instruction of their followers. Some of the Vacanas have a section called Kāla-jñāna, a messianic forecast of the future, speaking of the arrival of an ideal king, Vira Vasanta Rāya, who would rebuild Kalyāni and restore the Lingāyat religion to its full glory. The Vacanas often bear the mudras (marks in set phrases) of their authors.

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Besides Basava himself, to whom six works of this type are attributed, and his nephew Chenna Basava, special mention must be made of two groups of highly honoured teachers and writers. First the ‘three paṇḍitas’—Mañcanna known as Śivalenka (bodyguard of Śiva), Śripati Pandita, and Mallikārjuna Paṇḍitārādhya; and the ‘five ācāryas’—Rēvaṇa Siddha or Rēṇukācārya of Kollipāka, Maruḷa Siddha of Kollāpura, Paṇḍitārādhya just mentioned as one of the three paṇḍitas, Ekōrāmi Tande, and Viśvēśvarācārya. They were either contemporaries of Basava or lived a little before or after him.

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This period forms a definite transition marked by some notable changes in Kannada language and literature. The letter ḷa tends to disappear giving place to ḷa, and pa in particular positions changes into ha. The Campū form of composition goes out of use, and new metres distinctive of Kannada like shaṭpadi and tripadi, verses with six and three lines respectively, and ragaḷes, lyrical poems with refrains, come into vogue.

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We may now notice the chief Lingāyat writers other than the authors of Vacanas. The first is Hariśvara, who came of a family of Karanikas (accountants) of Halebid and was a contemporary of Hoysala Narasimha I (1152-73). He spent several years at Hampi, and among his works is Pampāśataka, a centum of verses in praise of Virūpāksha of Hampi. His Girijā-kalyāṇa is still in the old style of Jaina works, a Campū of ten sections on the marriage of Śiva and Pārvati. His Śiva-gaṇaḍa-ragaḷegaḷu has all the characteristics of the new school which starts with him; it treats of the lives of the sixty-three saints of early Śaivism, of Basava and other devotees. A nephew and disciple of Hariśvara was Rāghavāṅka, a native of Hampi, who was the first to use shaṭpadi metre. His Hariścandra-kāvya, though very good as poetry, contains several dēśya words and occasionally violates the strict rules of grammar. The Sōmanātha-carite, giving the life of Somayya of Puligere, and the Siddharāma-purāṇa on the life of Siddharāma of Sonnalige are works of Lingāyat hagiology. The Harihara-mahatva is in praise of Hariśvara of Hampi. Other works attributed to him are Vireśvara-carita and Śarabha-caritra. Kereya Padmarasa held office under Narasimha I and got his title by constructing the Belūr tank. He was called from his retirement to meet an itinerant Telugu Brahmin preacher of Vaishnavism who as the result of the contest had to accept the Śaiva creed. Padmarasa wrote the Dikṣā-bodhe, a work of ragaḷes in dialogue form in which a guru instructs his disciple in the faith, citing Sanskrit verses in support of the true doctrine. Padmarasa became the hero of a Padmarājapurāṇa written by one of his descendants (c. 1385). Though Rāghavāṅka and Padmarasa were contemporaries of Basava, neither of them makes any reference to him. Pālkuriki Sōmanātha born at Pālkuriki in the Godāvari district, was the author of several works on Vira-śaivism in Telugu and Kannada. Legend credits him with victory in many contests with other sectarians, particularly Vaishnavas, and final mukti at Kailāsa. His life became the subject of a Purāṇa by Toṇṭadārya (c. 1560). He was a great admirer of Basava and his Telugu Basava-purāṇa was used by Bhīma Kavi (1369) when he wrote a Kannada work of the same name. Sōmanātha's chief works in Kannada are Śilasampādane, Sahasragaṇanāma, and Pañcaratna, besides several ragaḷes and Vacanas. Sōmēśvara-śataka, a popular work on moral subjects, was perhaps the work of a contemporary and namesake of Sōmanātha from Puḷigere. Two works of romance belonging to this period are the Kusumāvaḷi of Deva-kavi (c. 1200) which resembles Lilāvatī of Nemichandra in its story, and Śringārasāra of Sōmarāja (1222), also called Udbhaṭakāvya as it has Udbhaṭa, a ruler of Gersoppa, for its hero.

