The Haridasa tradition

There are more than a thousand Haridasas from Karnataka alone and all of hem have contributed their mite to the development of Haridasa or Vaishnava literature.

Unfortunately, many of these Haridasas are only heard of and their compositions have either disappeared or lost forever. Though the first ever recorded Haridasa would be Naraharti Theertha, one of the four disciples of  Madhwacharya (1238-1317), the Haridasa tradition is believed to have started sometime around 880 When Achalananda, who lived near Bangalore, began composing songs.

However, Achalananda’s songs and the compositions of others, which Prof. B.N.K. Sharma calls as Adyas, has not survived.

Prof. Sharma surmises that these Adyas could be Smarthas and that they could have lived and composed songs in the period between Narahari Theertha and Sripadaraja of Mulabagal.

Whatever be the context and setting, there is not much Haridasa literature till the advent of Madhacharya and his disciples.

Narahari Theertha, therefore, must be regarded as the first Madhwa saint to have written several Devara Namas and he can therefore be rightfully considered to be the first Haridasa.

However, Haridasa experts say the Dasa tradition goes back several centuries earlier to Narahari Theertha. They agree that the Haridasa tradition got a huge boost during the life and time of Madhwacharya.

Though Madhwacharya composed several works and many of them are still existing, all of them are in Sanskrit. Since he lived in and around Udupi, and since his parents belonged to the same area, there is no doubt that he knew and spoke Kannada and Tulu. Yet, there are no composition and works of his in Kannada though he is believed to have written a few.

By the way, only three songs of Narahari Theertha has been discovered so far. They are “yanthu marulade nanenthu”. Narahari here is saying that he has so far been deluded and it is only now that he has become enlightened. His second composition is “hariye idu sariye”. This could perhaps be the first ever composition on Hari and here Narahari is asking Hari himself whether this is proper. The third composition is “tiliko ninnologe neene” meaning knowing within thyself. He had his Ankita as “Narahari” or “Narahari Raghupathi’’.

Before Narahari, it was the turn of Padmanabha Theertha to inspire people to take to the Dwaitha way of life. An ardent disciple of  Madhwacharya, he was the first to write commentaries on works of  Madhwacharya. Though he is credited with having written 16 works,  he appears not have written any Devara Namas. Yet, his influence over other Madhwa seers such as Jayatheertha, Sripadaraja, Vyasaraja cannot be underestimated and the last two are among the foremost among Haridasa composers.  

Similarly, while many hundred compositions of Purandara Dasa out of his supposed 4,75,000 are available, that of  his wife who too was a composer and their sons, including Madhwapathi, are lost. However, only a few compositions of Madhwapathi are available though he was as prolific a composer as his father. Very few compositions of Purandara’s other two sons-Hebbana Dasa and Lakshmana Dasa- are available.

Even before Purandara turned to god, his wife Saraswati Bai, was a highly religious person and it was she who had brought up her sons and a daughter in a highly religious and orthodox manner. Except for this fact, very little is known of her literary achievements.

He had his formal initiation at the hands of Vyasaraja in 1525 when he was about 40 years old.

Purandara then writes his first song. This is Ana Le Kara in Shudha Savaeri raga and set to Triputa tala, where he laments how he wasted so many years of his life in going after materialistic things.

We also have no information about the literary career of  Gopikambe, mother of Raghavendra Swamy. Even she is supposed to have composed several Devara Namas and she sang them even as her husband, Thimanna Bhat, played the Veene. No wonder, our Rayaru too was proficient in both-playing the Veene and composing.

Another prolific composer is Mahipati Dasa (1715-1790). He hailed from Kakandhiki in Bijapur district. His son too was a well-known Haridasa of the times but Krishna Dasa’s compositions are very few. While we have a fairly large body of literature belonging to Mahipati, the same cannot be said of Krishna Dasa.

There is also little information on the life and times and of course compositions of  Vittala Dasa, Vijata Dasa, Venkata Dasa and Krishna Dasa. The last three dasas belonged to Udupi. Nekkar Krishna Dasa  or Krishna Dasa was also called Varaha Thimmappa. He was a scholarly  person of the Dasa Parampara. Many of his poems are reported to have been plagiarised by singers.

Varaha Thimmappa Dasa lived during the time of Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. When Sagar in Shimoga district fell into the hands of Hyder, he fled to Tirupathi. He was a contemporary of Madhwa Dasa of Udupi.

So, we see that not all Dasas have got their rightful due. There are several other Dasas whose compositions are not well known or have disappeared, but that is for another post to report.  

These Kannada dialects are never spoken in Karnataka

Kannada is one of the oldest Dravadian languages and it has got its own place in the galaxy of languages. It has been spoken 2,500 years ago and it has a written history going back 1,900 years.

Kannada is also the third oldest language in India after Sanskrit and Tamil.

Kannada is spoken by more than 40 million people and it is classified as among the top 40 languages in the world. There are about 20 dialects of Kannada, that includes Kundagannada, Nadavarkannada, Havigannada, Are Bhashe, Soliga, Gulbarga Kannada, Dharwad Kannada and a few more.

However even among the dialects, Urali (Mala Malasar) and Hoya or Holiya are distinct enough to be frequently considered separate languages. These two dialects along with another dialect Badaga are spoken outside Karnataka and all of them bear very close resemblance to Kannada.

The Holiya is spoken about by tribal people of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and their numbers are believed to be less than five hundred.

This dialect is slowly disappearing and the people who speak then are mainly hunters and people living in forests. These people follow the Hindi culture but the language resembles Kannada. The script is Hindi though.

The dialect is also called Holar, Hole, Holu and Golari-Kannada latest census figures estimate that 500 people in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh speak this dialect.

Another dialect, Badaga, was earlier considered as a sub language of Kannada, but many linguists claim that it should be studied and also classified as a separate branch emerging out of the south Dravidian language group.

