Encyclopedia
Kannada is one of the major Dravidian languages of
southern India and one of the oldest languages in India. Speakers of its various dialects number roughly 50 million people. It is the state language of
Karnataka, one of the four southern
states in
India. It is also one of the official languages of the
Republic of India. It is written using the Kannada script.
History
Stone inscriptionsThe first record on Kannada language is traced to Emperor
Ashoka's
Brahmagiri edict dated 230 BC. The first example of full length Kannada language stone inscription in
Hale Kannada script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, dated c. 450 CE. Prior to this, there is an abundance of inscriptions containing Kannada words, phrases and sentences. The 543 CE. Badami fort
shilashaasana of Pulakesi I is an example of Sanskrit inscription in
Hale Kannada script.
Copper plate inscriptionsAn example of early Sanskrit copper plate inscription in
Old Kannada script is the
Western Ganga Dynasty Penugonda inscription date early 6th c. CE.. The earliest full length Kannada
tamarashaasana in
Old Kannada script belongs to Alupas ruled by Aluvarasa II from Belmannu, South Kanara district and has the double crest fish, their royal emblem.
Ancient manuscriptsThe oldest well-preserved palm leaf manuscript is in
old Kannada and is that of
Dhavala, dated to around 9th century, preserved in the Jain Bhandar, Mudbidri,
Dakshina Kannada district. The manuscript contains 1478 leaves written in ink.
Kannada language inscriptions are the highest of any language in India, with more than 30,000. These inscriptions were not only discovered in Karnataka but also quite commonly in
Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra and
Tamil Nadu. Some inscriptions were also found in
Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat and
Uttar Pradesh. As an example, the inscription at Jura 964 C.E. , belonging to the reign of
Rashtrakuta Krishna III, is regarded as an epigraphical landmark of classical Kannada literary composition, with charming poetic diction in polished Kannada metre.
This indicates the spread of the language over the ages, especially during the rule of large Kannada empires.
Impact on other cultures and languagesKannada has had significant influence on other Indian languages and overseas cultures.
It has been brought to light the influence of
old Kannada on the language of
Tamil-
Brahmi inscriptions from the 2nd. c. BCE - 4th. c. CE. These observations were made using grammatical and lexical analysis.
Charition mime, a Greek drama discovered at
Oxyrhynchus and dated to 2nd century CE. or earlier contains scenes where Indian characters in the skit speak dialogue in Kannada.
Prior to and during the early Christian era, Kannada country seems to have been in close trade ties with the Greek and Roman empires of the west. Greek dramatists of 4th century BCE., particularly Euripedes and Aristophanes seem to have been familiar with Kannada language. This is evident in their usage of Kannada words and phrases in their dramas and skits..
CoinageRecent discovery of copper coin dated back to 5th century CE. in Banavasi,
Uttara Kannada district with the inscription
Srimanaragi in Kannada script proves that Kannada had become official by the time of the
Kadambas of Banavasi.. Coinage with Kannada legends are common from the time of
Chalukyas.
Development
The development of Kannada as a distinct spoken language from a southern proto-Dravidian language is probably impossible to date. The spoken language is said to have separated from its proto-Dravidian source at about the same time as Tamil. However, the written tradition of this language is around 1500-1600 years based on the archaeological evidences. The initial development of the Kannada language is similar to that of other Dravidian languages and independent of Sanskrit. During later centuries, Kannada, along with other Indian languages like
Telugu,
Malayalam etc., has been highly influenced by
Sanskrit vocabulary and literary styles. Kannada is a highly inflected language with three
genders and two numbers . It is inflected for gender, number and tense, among other things.
Dialects
There is also some distinction between the spoken and written forms of the language. Spoken Kannada tends to vary from region to region. The written form is more or less constant throughout Karnataka, however. The ethnologue identifies about 20 dialects of Kannada. Among them are Kundagannada , Havyaka , Are Bhashe , Soliga, Badaga, Gulbarga Kannada, Dharawad Kannada, Chitradurga Kannada, and others. All of these dialects are influenced by their regional and cultural background.
Literature and Poetry
The earliest extant record of Kannada poetry in
tripadi metre are the Kappe Arabhatta record of 700 C.E..
Kavirajamarga, of King Nripatunga Amoghavarsha I is the earliest extant literary work in Kannada. It is a complex work on Kannada grammar meant to standardize various Kannada dialects used in literature in previous centuries. The book also makes reference to Kannada works by early writers such as King Durvinita. The work refers to the entire area between the
Kaveri River and
Godavari River as Kannada country, implying the language was popular further north in present day Maharashtra. Syamakundacharya of 650 C.E. was an early writer. A early extant prose work in Kannada,
Vaddaradhane by Sivakotyacharya of 900 C.E. century described the life of Bhadrabahu of
Shravanabelagola elaborately.. Since the earliest extant Kannada work is one of complex grammar and a guide of sorts to unify existing variants of Kannada grammar and literary styles, it can be safely assumed that literature in Kannada must have started several centuries earlier. Many historians consider that only
Sanskrit and
Tamil have an older written tradition than Kannada based on available inscriptions and literature. Many Kannada works from 6th, 7th and 8th centuries mentioned in Kavirajamarga are not yet traced. Kannada literature has been prolific ever since.
Chudamani , a commentary on logic
Tatwarthamahashastra by Tumbuluracharya is said to be from 7th. century..
Karnateshwara Kathe depicting king
Pulakesi II as its hero is also said to have belonged to the 7th century,
Gajastaka a work on elephant management by king Shivamara II of
Western Ganga Dynasty belonged to the 8th century.. Kannada is one of the most ancient literatures not only of South India, but of all India as well. Tamil Buddhist commentators of the 10th century A.D. make references that show that Kannada literature must have flourished as early as 4th century CE..
