A large body of Western Chalukya literature in the Kannada language was produced during the reign of the Western Chalukya Empire (973–1200 CE) in what is now southern India. This dynasty, which ruled most of the western Deccan in South India, is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya dynasty after its royal capital at Kalyani (now Basavakalyan), and sometimes called the Later Chalukya dynasty for its theoretical relationship to the 6th-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami.Kamath (2001), p. 100; B.R. Gopal in Kamath (2001), p. 100 For a brief period (1162–1183), the Kalachuris of Kalyani, a dynasty of kings who had earlier migrated to the Karnataka region from central India and served as vassals for several generations, exploited the growing weakness of their overlords and annexed the Kalyani.Kamath 2001, p. 108Cousens 1926, p. 13 Around 1183, the last Chalukya scion, Someshvara IV, overthrew the Kalachuris to regain control of the royal city. But his efforts were in vain, as other prominent Chalukya vassals in the Deccan, the Hoysalas, the Kakatiyas and the Seunas destroyed the remnants of the Chalukya power.Kamath (2001), pp. 107, 109
Kannada literature from this period is usually categorised into the linguistic phase called Old-Kannada. It constituted the bulk of the Chalukya court's textual production and pertained mostly to writings relating to the socio-religious development of the Jain faith.Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 17Pollock (2006), pp. 288–289 The earliest well-known writers belonging to the Shaiva faith are also from this period.Kamath (2001), p. 115 Under the patronage of Kalachuri King Bijjala II, whose prime minister was the well-known Kannada poet and social reformer Basavanna, a native form of poetic literature called Vachana literature (lit "utterance", "saying" or "sentence") proliferated.Cousens (1926), pp. 12–13Sastri (1955), pp. 360–361; Rice E.P. (1921), p. 56; Kamath (2001), p. 115; Nagaraj in Pollock (2003), p. 21 The beginnings of the Vachana poetic tradition in the Kannada-speaking region trace back to the early 11th century.Shiva Prakash (1997), pp. 168–169, 171; Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1324 Kannada literature written in the champu metre, composed of prose and verse, was popularised by the Chalukyan court poets. However, with the advent of the Veerashaiva (lit, "brave devotees of the god Shiva") religious movement in the mid-12th century, poets favoured the native tripadi (three-line verse composed of eleven ganas or prosodic units), hadugabba (song-poem) and free verse metres for their poems.Rice E.P. (1921), p. 59; Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1324Shiva Prakash (1997), pp. 163–164, 166–167
Important literary contributions in Kannada were made not only by court poets, noblemen, royalty, ascetics and saints who wrote in the marga (mainstream) style,Durgasimha was minister to King Jayasimha II–Sastri (1955), p. 357; Prince Kirtivarma was the younger brother of King Vikramaditya VI – Kamath (2001), p. 115; Gunavarma, identified as Udayaditya, was a Ganga prince under Chalukya King Someshvara II – Lewis Rice (1985) pp. xix–xx; Nagavarmacharya was a saint – Rice E.P. (1921), pp. 33–34 but also by commoners and artisans, including cobblers, weavers, cowherds and shepherds who wrote in the desi (folk) style.Shiva Prakash (1997), p. 182; Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1324; Nagaraj in Pollock, 2003, p. 348 These Vachana poets (called Vachanakaras) revolutionised Kannada literature, rejecting traditional themes that eulogised kings and noblemen, and writing didactic poems that were closer to the spoken and sung form of the language. In addition to hundreds of male poets, over thirty female poets have been recorded, some of whom wrote along with their husbands.Quote:"Over two hundred writers, many women among them" – Sastri (1955), p. 361; Quote:"More than 300 poets", "33 women Vachana poets" – Shiva Prakash 1997, pp. 167–168; Quote "Over 300 Vachanakaras" – Ramanujan A.K. (1973), p. 11Quote:"More than 200 authors from the 12th and 13th centuries – mostly from the lower castes, and including more than 40 women are known to have composed Vachanas" – Nagaraj, 2003, p. 348; Quote:"The Vachana literature contains Vachanas of 200 to 300 Sivasaranas of whom 50–60 are women" – Leela Mullatti, The Bhakti Movement and the Status of Women: A Case Study of Virasaivism, p. 23, (1989),
Background
Political developments + Literary developments in Kannada (10th–12th centuries CE) Developments Date Dominance of Jain devotional writings, in champu metre 973–1150 Early Secular writings by Jain authorsSridharacharya's Jatakatilaka on astrology, Ranna's lexicon called Rannakanda, Nagavarma's romance novel Chhandombudhi, Chandraraja's work on erotics called Madanakatilaka (Narasimhacharya 1988, pp. 62–64) 1000–1100 Early Vachana poems by Veerashaivas, in native metres 1040–1120 Consolidation of Kannada grammarRice E.P. (1921), pp. 37, 111 1042 or 1145 Veerashaiva movement and the proliferation of Vachana literature 1150–1183 Jain–Veerashaiva literary competitionNagaraj in Pollock (2003), pp. 355–356, 366 1150–1200 Towards the end of the 10th century, a new Karnataka dynasty, called the Western Chalukyas, had come to power by overthrowing the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta (modern Malkhed in the Kalaburagi district, Karnataka). Their earliest inscription is dated to and is ascribed to a subordinate ruler, Tailapa II of Tardavadi, later to become the founding king of the empire, in the Bijapur district, Karnataka.Sastri 1955, p. 162Kamath (2001), p. 101 An inscription from c. 967 suggests that an unsuccessful rebellion was staged by Chattideva, a local king belonging to the Chalukya family, with the help of the Kadamba chief from the temple town Banavasi.Moraes (1931), pp. 88–93 These events, however, paved the way for Tailapa II to launch a successful rebellion against the Rashtrakuta King Karka II with the help of the Kadamba chief of Hangal.Moraes 1931, pp. 93–94