There is no possibility of this dialect becoming extinct as it is spoken by more than 2.5 lakh people. These speakers primarily reside in villages spread across the Nilgiris or the Blue mountains in Tamil Nadu. They had settled at the place where the eastern and western Ghats converge in the southern peninsula of India.

The region where they stay is known as Badaganadu  or the land of Badagas. The Badaga language resembles Kannada a lot. During earlier times, Kannada script was used but now educated Badagas prefer Tamil or English scripts.

According to legends, the Badagas were Kannada speaking people and they migrated from Badagahalli, a village near Mysore and settled among in the Nilgiris more than a thousand years ago. They never came back. Nor did the villagers of Badagahalli contact them again. Due to the lack of contact with their erstwhile habitat, the Badagas developed a unique language form.

Like the Holar, the Badagas too are primarily hunters and live in forests. In the last few decades, they have taken to agriculture.  

Another dialect is Urali and it is spoken about by tribals living in Idduki in Kerala.

Urali too is an almost extinct language and there is no exact figure ion how many speak in it. Almost all the Urali speakers are primarily found in Idukki district.

They belong to a scheduled tribe and the speakers are mostly the elder members of the tribe. The younger members are mostly educated in Malayalam and communicate in the same language. Urali shares many features with Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and also with Irula.

The Urali speaking tribals follow a traditional religion and now they have taken to agriculture. Interestingly, there are very few speakers of these dialects in Karnataka and outside the State, their numbers are decreasing and their link with Kannada is getting strenuous day by day.   

The Haridasis of Karnataka

Talk of Women Haridasas or rather Haridasis and the first name that comes to out mind is Helavanakatte Giriamma and  Harapannahalli Bheemavva.

What many tend to forget is that apart from these two Haridasis-yes they should be called so if the men can be called Haridasas-there are a host of others who are credited with more than 7,000 compositions.

A majority of these women writers were Haridasis and Vaggeyakara.

One of the first Haridasi was Galgali Avva who wrote under Ankita Rama. She lived from 1670 to 1760 and her compositions on the Pandavas are unique and distinguish her from others of her ilk.

She had an apt disciple, Bhagamma who was also called Prayagavva.

Harapanahalli Bheemavva (1823-1903) was introduced to Dasa Sahitya by her grandfather who always sang Dasara Padagalu for her. She was given the Ankita Bheemesh Krishna by Narada.

She has many compositions on Hari, Krishna, Prana Devaru. She is famous even today for her Harati Hadagalu.

One of  her best works is on the Dasavathara and it is called Stuthi Mallike. Many of her compositions are on Madhwa philosophy. In one of her compositions, while describing Krishna’s Rasa Leela, she speaks of more than 70 types of saris, including, Uppada, Kornad, Benares, Chanderi and varieties of Paithani.

Yadugiriamma (1828-1908) was another Vaishnava poetess. Her collection of songs was brought out in 2003 under the title. “Yadugiriammanavara Krutigalu”.

She was a versatile writer and she knew Sanskrit apart from Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. She visited several pilgrim places and wrote about them. Her compositions on  Melkote, Tirupati, Srirangam are evocative. She gives us a visual description of  the various festivals of the Srirangam temple and Ranganatha.

She was a master of composition and this is shown when she gives the gist of the Ramayana in 100 stanzas of two lines each. This is the Ramayana Mangalam. It is a composition in 55 stanzas and it is classified as one of her 52 dheerga kritis or long compositions.

Yadugiriamma’s compositions are similar to the Neeraattam pasurams that we see in the Divya Prabandham. Her compositions on Andal are superb.

Yadaugiriamma’s Ankita was Venkata or Venkatakrishna.

Another outstanding poetess is Nanjangud Thirumalamba (1889-1982). She was married, as was the custom during those times, at the age of 10 and was widowed at the age of 14. She then educated herself and learnt to read and write Kannada, Telugu and Tamil all by herself.

A doughty woman, she began a journal in 1916. She published 28 books in 20 years. One of her stories became controversial. Here, the housewife reforms her philandering husband, who apologises to her. This story incensed Masti Venkatesha Iyengar who objected to the idea of a husband apologising to his wife. He then wrote an essay criticising Thriumalamba’s story and this can be seen in  Vimarse, Volume IV, a collection of Masti’s critical writings.

Masti’s trenchant criticism led to Thirumalamba being ostracised by the literary world until the late 1970s. Thirumalamba died in 1982 at the ripe age of 93.

Helavanakatte Giriyamma (1691-1725) is perhaps the most famous among all of the Haridasa poetess of Karnataka. She was born in Ranebennur. Her Ankitha was Helavanakatte Ranga.

Her Udhalikana Kathe has 448 charanas and Chandrahasana Kathe has 355 charanas. The Kannada Adhyayana Aamsthe (Institute of Kannada Studies, University of Mysore) has published a book on her called “Helevankatte Giriammana Hadagalu in 1987. It was edited by T. K. Indubaayi.

Udupi Yashodamma was popularly known as Bhajane Yashodamma as she was regularly performing bhajans in temples n and around Udupi for four decades. She was a well-known Harikatha, bhajan and harmonium artiste.

There are several other women poetess or Haridasis. Some of them include, Turadagi Timmamma (Her ankita was Hoohoor Esha), Orevaayi Lakshmidevamma who wrote under the pen name  Narasimhavithala, Tulasabai who was also called sunadarabai and her Ankita was Shreevenkatesh.

Other Haridasis are: Nadigara Shantibai (Her pen name was  Shanti), Radhabai (Venkatavitala Raghavendra), Sarasabai ( Ramavallabhavittala), Namagiriyamma (Guru Prasanna Venkata Vittala), Rangamma (Balakrishna), Gundamma ( Rukmaneeshavittala), Amabai (Gopalakrishna Vittala)

Kalasada Sundaramma (Kalimardana Krishna), Nidaguruki Jeevubai (1897-1983- Kamalanabhavithala), Venkatasubbamma ( Venkatasubbi), Kalasada Sundaramma (Mookambike), Chechamma (Sheshakka) Maruti Odeya, Kamalabai  (Gurujayesha Vittala), Saraswati Bai (Sri Srinivasa), Saraswati Raajawade ( Giribale), Padmavati Kolara (Krishnaveni), Sarpaadi Ganagamma (Ganagajanaka), Rukmini Bai Rotti (Rukminikrishna), Maniyamma (Venugopala), Doddi Sudhabai (Kapila), Lakshmibai Badasheshi (Koppara Narasimha), Shanatabai Maski (Venkatavittala), Lakshmibai Bannigola (Lakumipriya), Chandoobai (Giri Venkatesh).

