Kannada Literature

the literature of the Kanarese people; one of the national literatures of India.

The oldest monument of Kannada literature is The Way of the Poet King(A. D. 825), a treatise on poetics attributed to the poet and scholar Nripatunga. The formation of kannada literature is associated with the tenth-century jain poets Pampa, Ponna, and Ranna, Who Wrote Works On Themes From The Mahabharata and the Ramayana and used Sanskrit literature as their model. The 12th century saw the beginnings of a process of literary democratization that culminated in the rejection of Sanskritisms and a turn to the use of the spoken language (in the works of Nayasena and Basava). The genres of the campu (a combination of prose and poetry) and the ragale (a lyrical epic poem) became popular. The songs and hymns (padas) of Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa, poets of the antifeudal Haridasa (“slaves of the god Vishnu”) movement, were popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Yakshagana, folk drama based on themes from epic legends, became widespread in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century press and publicism emerged in the language and modern genres and forms developed. Translations of novels appeared, followed by the first original novels in Kannada, which were imbued with the ideas of renewal (Shivarama Karantha, A. N. Krishnaraya, Ta Ra Su). Gorur and V. M. Joshi wrote in the genre of the short story. V. K. Gokak, D. R. Bendre, and D. S. Karki are regarded as the leading modern poets. National patriotic themes are predominant in narrative poetry, and themes of love and philosophy are popular in lyric poetry. Modern drama is also developing (Bendre, Sriranga).