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The Lingāyat literature of the Vijayanagar period (1336-1650) falls under two heads—stories of reformers and devotees, and expositions of doctrine. The Basava-purāṇa of Bhīmakavi, an Ārādhya-Brahmin, completed in 1369, is an important and a very popular work on hagiology. Written in shaṭpadi metre, it treats of Basava as an incarnation of Nandi, specially sent to re-establish Vira-śaiva faith on earth, and dwells at great length on the miracles performed by Basava in his life-time. Another account of Basava's life written about 1500 is Mala-Basava-rāja-carita of Singirāja, also known as Singirājapurāṇa, recounting the eighty-eight miracles of Basava and giving particulars of his opponents at Bijjala's court. Prabhulinga, also called Allama-prabhu, an associate of Basava, is the hero of *Prabhulinga-lile* of Chāmarasa, an Ārādhya-Brahmin poet of the court of (Praudha) Devarāya II (1422-46). *Prabhulinga* is here regarded as an incarnation of Ganapati, and Pārvatī is said to have taken the form of a princess of Banavase to test the strength of his detachment from the world. The work is said to have been read out to Devarāya who caused it to be translated into Telugu and Tamil. Chāmarasa held disputations with Vaishnavas in the king's presence and was a rival of Kumāra Vyāsa, the author of the Kannada *Bhārata*. Over a century later came Virūpāksha Pandita (1584), author of *Cenna-Basava-purāṇa*. The hero, Cenna Basava, is regarded as an incarnation of Śiva for the instruction of Siddharāma of Sonnalige in the entire Śaiva lore including stories of saints. The popular *Purāṇa* identifies the messianic Vira Vasanta Rāya with the contemporary ruler Venkaṭapati Rāya of Vijayanagar, who, in some of his inscriptions styles himself ‘Lord of Kalyānapura’, though with little justification. There are also lives of many *ācāryas* and *purātanas* (elders). Panditārādhya and Rēvaṇa Siddha were the most popular among the *ācāryas*, and became heroes of many works.

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In the literature of the doctrine, several works were produced under Devarāya II who had two zealous Lingāyat ministers. One was Lakkaṇṇa who wrote the *Śiva-tattva-cintāmaṇi*, a treatise on the tenets and rites of the sect. The other, Jakkanārya, not only wrote a work entitled *Nūrondusthala* (hundred and one topics), but liberally patronized other scholars like Kumārabanka-nātha and Mahālinga-deva. An eminent *guru* of the time was Guru Basava, author of seven works, *Sapta-kāvya*, six in *shaṭpadi* metre expounding aspects of the doctrine in the form of dialogues between teacher and pupil, and the *Avadhūtagite*—‘Songs in Praise of Detachment’. There were also one hundred and one teaching *jangamas* of whom several wrote *Vacanas* and works on the doctrine. Acute rivalry between Lingāyats and Vaishnavas led to ‘organized processions through the town in honour of the books of their respective faiths’. Out of this rivalry also arose the *Prauḍharāyacarita* of Adriśya (c. 1595), stories of Śaiva saints narrated by Jakkanārya to Devarāya II to divert his mind from the Brahminical version of the *Bhārata*.

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A famous teacher of the time of Virūpāksha (1465-85) was Toṇṭada Siddheśvara or Siddalinga-yati, who practised Śiva-yoga for a long time in a garden and came to be known on that account as toṇṭada, of the garden. A *maṭha* and a temple mark the place of his burial at Yediyūr, near Kunigal. He wrote a prose work of 700 Vacanas called *Shaṭsthala-Jñānāmrita*, and had many disciples who wrote similar works. Virakta Toṇṭadārya (c. 1560) composed the *Siddheśvara-purāṇa* on the life of his teacher. Nijaguṇa-śiva-yogi, at first a petty ruler of the territory round Śambhulinga hill near Yelandur and afterwards Śiva-yogi, was a prolific writer who employed *tripadi*, *sāṅgatya*, *ragaḷe* and prose in his works. Notable among them are a commentary on the Sanskrit work *Śiva-yoga-pradīpika* meant for those who cannot read Sanskrit and desire emancipation, and *Viveka-cintāmaṇi*, a cyclopaedia of ‘Sanskrit terms and Vira-śaiva lore’. Mallanārya of Gubbi lived in the reign of Krishnadeva Rāya (1509-29) and wrote both in Kannada and Sanskrit. His chief works in Kannada were: *Bhāva-cintāratna* (1513), said to be based on a Tamil work of Nānasambandar; *Satyendra-chola-kathe*, the story of a Chola king to illustrate the power of the sacred *mantra* of five letters of the Śaivas; and *Viraśaivāmrita* (1530), describing twenty-five sports of Śiva and giving the lives of the saints, old and new. Virūparāja (1519), author of a *sāṅgatya* work on the life of king Cheramāṅka, a *purātana*, and his son Virabhadra-rāja who wrote five *Śatakas* on Vira-śaiva doctrine and morals were other writers of the period. Towards the close of it came Sarvajñamūrti whose *Sarvajñapadagaḷu* is in *tripadi* metre: about a thousand of these *padas* are current and treat of religion, morals and society, in much the same manner as the sayings of Vemana in Telugu or Nāmdev and Tukārām in Marathi. Like them he exalted sincerity in life above externals such as the worship of idols, pilgrimages and rituals.