Many of these poetess wrote about common things of life just as Purandara Dasa did. All of them were devotees of  Hari and their compositions are as evergreen today as they were when composed. 

The first woman Haridasa poet

There here have been close to four hundred Haridasas in Karnataka and these poets-composers have left behind a rich treasure trove of literature spanning several centuries and touching almost all genres of literature.

However, the Haridasas have mainly concentrated on Hari and sung his glory. Talk of  Dasas and the first name that come to our mind is Purandara and the rest such as Kanaka, Vijaya, Jagannatha, Vaikunta follow.

However, what many people do not know is that apart from the Haridasas, there are nearly a hundred Hari Dasis or women writers who equalled their male counterparts in composing hymns, Devarana Namas, Suladis and other forms of poetry.

They have left behind a vast body of Bhakti literature. Unfortunately, only a few of the Hari Dasis such as Helavanakatte Giriyamma, who wrote under the pen name of  Helavanakatteranga, have gained recognition.  

There are several other women Kannada poets and composers of the Bhakti tradition but their names are almost forgotten and barring students of Kannada language and literature and a few research scholars, they remain unheard of.

Among the first Hari Dasais was Galagali Akka (1670-1760). She can be classified as the first Madhwa women poet and certainly among the first Haridasis.  

As her name suggest, she belonged to the Galagali family and her original name Rama. She was the daughter of a village accountant.

Mudgalacharya, a 95-year-old scholar, saw Rama and enchanted by her beauty,  married her. She was just 12 then. He died eight days after the marriage, leaving Rama a widow.

Rama, however, did not lose heart. She began learning shastras and Devarana Namas and quickly mastered them. Her five grown up step sons began tutoring her in Madhwa Siddantha and Madhwa Sampradaya apart from Shastras. She soon began taking part in religious discussions and contests and helped her step sons defeat other scholars in debates. She was honored by the Peshwas, the Wodeyars and others.

What sets aside the compositions of Rama is the manner in which she treats her subject. In one composition on Krishna, she voices the embarrassment that the God feels when he sees he has married so many women.

Today, we have 263 songs and compositions of Rama or Galgalli Akka, as she was affectionately called. Some of  her compositions are Muyyada Haddu which deals with Gowri Pooje: Bheegara Haadu, which as the name itself suggest deals with events after a Hindu wedding: Sringara Tara Tamya, which gives us an exquisite description of various ornaments worn by women. She spent her last few days in Shurpali, near Jamkhandi in Bagalkot district, which was her ancestral home.One of her famous disciples was Bhagavva.

When a language was born in Bangalore

Language is a means of communication and there are scores of cities in India which can lay claim to having contributed significantly to the growth and development of a language. However, there are only a handful of cities and provinces which can claim credit for having given birth to a language or for having pioneered the development of a new language.

Bangalore is one of the fortunate metropolises which can lay claim to having helped in the birth, origin and even in the initial growth of a language. Unfortunately, few people know about this and fewer are aware of  Bangalore’s link with Rekhta-a language which was a mix of several south Indian languages and which finally reached the royal Mughal court at Delhi came to be known as Hindustani.

Today, while we have realms of papers and research on Urdu, Persian and Hindustani, there are hardly a few on Rekhta-which can lay claim to be the progeny of  poetic Urdu and the language that Mirza Ghalib and other poets of Delhi liberally used in their writings.

The origin of Rekhta and its connection with Bangalore in itself is a romantic episode in the etymology of Indian languages. Rekhta first took shape in Bangalore when the Marathas first came to Bangalore under the leadership of Shahaji, the father of Chatrapati Shivaji.

Shahaji was one of the foremost military generals of the Adilshahis of Bijapur and he along with Ranadulla Khan had conquered Bangalore from Kempe Gowda in 1638. They banished Kempe Gowda to Magadi and planted the Adil Shahi flag n Bangalore.

Shahaji introduced Marathi as the official language of Bangalore province which was given to him as a jagir by the Adil Shah. This was the first time that Kannada speaking Bangalore had to contend with an alien language. Shahaji appointed Marathas to all important posts and all official and administrative letters, dispatches and work went on only in Marathi.

When Shahaji died on January 23, 1664 after an accidental fall from a horse, his son, Venkoji took over the reigns of Bangalore Jagir. Venkoji continued patronage to Marathi in addition to Persian which was one of the official languages of the Bijapur court of the Adil Shahis.

The Maratha domination of Bangalore continued till 1689 when the Mughals under Emperor Aurangzeb defeated the Marathas and occupied Bangalore. Though there is controversy over the number of years the Mughals occupied Bangalore, it can safely be said that they built the mosque at Taramandalpet which even today is known as Sangain Masjid.

The Mughals scrapped Marathi as the official language of Bangalore and Sira provinces and introduced Persian. However, they retained several Marathi and erstwhile Kannada administrative and everyday names.

The Mughul rule first in Bangalore and after 1789 in Sira province ensured that Persian and Arabian languages mixed with Kannada and Marathi, resulting in the birth of  Rekhta.

Rektha thus owes its origin to Bangalore. Rektha means scattered and this term for a language which was a harmonious mixture of two Indian and two foreign languages was in use from the late 17th century till the closing decades of the 18th century, when it was displaced by Hindi/Hindwi or Hindavi and later by Hindustani and Urdu.