Current Literary Trends
Modern Kannada in twentieth century has been influenced by many movements. Notable among them are
Navodaya,
Navya,
Dalita/
Bandaya.
Kannada literature has had the prestige of most
Jnanpith awards and forty eight
Sahitya Academy awards among all Indian languages.
Jnanpith Awardees- Kuvempu for Sri Ramayana Darshanam
- Da.Ra.Bendhre for Naaku thanthi
- Shivaram Karanth for Mookajjiya Kanasugalu
- Masti Venkatesh Iyengar for Chikkaveera Raajendhra
- Vi.Kru.Gokak for Bhaaratha Sindhhu Rashmi
- U.R.Ananthamurthy for his works in Kannada / samagra sahitya
- Girish Karnad for his works in Kannada Drama/ samagra sahitya
Classification
The written Kannada language has come under various religious and social influences in its 1600 years of known existence. Linguists generally divide the written form into four broad categories.
- Poorvada Halegannada : This is the language of Halmidi scripture thought to be from fourth or fifth century CE.
- Halegannada : From ninth century CE onwards, until fourteenth century, Kannada works were classified under Old Kannada. In this period Kannada showed a high level of maturity as a language of original lierature. Mostly Jain and Saivite poets produced works in this period. This period saw the emergence of Jain puranas and Virashaiva Vachana Sahitya or simply vachana, a unique and native form of literature which was the sum contributions from all sections of society.
- Nadugannada : In the period between fifteenth and eighteenth century CE., Brahmanical Hinduism
...
had a great influence on Kannada. Kannada grammar was further developed based on Sanskrit grammar by Keshiraja Bhatta. The language itself Sanskritized to a large extent. Non-brahmin Hindu saints like
Kanakadasa and
Purandaradasa also produced devotional poems in this period. Kanakadasa's
Ramadhanya Charite is a rare work on class struggle. This period saw the advent of
Haridasa Sahitya which made rich contributions to
bhakti literature and sowed the seeds of carnatic music.
- Hosagannada : The Kannada works produced by the end of nineteenth century and later are classified under Hosagannada or Modern Kannada. However, till the beginning of twentieth century there were Kannada literary works that could still be classified under Middle Kannada. Most notable among them is poet Muddana's works. Sometimes, his works were described as the 'dawn of Modern Kannada'. Generally, linguists treat Indira Bai or Saddharma Vijayavu by Gulvadi Venkata Raya as the first literary work in Modern Kannada.
Geographic distribution
Kannada is mainly spoken in
Karnataka in
India, and to a good extent in the neighbouring states of
Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu,
Kerala and in
Goa.
Official status
Kannada is one of the 22 official languages of India and is the sole administrative language of the state of Karnataka.
Misinterpretation
The term "Kannada language" is often misinterpreted as meaning "the language of
Canada". However, the languages of Canada are
English and
French.
Kannada script
The language has 49 letters phonemic. These 49 letters are divided into three groups: Swaragalu , Yogavaahakagalu, and Vyanjanagalu , similar to the vowels and consonants of
English, respectively. The character set is almost identical to that of other Indian languages. The script itself, derived from brahmi script, is fairly complicated like most other languages of India owing to the occurrence of various combinations of "half-letters", or symbols that attach to various letters in a manner similar to diacritical marks in the
Romance languages. The Kannada script is almost perfectly phonetic, but for the sound of a "half n" . The number of written symbols, however, is far more than the 49 characters in the alphabet, because different characters can be combined to form
compound characters '. Each written symbol in the Kannada script corresponds with one
syllable, as opposed to one phoneme in languages like English. The script of Kannada is also used in other languages such as Tulu, Kodava Takk and Konkani. Simply put the Kannada script is syllabic.
The Dictionary
A German priest Reverend Ferdinand Kittel composed the first Kannada dictionary consisting of more than 70,000 words.
Extinct Kannada Letters
Until the thirteenth century, Kannada literary works employed letters 'rh', 'lh ', whose manner of articulation most plausibly could be akin to those in present day
Malayalam and
Tamil . The later Kannada works replaced 'rh' and 'lh' with ? and ? respectively.
Another letter that has become extinct is 'nh' or 'inn' . The usage of this consonant was observed until the 1980s in mostly coastal Karnataka Kannada works. Now hardly any mainstream works use this consonant. This letter has been replaced by ??.
Kannada script in Computing
Transliteration
Several transliteration schemes are used to type Kannada characters using a standard keyboard. These include Baraha . Nudi, the government of Karnataka's standard for Kannada Input is a phonetic layout loosely based on transliteration.
Unicode
Notes
References
- Dr. Suryanath U. Kamat, Concise History of Karnataka, 2001, MCC, Bangalore
- Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. . A History of South India, OUP, New Delhi
See also
- Languages of India
- List of national languages of India
- List of Indian languages by total speakers
- Bangalore kannada
- Karnataka
Kannada Literature- Karnataka Literature - A list of famous Kannada scholars and their works.
External links
;General
- The Hindu, November 03, 2003.
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- Spectrum, July 26, 2005.
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- The Hindu, May 27, 2005.
- The Hindu, April 17, 2006.
- , Deccan Herald, February 07, 2006.
- , by Indira Parthasarathy. The Hindu, August 03, 2003.
;Learning Resources
;Computing tools and resources
- - Kannada language computing resources.
- A transliteration tool for Indian languages.
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- Javascript based transliteration tool .
;Kannada Portals
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- - online community of Kannada speaking people.
- - a portal containing literary works.
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- by Janardhana Swamy
- - an on-line Kannada Magazine.
