Kannada Literature - Content and Genre

Content and Genre

In the early period and beginning of the medieval period, between the 9th and 13th centuries, writers were predominantly Jains and Lingayats. Jains were the earliest known cultivators of Kannada literature, which they dominated until the 12th century, although a few works by Lingayats from that period have survived. Jain authors wrote about Tirthankaras and other aspects of religion. The Veerashaiva authors wrote about Shiva, his 25 forms, and the expositions of Shaivism. Lingayat poets belonging to the vachana sahitya tradition advanced the philosophy of Basava from the 12th century.

During the period between the 13th and 15th centuries, there was decline in Jain writings and an increase in the number of works from the Lingayat tradition; there were also contributions from Vaishnava writers. Thereafter, Lingayat and Vaishnava writers dominated Kannada literature. Vaishnava writers focused on the Hindu epics - the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata - as well as Vedanta and other subjects from the Puranic traditions. The devotional songs of the Haridasa poets, performed to music, were first noted in the 15th century. Writings on secular subjects remained popular throughout this period.

An important change during the Bhakti "devotion" period starting in the 12th century was the decline of court literature and the rise in popularity of shorter genres such as the vachana and kirthane, forms that were more accessible to the common man. Writings eulogising kings, commanders and spiritual heroes waned, with a proportional increase in the use of local genres. Kannada literature moved closer to the spoken and sung folk traditions, with musicality being its hallmark, although some poets continued to use the ancient champu form of writing as late as the 17th century.

The champu Sanskritic metre (poems in verses of various metres interspersed with paragraphs of prose, also known as champu-kavya) was the most popular written form from the 9th century onwards, although it started to fall into disuse in the 12th century. Other Sanskritic metres used were the saptapadi (seven line verse), the ashtaka (eight line verse) and the shataka (hundred-line verse). There were numerous translations and adaptations of Sanskrit writings into Kannada and, to a lesser extent, from Kannada into Sanskrit. The medieval period saw the development of literary metres indigenous to the Kannada language. These included the tripadi (three-line verse, in use from 7th century), one of the oldest native metres; the shatpadi (six-line verse, first mentioned by Nagavarma I in Chhandombudhi of c. 984 and in use from 1165), of which six types exist; the ragale (lyrical narrative compositions, in use from 1160); the sangatya (compositions meant to be sung with a musical instrument, in use from 1232) and the akkara which came to be adopted in some Telugu writings. There were rare interactions with Tamil literature, as well.

Though religious literature was prominent, literary genres including romance, fiction, erotica, satire, folk songs, fables and parables, musical treatises and musical compositions were popular. The topics of Kannada literature included grammar, philosophy, prosody, rhetoric, chronicles, biography, history, drama and cuisine, as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias. According to critic Joseph T. Shipley, over fifty works on scientific subjects including medicine, mathematics and astrology have been written in the Kannada language.

Kannada literature of this period was mainly written on palm leaves. However, more than 30,000 more durable inscriptions on stone (known as shilashasana) and copper plates (known as tamrashasana) have survived to inform modern students of the historical development of Kannada literature. The Shravanabelagola inscription of saint Nandisena (7th century), Kappe Arabhatta inscription (c. 700), and the Hummacha and Soraba inscriptions (c. 800) are good examples of poetry in tripadi metre, and the Jura (Jabalpur) inscription of King Krishna III (964) is regarded as an epigraphical landmark of classical Kannada composition, containing poetic diction in kanda metre, a form consisting of a group of stanzas or chapters. Elegiac poetry on hundreds of veeragallu and maastigallu (hero stones) written by unknown poets in the kanda and the vritta (commentary) metre mourn the death of heroes who sacrificed their lives and the bravery of women who performed sati.

The pace of change towards more modern literary styles gained momentum in the early 19th century. Kannada writers were initially influenced by the modern literature of other languages, especially English. Modern English education and liberal democratic values inspired social changes, intertwined with the desire to retain the best of traditional ways. New genres including short stories, novels, literary criticism, and essays, were embraced as Kannada prose moved toward modernisation.