origin of Kannada language can be traced to the early Christian
era. The earliest
available work in Kannada was
(c.850 AD) written by the Rasjtrakuta king Nripatunga.
Another early work of real literary value in Kannada is
Vaddaaradhana written by a Jain Sivakotyacharya around 920 AD.
Pampa was the most renowned poet of Kannada who adorned the
court of the Chalukya king Arikesan II.
He authored the two great classics
Purana, which deals with the life of Vrishaba - the first Jain
(also called Pampa-Bharata),
which an adaptation of Vyasa's
into Kannada. Ponna
(c.950 AD) was another great poet of Kannada who wrote
Purana, Bhuvanaika-Ramabhyudaya and
Ranna is credited with noteworthy works like
Ajita Purana (993 AD) and Sahasa-Bhima-vijayam
Chamundaraya condensed the Sanskrit
of Jinasena and Gunabhadra in his
Purana or Trisasti-laksana-mahapurana.
Nagavarman I rendered Banabhatta's
into Kannada. Durgasimha is renowned for his rendering of the
into Kannada in 1031AD. Ramachandracharita
Purana or the Pampa
Ramayana authored by Nagachandra is the earliest available
Ramayana in Kannada.
written by Nayasena in 1117 AD is another noteworthy work of the
II is credited with systematizing the Kannada grammar in his
He also authored a standard work in poetics called
and a Kannada lexicon called
new religious movement propagated by Basava (c.1150 AD) had a
tremendous impact on the Kannada literature.
Harihara (13th century) brought about several
changes in the metre and introduced what is called the
metre in Kannada literature.
He used this in his works
Nambiyannana-ragale and Pushpa-ragale.
Raghavanka introduced a new metre called
and produced great works like
The other notable works of this period were Nemichandra's
Rudra Bhatta's Jagannatha-vijaya;
Purana, Kesiraja's Sabdamani-darpana,
Ramayana, Ratta Kavi's Rattamata
(or Ratta Sutra),
and Madhura's Dharmanatha
Purana. The best example of a
pure Kannada work, without using any Sanskrit words, is
Kabbigarakava of Andayya.
Kannada literature received great patronage from the Vijayanagara
rulers during the 14th-16th centuries.
Kumara Vyasa wrote the first ten
of the Mahabharata in his Kumara
Vyasa Bharata or Gadugina. Another poet Camarasa wrote
and Nijaguna Sivayogin attempted to compile the first encyclopedia
in Kannada in his Vivekachintamani.
The other important works of this period include Lakmisa's
Jaimini-Bharata, Ratnakara's Bharatesa-vaibhava,
Triloka-sataka and Aparajitesvara-sataka;
Vrisabhendra-vijaya and Sabara-sankara-vilasa
and Cikkadevaraja's Cikkadevaraja
Binnapam and Gita Gopala,.
Singararya's Mitravinda-Govinda was the first drama in Kannada.
Honnamma, Giriyamma and Celuvambi were the important women
poets of this period.
Narayana and N.Lakshminarayanappa ('Muddanna') were the two jewels
of the modern Kannada literature.
Kempu Narayana wrote
in 1823, which is the first historical romance written in prose in
Kannada. Muddana's memorable works include
Ramayana and Sri
Sastri was the pioneer in bringing European literature to Kannada
by adapting Shakespeare's Othello into Kannada. M.S.Puttana
was also a renowned novelist in Kannada.
His best-known novel was
(or Sri) was the pioneer of modern poetry in Kannada. He invented
several new metres and translated some of the best lyrics of
English poets into Kannada.
important works are Gitegalu,
Honganasuglu, Asvatthaman and
Parasikaru. The other great modern poets of Kannada include Panje
Mangesa Rao, Manjeswar Govinda Pai, K.V.Puttappa ('Kovempu'),
Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, P.T.Narsimhachar ('Putina'),
D.V.Gundappa ('DVG') and Govinda Pai.
Gundappa's Umarana Osage, Belurina Silabalikeyaru, Sri Ramapariksanam and the
great philosophical poem Manku-Timmana-kagga
are some of his great works.
G.P.Rajaratnam of the
and Nagana-padagalu fame
and K.S.Narasimhaswamy of Maisuru
Mallige fame are two other great stalwarts of modern Kannada
Karanta, A.N.Krishna Rao, T.R.Subba Rao, Krishna Murthy Puranik,
V.M.Inamdar and K.Srinivasa Rao were the pioneers of Kannada
novel. Sivarama Karanta was the most outstanding novelist of Kannada
literature who produced the great epic of
other great novels in Kannada are Srinivasa's
Nayaka and Chikavira
Rajendra; Mirji Arjun Rao's
Jivana, Devudu Narasimha's
and Mahaksatriya, Puttaswamiah's Kranti
Kalyana and V.Sitarama Sastry's
and Nagarada Rani.
Venkatatesa Iyengar ('Srinivasa') introduced the short stories
into the Kannada literature.
Some of his famous short stories are
last Days of Sariputra, The Rani of Nijagal,Vasumati and
Mosarina Mangamma. The other well-known short story writers in
Kannada are Gorur Ramaswamy, Purnachandra Tejaswi,
U.R.Anantamurthy and Gopal Krishna Rao. The well-known names among
the Kannada playwrights are Garuda (Paduka
Pattabhisheka), C.K.Venkataramiah (Mandodari), Srinivasa Murthy (Nagarika
Sriranga (Sanjivini, Savitri,
Kelu Janamejaya) and Sivarama Karanta (Garbha
was the pioneer of the Kannada opera. He composed several operas
including Gokula-nirgamana, Ahalya, Sabari, Harinabhi-sarana and
A.N.Murthy Rao, S.Krishna Sharma, Vamana Bhatta, M.Rama Rao
and N.Prahlad Rao are some of the renowned essayists in Kannada.