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The earliest writer of note on Vaishnava topics in Kannada was Rudra-bhaṭṭa, a *Smārta* Brahmin of the time of Vira Ballāḷa (1173-1220). His *Jagannātha-vijaya* is a *Campū* on the life of Krishna up to his fight with Bāṇāsura and based on the *Viṣṇu-purāṇa*. In 1281 Narahari-tīrtha, third in succession from Madhva, composed songs in praise of Vishnu. But the Vaishnava movement began to exert a strong influence on Kannada literature only from the time of Krishnadeva Rāya. And this new Vaishnava literature in the form of translations of Sanskrit classics also marks the transition from medieval to modern Kannada. The first ten *parvas* (sections) of the *Mahābhārata* had been translated by Nāraṇappa, a Brahmin author, who had the title Kumāra Vyāsa and was a rival of Chāmarasa in the reign of Devarāya II; his work, dedicated to the deity at Gadag, came to be known as Gadugina Bhārata. The remaining parvas were translated in 1510 by Timmaṇṇa who named his work after his patron Kṛṣṇa-rāya Bhārata. Then followed the Torave Rāmāyaṇa, so called because it was produced in Torave in Sholapur district. This is the first brahminical version of the story in Kannada and the author was Narahari who calls himself Kumāra Vālmiki; his date is not quite settled. Mention must also be made of the Jaimini Bhārata of Lakṣmīśa composed some time in the seventeenth century. A free rendering in shaṭpadi metre of a Sanskrit original ascribed to the legendary sage Jaimini, the work is ‘esteemed alike by learned and unlearned, and universally studied’. The subject is the wanderings of the horse appointed for Yudhishṭhira’s horse-sacrifice, and thus corresponds to a portion of the Aśvamedhaparva of the Mahābhārata, though there is no correspondence in details. The Bhāgavata found its translator in Cāṭu Viṭṭhalanātha who flourished under Krishnadeva Rāya and his successor Achyuta. He also wrote a fuller rendering of portions of the Mahābhārata which had been greatly abridged by Kumāra Vyāsa—the Pauloma and Āstika parvas. This was a great period not only for Kannada, but for other languages as well—Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil. And not only Vaishnavas, but Lingāyats and Jains, were patronized by Krishnadeva Rāya and Achyuta.

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Popular songs in ragaḷe metre by dāsas (mendicant singers) was another form of Vaishnava literature in Kannada in this period. These singers got their inspiration from Madhvācārya and Vyāsa-rāya, and the visit of Chaitanya to the South in 1510 did much to stimulate the growth of this popular type of song. Purandara Dāsa was ‘the earliest, most prolific and most famous’ of these singers; he visited Vijayanagar in the reign of Achyuta Rāya and died at Pandarpur in 1564; all his songs bear the imprint Purandara Viṭṭhala. Kanakadāsa of Kāginele in the Dharwar district was a contemporary of Purandara, who, like him, owed his adoption of a religious life to Vyāsarāya, head of the Madhva maṭha at Sosile, himself a composer of lyrics in praise of Krishna. Besides songs in praise of Vishnu, Kanakadāsa wrote Mōhana Taraṅgiṇi (‘River of Delight’) narrating stories of Krishna in saṅgatya, and two works in shaṭpadi—Nala-carita and Hari-bhakti-sāra, the latter being a popular book of morals for children.

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A little poem of Kanakadāsa called Rāma-dhānya-caritre exalts rāgi, the grain which above all other grains forms the staple food of a great part of Karnātaka. Kanakadāsa came of the caste of hunters (bēḍa) according to some accounts, and of shepherds (kuruba) according to others. There were many other dāsas besides.

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This sketch of Kannada literature may close with the notice of some important works of the early seventeenth century. Most notable among them is the Karnāṭaka Śabdānuśāsana (1604) of Bhaṭṭākaḷanka Deva, the most comprehensive grammar of Kannada in 592 Sanskrit Sūtras with a gloss (vṛtti) and commentary (vyākhyā) in the same language. Its references to previous authorities and citations from leading Kannada writers are of value to the student of the history of the language. The author was a Jain and was reputed to be learned in six languages. The re-consecration of the Gommaṭa statue at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa in 1612 was described by poet Pañcabāṇa of that town in his Bhujabalicaritra (1614). The Kārkaḷa image was rededicated in 1646 and its history and that of Gommaṭa form the subject of Kārkaḷa-Gommaṭeśvara-caritra of Chandrama of the Tuluva country. Bijjala-rāja-caritra, giving the Jaina version of Basava's life at Kalyāṇa, and Jina-muni-tanaya on Jaina morals are other works of the period.

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Mention may also be made of collections of short stories the dates of which are not settled, but which came into existence about the sixteenth century—Baṭṭisa-puṭṭali-kathe, Bētāla-pañca-viṃśati-kathe in the three forms of Campū, tripadi and prose, Śuka-saptati, and so on. Tenāli-Rāmakṛṣṇa-kathe is a collection of funny anecdotes of the famous court jester of the court of Krishnadeva Rāya.

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