Rektha was given a major fillip when Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) used it extensively in his writings. Mir Tadi Mir (1723-1810), a  principal poet of the Delhi School of the Urdu ghazal who remains arguably the foremost name in Urdu poetry and  often remembered as Khuda-e-sukhan (god of poetry) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) also known as Allama Iqbal used Rektha.

Subsequently, Rekhta also came to be used for forms of poetry like Masnavi ( is a form of romance in Urdu poetry in heroic couplets which may extend to several thousand lines or shorter. Mir and Sauda wrote some of this kind), Marsia (It is usually a poem of mourning. and it can also be a genre to mourn the death of a friend. Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem 'In Memoriam' can be called marsia. The sub-parts of marsia are called noha and soz which means lamentation and burning of  heart respectively. Mir Babar Ali, Mir Moonis, Salamat Ali Dabeer, Mir Zameer and Ali Haider Tabataba are some of the nest exponents of this genre), Qaseedah, Thumri, Jikri or Zikri, Geet, Chaupai and Kabit.

Incidentally, the grammatically feminine counterpart of Rekhta is Rekti, a term first popularised by the eighteenth-century poet Sa’adat Yar Khan Rangin  (1756-1827) to designate verses written in the colloquial speech of women. His Rekti has love making as its theme. Another well-known Rekti poet was Insha Allah Khan Insha (1756-1817) of Lucknow. A multi-talented polyglot, he was the author of the first grammar of the Urdu language, Darya-e-Latafat.

Rektha is a form of poetry in which if one line was composed in Persian, the next was in any of the Indian languages like Hindustani, Punjabi and Bengali. The words are generally those which are used by a common man and they have emotional connotations. 

Rektha continued to be used sporadically until the late 19th century and Rekhta-style poetry is still being written by Urdu writers.

Of the early Urdu poets, Wali Muhammad Wali (1667–1707), played a remarkable role in giving the final shape to Urdu by substituting the idiom of Delhi for that of Dakhni and hence he is called the Father of Rekhta.

Wali's visit to Delhi in 1700 is considered to be of great significance for Urdu ghazals. His simple, sensuous and melodious poems in Urdu, awakened the Persian loving poets of Delhi to the beauty and capability of  Rektha which can be termed as an  old name for Urdu as a medium of poetic expression. His visit thus stimulated the growth and development of Urdu ghazal in Delhi.

He is the first established poet to have composed ghazals in Urdu language and compiled a Divan- which is a collection of ghazals- where the entire alphabet is used at least once as the last letter to define the rhyme pattern.

Before Wali, Indian ghazal was being composed in Persian– almost being replicated in thought and style from the original Persian masters like Saa’di or Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī (1210-1291), Jami or Nur ad-Dīn Abd ar-Rahmān (1414-1492) and Khaqani (1121-1190). It was Wali who began using Indian language, Indian themes, idioms and imagery in his ghazals.

The White Kannadiga

A Britisher, he was born in Bangalore and he is today fondly remembered as the grandfather of archaelogical research of Karnataka. His magnum opus is a compilation, study and research of  nine thousand inscriptions or epigraphs of old Mysore region.

Apart from being an epigraphist of note, he was also an educationist and he took education to the village and introduced what is called the “hobli system” of education which is followed to this day.

At home in Kannada, he was also a master of Hindi and Sanskrit. Since he was a Britisher, English was his mother tongue.

Though scores of epigraphists have followed him and conducted path breaking research, his contribution still stands the test of  time and it is rated as one of the best works of its kind.

He built a house in Bangalore and it exists today, a tribute to the European style of building. He called it “Pen Rhiw”, which in Welsh language means “Top of the hill”. This magnificent house is situated on Sankey Road in Bangalore. It was built in 1873.

The house once belonged to the  B. Lewis Rice or Benjamin Lewis Rice (1837-1927) who is better known as Lewis Rice or B. L. Rice). He went to England to study and returned in 1860 with a degree in arts. The Mysore Government then appointed him as Principal of Bangalore High School, which later became the  precursor to Central College.
His industrious nature and dedication soon earned him a promotion and five years later, he was appointed as Inspector of Schools for Mysore and Coorg. He then became the Director of Public Instruction in Mysore and Coorg in 1868. It was during this period that he introduced the “hobli system” of education, whereby schools were started in important hoblis and this was the first attempt to bring education to the rural folk.

The Mysore Government then made him the Chief Census Officer in 1881 and Secretary to the Department of  Education in 1883.
Rice was a natural at learning languages. A year after becoming principal of Bangalore High School, he took the higher secondary examination in Kannada, Hindi and Sanskrit. He also learnt Tamil and Sanskrit. He was also one of the few foreigners to learn Grantha, a form of ancient script that is primarily used to write Tamil and Sanskrit texts.

As Inspector of Schools, he set Kannada question  papers for students of  Bangalore High School. His high degree of proficiency in Kannada can be gauged from the fact that in one of his reports he wrote about the rather low standard of Kannada of some of his students. This is remarkable for an Englishman whose mother tongue was English and not Kannada.

However, Rice’s fame rests not on these achievements but on his  epigraphical records. As Inspector of Schools, he traveled far and wide and visited nook and corner of  Mysore State. During these tours he came across many Kannada inscriptions in the vicinity of schools, temples and old buildings.

The inscriptions slowly aroused his interest and he began taking more interest in them. Coincidentally, the then Chief Commissioner of Mysore, L.B. Bowring, commissioned someone to take photographs of 150 inscriptions, most of them lying across several places in north Karnataka. Some of these photographs were given to him as he was considered to be an expert in Kannada. Thus began Rice’s tryst with epigraphy. This was in 1872.

Rice began deciphering the epigraphs. However, he was faced with one problem. Several of  the inscriptions were in Hale or old Kannada and neither Rice nor any scholar he knew understood it. Rice took the help of a scholar and set about deciphering the inscriptions.
In 1879, he brought out the first volume of Mysore inscriptions and subsequently several other volumes followed. Among all these volumes, experts rate the one on Shravanabelogala the best. Then came his magnum opus-Epigraphia Carnatica-which is a compilation of nine thousand inscriptions spread across Karnataka.

