Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a second or third language for 15 million speakers in Karnataka. It is the official and administrative language of Karnataka. It also has scheduled status in India and has been declared one of the Classical languages of India.
Early Kannada literature was composed predominantly by Jaina court poets, and many texts from before the 12th century were religious narratives about the Jain Tīrthaṅkaras.
Kannada was the court language of a number of dynasties and empires of South India, Central India and the Deccan Plateau, namely the Kadamba dynasty, Western Ganga dynasty, Nolamba dynasty, Chalukya dynasty, Rashtrakutas, Western Chalukya Empire, Seuna dynasty, Kingdom of Mysore, Nayakas of Keladi, Hoysala dynasty and the Vijayanagara Empire.
Kannada is written using the Kannada script, which evolved from the 5th-century Kadamba script. Kannada is attested epigraphically for about one and a half millennia. Old Kannada Rashtrakuta literature flourished during the 8th-10th centuries CE. Kannada has an unbroken literary history of around 1500 years. In July 2011, a centre for the study of classical Kannada was established as part of the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore to facilitate research related to the language.
Geographic distribution
Kannada had 43.7 million native speakers in India at the time of the 2011 census. It is the main language of the state of Karnataka, where it is spoken natively by million people, or about two-thirds of the state's population.
There are native Kannada speakers in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu ( speakers), Maharashtra (), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (), Kerala (), and Goa ().
It is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-native speakers in Karnataka.
Kannadigas form Tamil Nadu's third-largest linguistic group; their population is roughly 1.23 million, which is 2.2% of Tamil Nadu's total population.
In the United States, there were 35,900 speakers in 2006–2008, a number that had risen to 48,600 by 2015.
There are speakers in Canada (2016 census), 9,700 in Australia (2016 census), 22,000 in Singapore (2018 estimate), and 59,000 in Malaysia (2021 estimate).
Development
Kannada, like Malayalam and Tamil, is a South Dravidian language and a descendant of Tamil-Kannada, from which it derives its grammar and core vocabulary. Its history can be divided into three stages: Old Kannada, or Haḷegannaḍa from 450 to 1200 AD, Middle Kannada (Naḍugannaḍa) from 1200 to 1700 and Modern Kannada (Hosagannaḍa) from 1700 to the present.
Kannada has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Prakrit—in morphology, phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. The three principal sources of influence on literary Kannada grammar appear to be Pāṇini's grammar, non-Pāṇinian schools of Sanskrit grammar, particularly Kātantra and Śākaṭāyana schools, and, to a lesser extent, Prakrit grammar. Literary Prakrit seems to have prevailed in Karnataka since ancient times. Speakers of vernacular Prakrit may have come into contact with Kannada speakers, thus influencing their language, even before Kannada was used for administrative or liturgical purposes. The scholar K.V. Narayana claims that many tribal languages now designated as Kannada dialects could be nearer to the earlier form of the language, with lesser influence from other languages. Based on native Kannada words in Prakrit inscriptions of that period, Kannada must have been spoken by a broad and stable population.
Kannada includes many loan words from Sanskrit. Some unaltered loan words () include , , , , and . Some examples of naturalised Sanskrit words () in Kannada are , , and from . Some naturalised words of Prakrit origin in Kannada are derived from , from .
History
Early traces
The earliest Kannada inscriptions are from the middle of the 5th century AD, but there are a number of earlier texts that may have been influenced by the ancestor language of Old Kannada.
Iravatam Mahadevan, author of a work on early Tamil epigraphy, argued that oral traditions in Kannada and Telugu existed much before written documents were produced. Although the rock inscriptions of Ashoka were written in Prakrit, the spoken language in those regions was Kannada. He pointed out that Prakrit inscriptions of that period contained large numbers of Kannada personal and place names.
The Ashoka rock edict () found at Brahmagiri contains Kannada words such as words (isila, meaning to fire an arrow).The word Isila found in the Ashokan inscription (called the Brahmagiri edict from Karnataka) meaning to shoot an arrow, is a Kannada word, indicating that Kannada was a spoken language in the 3rd century BC (D.L. Narasimhachar in Kamath 2001, p5)
Old Kannada words are also found in inscriptions in Northern Tamil Nadu and Kerala First-century Sittanavasal Cave inscriptions contain words such as such as erumi-nadu (a location) and pocil (entrance). Other examples include kaavithi (village officer's wife) from 1st century CE Tirumlai and thaayiyaru (mothers) in the 4th century CE Nekanurpatti inscription..