A century before these political developments, the age of great Sanskrit and Prakrit epics and classics had come to an end. This productive period had made available a vast corpus of literature that could be expressed in the local language of Kannada.Kamath (2001), p. 89 Kannada, which had flourished both as a language of political discourse and literature in the Rashtrakuta court, found enthusiastic support from the Chalukya kings. The influential Jains, who according to historian A.S. Altekar may have comprised 30 percent of the population, not only dominated the cultural landscape of 9th and 10th century Karnataka, but were also eager to encourage literature in the local language.A.S. Altekar in Kamath (2001), p. 92; Thapar (2003), p. 396; Kamath (2001), pp. 89–90 According to Professor S.N. Sen, a research fellow at the Indian council of historical research, Kannada literature under the Chalukyas reached a "perfection of form".Kamath (2001), p. 114 Scholars Sheldon Pollock and Jan Houben have claimed that 90 percent of the Chalukyan royal inscriptions are in Kannada, a virtual displacement of Sanskrit as the language of courtly discourse.Pollock (2006), pp. 288–289, 332Houben(1996), p. 215
Mainstream literature For a few centuries after Kavirajamarga ("Royal path for poets", c. 850), the earliest available Kannada literary work, Jain writings had adhered to Sanskritic models that had been recognised by the state as the path for future Kannada writers, while relegating native poetic forms (compositions such as Chattana and Bedande)Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 12 to subordinate status.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 333, 344 The stranglehold that the Sanskritic models had over Kannada literature is best exemplified by Ranna's lexicon Rannakanda (990), where native day-to-day Kannada words had been translated into Sanskrit. This implied that the pure form of the local language was not viewed as equal to Sanskrit, from the cosmopolitan viewpoint.Nagaraj (2003), p. 349 Kannada writings by Jain authors thus used impressive Sanskrit-derived verses interspersed with prose to extol the virtues of their patron kings, who were often compared to heroes from the Hindu epics. While Adikavi Pampa (Pampa Bharata, 941) compared his patron, the feudatory Chalukya King Arikesari, to Pandava prince Arjuna, in Vikramarjuna Vijaya, his version of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Ranna (983) found it suitable to compare his patron, King Satyashraya, to Pandava prince Bhima.Nagaraj (2003), p. 344
Folk literature
The mainstream literary style was to lose popularity during the mid-12th century Kalachuri rule, due to the rise of revolutionary notions about the social and cultural order. The Veerashaivas, acting in protest, used the pure form of Kannada language in their poems; moreover, they encouraged writers from lower castes to participate and eliminated themes that had been considered formal by the king and the monastery.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 346–348; 353–354 Thus, written in native metres, in a language close to the spoken form of Kannada, the Vachana poems gained mass appeal.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 353–354 A new religious faith was thereby propagated by the Veerashaivas whose ascendancy is called the "Veerashaiva movement" and their communicative genre, the Vachana.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 346–347 While the Vachana poetry is generally categorised as a part of the pan-Indian Bhakti (devotional) literature, such generalisations tend to disguise the very esoteric and anti-bhakti positions taken by many Vachanakaras.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 347–348 The origin of the Veerashaiva ideology and the beginnings of their poetry is unclear. According to D.R. Nagaraj, a scholar on literary cultures in history, modern scholars tend to favour two broad views: integrationist and indigenist. The integrationists, such as L. Basavaraju, trace the source of Vachana poetic tradition to the Sanskrit Upanishad scriptures and the Agama doctrine, though this does not explain why the movement did not blossom earlier or in the neighbouring Telugu-speaking region where radical Shaiva sects were known to be active. The indigenists, such as Chidananda Murthy, M.M. Kalaburgi and G.S. Shivarudrappa, propose a native Karnataka origin of the poetry, though they are yet to fully explain its unique nature.
Other developments
At about this time, adding to pressure from the popularity of the Vachana canon in the northern Kannada-speaking region,Nagaraj (2003), p. 355 the noted Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana (1108–1152) of the southern Kannada-speaking region converted from Jainism to the Hindu sect of Vaishnavism. The popularity of Ramanujacharya's philosophy had spread in the Hoysala lands and Srivaishnavism, a sub-sect of Vaishnavism, was in the ascendant.Kamath (2001), p. 132 By the late 13th century, the Veerashaiva writers, who were by now writing allegorical inscriptions and biographies of famous Vachanakaras of the 12th century, were in stiff competition with the Jains. The earliest attempts by the Jains to veer away from traditional puranic (philosophical) themes of renunciation are seen in the writings of Hoysala writers Nemichandra and Andayya. Lilavati Prabhandam, a novel written by Nemichandra (1170) on the topic of love, erotica, and of the victory of Kamadeva (god of love) over his arch-rival Shiva, is the first among such writings. It was followed by Kabbigara Kava ("Poets defender", 1215–1237) by Andayya, also a work depicting a war between Kamadeva and the god Shiva.Nagaraj (2003), pp. 355–356, 366; Rice E.P. (1921), pp. 43–44 Despite these efforts, the Jain literary influence was to recede in the coming decades and centuries, being relegated mostly to the coastal Kannada-speaking region.Sastri (1955), pp. 359–360 Works of enduring quality were still produced by maverick authors such as Ratnakaravarni (1557), though their numbers were fewer.Shiva Prakash (1997), pp. 210–211Sahitya Akademi (1987), pp. 453–454