Epigraphia is the first such intensive and systematic survey of inscriptions in India. The works doe not merely have translations but it has complete transliterations and transcriptions of inscriptions.

Even to this day. the Epigraphia volumes are usually the most frequently-consulted books and it is a must for all epigraphists.
Unfortunately, Rice’s work on epigraphs slowed down as the government burdened him with the task of preparing Gazetteers for the State and for every district. This led to another masterpiece-the Mysore Gazetteer.

The first gazetteer was published in 1876 and the second in 1897.  Like Epigraphia, the Gazetteers are classics and both are reference books for students, teachers, scholars and bibliophiles.
In 1885, Rice was made part-time Director of Archaeological Research. Here, he spent 215 days scouring 654 towns and villages for historical relics. He then visited several taluks on his archaeological expeditions. He undertook these tours on his faithful white pony.

Rice had other works to his credit. The first work of his was ‘An Introduction to Sanskrit in 1868’. He then published a ‘Report on the 1881 Census, Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in Mysore and Coorg, and the Karnataka Bhasha Bhushana, a work on grammer.

In 1892, he discovered three inscriptions inscribed in rocks, carrying the same text of an edict of Asoka. In 1906, before retiring from service, he completed six volumes of ‘Bibliotheca Carnatica’, a collection of all major literary texts in Kannada, Sanskrit and other languages

Rice was married to Mary Sophia Garrett, the daughter of another missionary in Bangalore. The couple had ten children and lived in a large, beautiful bungalow on Sankey Road, which today houses an upmarket boutique. This is Pen Rhiw and Rice was perhaps its most famous occupant.  
Though Rice went back to England with his wife in 1906, he never forgot Kannada and Kannadigas. Once Rice came across a Kannadiga at an exhibition in in London in 1924.

Initially, Rice was circumspect as an Englishman would be. However, the ice melted soon and he burst out at the Kannadiga...   “Ayya, Kannadadalli matanadonave? Muddada Kannada kiviya mele bhidu tumba dinagaladuvu.”

Is this not remarkable. Look around you today and you find young people in Bangalore talking in half-baked English. Some of them seem to be ashamed of talking in Kannada. Here, we have a White man who spoke, wrote, translated and earned fame in Kannada. Truly, he is a White Kannadiga.

Nailing the bias against Kannada

ಜಯತಿ ಶ್ರೀ ಪರಿಷ್ವರ್ಙ್ಗ ಶ್ಯಾರ್ಙ್ಗ [ವ್ಯಾ]ನತಿರ್ ಅಚ್ಯುತಃ ದಾನಕ್ಷೆರ್ ಯುಗಾನ್ತಾಗ್ನಿಃ [ಶಿಷ್ಟಾನಾನ್ತು ಸುದರ್ಶನಃ ನಮಃ ಶ್ರೀಮತ್ ಕದಂಬಪನ್ ತ್ಯಾಗ ಸಂಪನ್ನನ್ ಕಲಭೋg[ನಾ] ಅರಿ ಕಕುಸ್ಥಭಟ್ಟೋರನ್ ಆಳೆ ನರಿದಾವಿ[ಳೆ] ನಾಡುಳ್ ಮೃಗೇಶನಾಗೇನ್ದ್ರಾಭೀಳರ್ ಭ್ಭಟಹರಪ್ಪೋರ್ ಶ್ರೀ ಮೃಗೇಶ ನಾಗಾಹ್ವಯರ್ ಇರ್ವ್ವರಾ ಬಟರಿ ಕುಲಾಮಲ ವ್ಯೋಮತಾರಾಧಿನಾಥನ್ ಅಳಪ ಗಣ ಪಶುಪತಿಯಾ ದಕ್ಷಿಣಾಪಥ ಬಹುಶತಹವನಾಹವದು[ಳ್] ಪಶುಪ್ರದಾನ ಶೌರ್ಯ್ಯೋದ್ಯಮ ಭರಿತೋ[ನ್ದಾನ]ಪಶುಪತಿಯೆನ್ದು ಪೊಗೞೆಪ್ಪೊಟ್ಟಣ ಪಶುಪತಿ ನಾಮಧೇಯನ್ ಆಸರಕ್ಕೆಲ್ಲಭಟರಿಯಾ ಪ್ರೇಮಾಲಯಸುತನ್ಗೆ zಸೇನ್ದ್ರಕ ಬಣೋಭಯ ದೇಶದಾ ವೀರಪುರುಷಸಮಕ್ಷದೆ ಕೇಕಯ ಪಲ್ಲವರಂ ಕಾದೆಱದು ಪೆತ್ತಜಯನಾ ವಿಜ ಅರಸಂಗೆ ಬಾಳ್ಗೞ್ಚು ಪಲ್ಮಡಿಉಂ ಮೂೞುವಳ್ಳಿಉಂ ಕೊಟ್ಟಾರ್ ಬಟಾರಿ ಕುಲದೊನಳ ಕದಂಬನ್ ಕೞ್ದೋನ್ ಮಹಾಪಾತಕನ್ ಸ್ವಸ್ತಿ ಭಟ್ಟರ್ಗ್ಗೀಗೞ್ದೆ ಒಡ್ಡಲಿ ಆ ಪತ್ತೊನ್ದಿ ವಿಟ್ಟಾರಕರ

A first reading of this Kannada will not excite anybody and Kannadigas will instantly know that this is Hale Kannada or old Kannada.

But what many people would not know is that this is the earliest, if not one of the earliest, Kannada inscription and that it dates back to more than a thousand six years ago.

This is the Halmidi inscription and it is so called as it was discovered in front of a small mud fort in the village of Halmidi in Belur taluk of Hassan district.

The epigraph was first discovered in 1936 by Dr. M.H. Krishna, Director of Archaeology of the erstwhile Mysore state. Epigraphists have dated the inscription to 500 AD.

Though Dr. Krishna himself dated the inscription to 450 AD, others have put the date as 450 AD, 470 AD, 500 AD and some even 600 AD.