Extensive trade relations between the ancient Kannada lands (Kuntalas, Mahishakas, Punnatas, Mahabanas, Asmakas, etc.) and Greece, Egypt, the Hellenistic and Roman empires and others led to exchange of people, ideas, and literature. The Library of Alexandria contained Kannada palm-leaf book, indicating that Kannada language and literature must have flourished before the library was established in between . This document later played a vital role in establishing Kannada as one of the Classical Languages of India. Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian, wrote about pirates between Muziris and the Netravati River, and also mentions Barcelore (possibly modern Mangaluru, upon its mouth. The Greek geographer Ptolemy (writing ) mentions ten Kannada place names from Northern Karnataka, between Bhima River in the north and Banaouasei (Banavasi) in the south: Nagarouris (Nagur), Tabaso (Tavasi), Inde (Inde), Tiripangalida (Gadhinglaj), Hippokoura (Huvina Hipparagi), Soubouttou (Savadi), Sirimalaga (Malkhed), Kalligeris (Kalkeri), Modogoulla (Mudgal), and Petirgala (Pattadakal).
Pliny also mentions King Sire Polemaios (Vasishthiputra Pulumavi (–125 AD)), whose name is derived from , perhaps indicating a native Kannada origin for the Satavahanas and explaining the presence of Kannada language and culture in the southern Kuntala country during the period when Pulumavi ruled from Paithan in the north and his son or Pulumayi Kumara ruled from Huvina Hipparagi in present Karnataka in the south.
An early ancestor of Kannada (or a related language) may have been spoken by Indian traders in Roman-era Egypt and it may account for the Indian-language passages in the ancient Greek play known as the Charition mime.
Epigraphy
The earliest well-attested example of a full-length Kannada language stone inscription containing Brahmi characters with characteristics of old Kannada script can be found in the Halmidi inscription, usually dated . Its existence indicates that Kannada had become an administrative language by that time. The Halmidi inscription provides invaluable information about the history and culture of Karnataka.K. V. Ramesh (1984), p. 10, 55Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 2, Sahitya Akademi (1988), pp. 1717, 1474A report on Halmidi inscription, Kamath (2001), p. 10
A set of five copper plate inscriptions discovered in Mudiyanur, though in the Sanskrit language, is written in the Kadamba script. Some epigraphers have suggested that the plates are contemporary with the Halmidi inscription, but detailed study places them more than a century later, in 338 BE.
The 5th century poetic Tamatekallu inscription of Chitradurga and the Siragunda inscription from Chikkamagaluru Taluk of 500 AD are further examples.R. Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 6Rice E. P. (1921), p. 13Govinda Pai in Bhat (1993), p. 102 Recent reports indicate that the Old KannadaGunabhushitana Nishadi inscription discovered on the Chandragiri hill, Shravanabelagola, is older than Halmidi inscription by about fifty to hundred years and may belong to the period AD 350–400. Shravanabelagola is a major Jain pilgrimage centre and an important epigraphic site, with numerous inscriptions useful for the study of Kannada language and literature.
Early Kannada inscriptions have been discovered in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat in addition to Karnataka. This indicates the spread of the influence of the language over the ages, especially during the rule of large Kannada empires.Kamath (2001), p83
The earliest copper plates inscribed in Old Kannada script and language, date to the early 8th century CE, are associated with Alupa King Aluvarasa II include the double crested fish, his royal emblem.Gururaj Bhat in Kamath (2001), p97
The oldest well-preserved palm leaf manuscript in Old Kannada is a copy of the Dhavala, dating to around the 9th century. It is preserved in the Jain Bhandar, Mudbidri, Dakshina Kannada. The manuscript contains 1478 leaves written using ink.
Coins Some early Kadamba Dynasty coins bearing the Kannada inscription Vira and Skandha were found in Satara collectorate.The coins are preserved at the Archaeological Section, Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai – Kundangar and Moraes in Moraes (1931), p382 A gold coin bearing three inscriptions of Sri and an abbreviated inscription of king Bhagiratha's name called bhagi (c. 390–420 AD) in old Kannada exists.The coin is preserved at the Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai – Kundangar and Moraes in Moraes (1938), p 382 A Kadamba copper coin dated to the 5th century AD with the inscription Srimanaragi in Kannada script was discovered in Banavasi, Uttara Kannada district. