A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s3.16

c19.s3.16

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.