The inscription is written in pre-old Kannada (Puruvada-hala Kannada), which later evolved into old or Hale Kannada, middle Kannada and eventually modern Kannada.The inscription is the earliest evidence of usage of Kannada as an administrative language

Though many inscriptions having Kannada words have been discovered in many places in Karnataka, including the Brahmagiri edict of 230 BC, this is the first complete inscription in Kannada.

The Halmidi inscription is in verse  and it is important to Kannadigas as it is considered to be the earliest epigraph written in Kannada language.

The inscription documents a gift of two villages- Halmidi and Mulivalli- to Vija Arasa, son of Bhtaari, in the presence of the warriors of from Baana and Sendrika regions. The gift was in recognition of the valor shown by Vija Arasa in a war between Kadambas and Kekaya Pallavas. The concluding part of the inscription mentions a gift of a tenth part the total wet lands in the village to Brahmins. They were exempted from paying land revenue.

The first line, which is in Sanskrit, is an invocation to Vishnu. The style is pedantic and ornate. The rest of the inscription is in Kannada. However they are replete with compounded words from Sanskrit. In all, there are twenty five Kannada words.

The exact meanings of some of the words are still a mater of dispute. However,  the inscription tell us of the practice of honouring the victorious by rewarding their achievement.

The inscription  has sixteen lines and it is carved on a sandstone pillar with a height of 2.5 feet and width of one feet. It demonstrates that Kannada was used as a language of administration at that time.

The first fifteen lines resemble the cave script found in the caves of the Western Ghats as also in the inscriptions of Shathavahanas.  There is partial resemblance to the Talagunda inscription of Kadamba Kakutsthvarma.  

A large number of epigraphs discovered later are recorded in Kannada representing a transitional stage of progress from primitive and old Kannada to the old Kannada of classical age. These inscriptions show us the development of Kannada language and literature through the centuries.

One important development of the discovery of the Halmidi inscription was that it once for all put an end to many controversies surrounding the evolution of Kannada and to the views of some scholars who believed that Kannada was not as old as Tamil.

The villagers of  Halmidi had moved the inscription from the fort to the temple of Veerabhadra and protected it.

Dr. Krishna published the details of his study in the Mysore Archaeological Report and shifted the inscription to the Archaeological Museum, Mysore. Today, the priceless inscription rests in the Government Museum in Bangalore on Kasturba Road where it has been given pride of place.

The inscription has been a subject of study and noted linguists and writers including Manjeshwara Govinda Pai, T.V. Venkatachala Shastry, M. Chidananda Murthy, R.S. Panchamukhi, D.L. Narasimhachar, Ram. Sri. Mugali, and M.M. Kalburgi have researched it and published papers.

Halmadi today is being developed by the State Government. A mantapa has been built to house a fibre glass replica of the original inscription. The Kannada Sahitya Parishat too has taken an initiative to make the village an important centre of Kannada.

However, a noted epigraphist from Karnataka, Dr S.Settar has opined that another inscription by Kongunivarma of Ganga dynasty is older than the Halmidi inscription

He says there are five or six inscriptions, including the one at Taarthi in Shimoga district, which dates back to 350 AD and are older than the Halmidi stone.

Whatever the debate, one thing is sure. Halmidi silenced, and quite effectively I say, those who tried to put down Kannada and tried to paint it as an offshoot of other languages.

Want to see it. Head to the Government museum. Try to conduct your own research and add to the growing chorus of persuading the Indian Government to recognize Kannada as a classical language.     

The King who loved a game of cards

He not only was the longest reigning monarch of  his dynasty, but he himself was a writer and poet in Kannada and Sanskrit. He was also directly responsible for the revival of Yakshagana and several other forms of art.

A patron of art, he was called the Kannada Bhoja Raja. He also loved cards and he contributed immensely to the Ganjifa form of playing cards, which became a rage of the State he ruled.

This King is none other than Krishna Raja Wodeyar, the third, also called as Mummadi Krishna Raja Wodeyar, the first Ruler of Mysore after the death of Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799.

During his period, all forms of art and literature flourished and the King himself was a scholar of Sanskrit and Kannada. He is the author of 50 books.

One of the everlasting contribution of this King was to the Ganjifa form of  paining. He also wrote a book on playing cards called Sritattwanidhi  or “The Illustrious Treasure of Realities”.

The Ganjifa is a unique style of painting peculiar to Mysore. It is very similar to the miniature painting of other schools but here it is  generally circular and only sometimes rectangular in shape.

These paintings were hand drawn on playing cards that were widely used during the period of Krishnaraja Wodeyar III (1799 to 1868).

Such playing cards was known as Chadd (God’s play). The cards made for the Mysore royals were generally inlaid with precious stones and were made of ivory, mother-of-pearl and wafers of lac. The cards had miniature paintings related to Hindu mythology, like Dashavathara (10 incarnations of Vishnu) and of other Gods and Goddesses.

The intricate hand work involved and the painstaking detail has made Ganjifa known more for the art work than the game itself. The King became one of the finest players Ganjifa. He personally invented several variations of the card games. His painted cards came to be known as Mysore Chada Ganjifa. Chada means leaf or a card in Kannada.

There are 13 chadas in the Mysore school and they are considered some of the best form of Ganjifa cards in India. There is even a game dedicated to Goddess Chamundeswhari, comprising of  320 cards. A complete set of this game is preserved in the Leinfelden Museum in Germany.

The game invented by the king was called Krishnaraja Chada. The painted cards in this game show Krishna, Shiva, Brahma and Indra with their wives-Radha, Parvathi, Saraswathi and Sachi Devi respectively.

The first written reference to Ganjifa is by the Mughal Emperor Babur. His grandson, Akbar, too loved the game of cards and invented a set of games called the Mughal Ganjifa. The details of this game can be found in Ain-I-Akbari of  Abul Fazl.

Playing cards is nothing new in India. It has been the favourite pastime of Indian royalty since ancient times. During Vedic age, it was known as Kridapatra. Later, it came to be known as Ganjifa.

The Mysore King was really a sport, Not only did he popularoise Ganjifa but he also invented newer games. His fame has spread so far and wide that the Smithsonian Institute and Museum has organised special exhibitions featuring his games.

The fables and parables in Kannada

Kannada literature has a rich and hoary tradition of fables, parables and short stories. The first ever such work is Vaddarathane which belongs to the ninth century AD.

Vaddarathane is a treasure of stories in verse told in Hale or old Kannada. There are 19 stories and almost all of them are lengthy and teach the doctrines of Jainism. The story about “The Sage and monkey”  is worth reading.

Vaddarathane is by Shivakotiacharya and it is important as it is the earliest extant prose work in Kannada. It is a didactic work and is based on Harisena’s Brhatkathakosa.

The Vaddarathane gives a detailed description of the life of  Jain saint Bhadrabahu  of Shravanabelagola.

Shivakotiacharya was a native of Kogali in Bellary district. The list of stories in the work are: Story of Sukumara swamy, Story of  Sukaushala swamy, Gajakumara, Sanathkumara prince. Annii kavrutha, Bhadrabhau bhatarara, Lalithaghate, Dharmaghosha, Siridhinnia bhatarara, Vrushabha sena bhatarara, Karthika rishi, Abhayaghosha rishi, Vidyuthchoraa rishi, Gurudatta bhatarara, Chilata putra, Dandaka rishi, Mahendradattacharyaand

Chanakya rishi and Vrushabhasena rishi

Another equally important work is Panchatantra by Durgasimha. It was written in 1031 and it is based on the Panchatantra of Vasubhagabhatta and not onm the original Panchatantra written by Vishnu Sharma.

This is the first collection of fables translated into a regional language. It has 60 fables and they are interwoven with ethical teachings and slokas.

Durgasimha has included 13 stories of his own. He was a minister of  war and peace (Sandhi Vigrahi) of  the Wetern Chalukya King Jayasimha, the second (also known as Jagadekamalla. 1018–1042). All the stories have morality as the theme and carry a summary section (Katha Shloka). The Kannada version is the earliest Indian vernacular version.

Another fable writer is the Jain monk Nayasena. He is a master narrator and his important work is Dharmarita. Though all the stories here cannot be considered as fables, there are 15 fables such as “Yajnadatta” and “The mangoose, animals and Goldsmith who have fallen into a well”,  “Kapilaka and the young elephant”.

During the 19th century, many fables and parables came to be published. The fables of  Hitopdesha was first published in the early half of the 19th century.

 In 1840, the translation of Aesop’s Fables was published by Walter Elliot (1803-1877), a British civil service officer, stationed in Karnataka. He wanted this collection to be brought out as a text book.  He is the same Elliot who was among the two British officers captured by Kittur Rani Chenamma in 1824. Elliot was then the Deputy Collector of Dharwad.

Eliott was lucky as the Collecter of Dharwad, Thackeray, was killed in the battle. 

The same year, W C Worth of the Basel Mission, also published his version of Aesop's fables in Kannada.

Manvi Veerappa wrote Kathasagara in 1851. The stories here are narrated by Kathasagar to King Vajrachudamani. Some of eh stories are vulgar and the narration is not all that good.

Next comes the collection of stories by Adakki Subbaraya published  by Madras University in 1846. Here, the parable of “Soldier and his sword”, gives us a lesson about good and bad. The story of “ Vulture and cow” tells us how a doctor who cannot cure his patients can also be useful to them.

Katha Saptati is a collection of fables published by Wesleyan Mission, Mysore from 1830-40. The fables are selected from the Panchatantra and Aesop’s Tales. Rev. D Sanderson of the Mission published two volumes of Katha Sangraha to enable foreigners to study Kannada.

M S Puttana, the novelist, has made a name for himself as a wroter of fables.  His work Niti Chintamani has 150 stories and it was first published in 1884.Apart from fables and parables, this book has tales from other great works as well.

F Kittel of the Basel Mission edited and published Panchatantra in 1864, while Rev Garrent of the same mission translated Panchatantra in 1865. The Wodeyar King of Mysore, Mummadi Krishnaraja, translated Panchatantra in Kannada in 1865.

M S Pujar’s work, Durgasimha Panchatantra, was prescribed as a text book in the early years of  the 20th century.

Devadu Narasimha Shastry translated Vishnu Sharma’s Panchatantra in modern Kannada.

G.P. Rajaratnam has pioneered translation of Jataka tales in Kannada. He published Budhana Jatakagalu in 1937.

Then comes Rev. Cherapa Uttangi’s Drishanta Darpana (1939), which is a book of stories with philosophy. Sali Ramachandra Rao translated in simple Kannada stories in his Buddha Jatakagalu (1948).  Ambale Ramakrishna (A R) Krishnashastry’s (1890-1968) Kathamitra (1952) is a treasure trove of stories. There are stories of Panchatantra also. The fable of Punyakoti is well-known.                     

The only Sanskrit work from the Bard

“Tham vande narasimha theertha nilayam
Sri vyasaraja poojitham
Dhayantham manasa nrusimha charaaam
Sripadarajaram gurum.
Pada Vakya Pramatabhyam Vikreedana
Visharadam LakshmiNarayana Muneem
Vande Vidya Gurunmama”,

so said Vyasa Raja of his guru, Sripdaraja Theertha of Mulabagal.

Here, Vyasa Raja is paying his respects to his Guru who he says is an ocean of knowledge.

Vyasa Raja was among the first of Sripadaraja’s students along with Hayageeva Theertha (successor to Sripadaraja of the matha) of the Veda Patshala at Mulabagal.

The pathashala had been started by Sripadaraja Theertha and it taught shastras, Mimamsa, Taraka, Ganitha and other elated subjects apart from Sanskrit. However, what distinguished this patashala from others like in Kanchi or even Vijayanagar was that Kannada was the medium of instruction along with Sanskrit.

Sripadaraja not only taught students in Kannada but also sang, composed and spoke in Kannada, thereby bringing the scriptures nearer to the people.     

Many of Sripadaraja’s works and even almost all his compositions are in Kannada. His sole work in Sanskrit is Vagvajra and that is a classic. 

The Vagvajra  is a brilliant work and it shows its author as a brilliant scholar and vedantha pandit.

The style is classical and it closely  resembles the Sanyayarathnavali of Padmanabha Theertha, the first disciple of Madhwacharya. The Sanyayarthnavali is perhaps the first ever commentary or note on the works of Madhwacharya, particularly the Brahma Sutras.  

Just like Padmanabha Theertha, the seer of Mulabagal in Vagvajra uses skillfully his mastery over Sanskrit in playing with words, giving us a variety of meanings. This text is essentially based on the Nyayasudha of Jayatheerta or Teekachar whom Sripadaraja so admired.

Many of the “pearls of wisdom” in Nyaya Sudha have been simplified and put forward in Vagvajra in both prosaic and poetic styles.

Sripadaraja was the most apt person to write on Nyaya Sudha as he had studied it for years and even given discourses. His discourse on Nyaya Sudha at an assembly of Madhwa saints and personalities in Koppara in Raichur district so amazed the then Uttaradhi Matha seer, Raghunatha Theertha, that he gave Lakshminarayana Muni the new name Sripadaraja.

The Yukthis are not repeated, instead anumanas are. Therefore, the work is also called  Nyaya Sudhopanyasa Vagvajra.

It contains 3500 shlokas and each shloka is a gem in itself.

A part of the Vagvajra reads like this,

“Sri manyaya sudha grantha......tharka sangraham”.

The Vagvajra has inspired several people, including Vyasa Raja who wrote Vyasa Traya, which is based on his master’s work.

William J Jackson, in his book, Vijayanagar Voices” Exploring South Indian History and Hindu Literature”, has translated some of the suladhis of Sripadaraja Theertha and even given a brief commentary of the Vagvajra.

An Englishman who learnt 35 languages

He was one of the earliest Englishmen who came to India to study its people, culture and literature.  He called himself a humble shoe maker as he was mending the shoes of other people.

In his early years, he taught himself Latin.

A devout Protestant Christian, he had a deep and abiding interest in languages and he learnt several Indian languages including Bengali, Telugu and Kannada. His introduction to other Indian languages was through Bengali.

His brush with Bengali occurred when he was appointed as a manager of an Indigo plantation in a small village in Bengal. He was assigned a Munshi (clerk) to help him run the plantation. The Munshi helped Carey learn Bengali and even Sanskrit.

He is William Carey who was born in England in 1761. He embarked on a journey to India in 1793 where he lived for most part of his life before his death in Serampore near Calcutta in 1834.

Once he mastered Bengali, he went about translating the New Testament into Bengali. He then set about translating the Bible in many north and Eastern Indian languages.

He was the founder of the English Baptist Missionary Society. He is also called the “father of modern missionaries”. However, he is today more known as a pioneer of translations, lexicologist and a grammarian.

Thus by default, Carey whose ambition was to translate the Bible into many Indian languages,  became an important figure in Indian literature.

Carey was highly impressed by the Bengali language, which he thought was superior to all other Indian languages. He wanted the Bible to reach out to the vast Indian populace and the best way, he thought, was to translate them in the local language besides Sanskrit.

Carey’s tryst with Indian languages gave him a nodding acquaintance with the epics and he put this to good use by translating parts of the Ramayana to English. His translation remains among the first of its kind.

He had a burning ambition to translate the Bible into Sanskrit.

He thought that the best way to teach Bible to natives (Indians) was to learn their language and educate them through it.     

Thus, Carey was among the first missionaries who wanted to educate Indians about Christianity. But he ended up becoming a grammarian, lexicologist and translator. He also played a very important role in introducing English in schools and colleges in India.

More importantly, Carey singlehandedly showed people the importance of prose as a medium of communication and knowledge. His Bengali Colloquies was written with help from Bengali scholars. This is a series of  articles written in colloquial Bengali. 

As a translator, Carey translated the Bible into Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Odiya, Gujarathi and Assamese. He also learnt Pashto and Khasi and translated the Bible into these languages.

He was among the first Britishers to learn Kannada.  

Carey was instrumental in translating the Bible into Marathi, Hindi, Oriya, Panjabi, Assamese, and Gujarati.

Critics of Indian literature say Carey played a vital role in the early stages of development of Indian languages in the 19^th century. He either worked or was deeply involved in the translation of the Bible in 35 languages.

Carey’s contribution to the literary scene has elicited the admiration of  no less than a person of  Rabindranath Tagore, the greatest Bengali writer.

He also laid the foundation for typesetting of many of the Indian languages including, Kannada.  A Grammar of Kurnata Language might be the first ever book that was printed and published. Of course, it had to be authored and published by William Carey at his press in Serampore. 

A grammer of Kurnata was first published in 1817. A copy of this book is available in the William Carey Library in Serampore. This small town of Serampore is an hour’s journey from Kolkata. A copy of his Kannada translation of the New Testament is also in the library.          

Carey was not merely interested in preaching religion or translating Bibles. He tried to bring to the notice of the then East India Company the evil of Sati. He joined hands with two British colleagues, Ward and Marshmann in persuading the British to abolish Sati. The Indian reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy was impressed with these endeavours and he fully supported Carey.

When orthodox Hindus, particularly Bengalis, took umbrage at his stand and told Carey that Sati was sanctioned by religion, Carey  poured through those very books. He found that these scriptures had only advocated Sati as a virtue and not as a custom or practice to be followed.

Carey enlisted the support of newspapers of those times in educating people about the evils of Sati. One day, he received a communication from the office of the Governor-General of India.

Carey was asked to translate it into Bengali. It was the order banning Sati through out India.

Today, Serampore has honored its famous citizen with a college in his memory. There is also a William Carey Library.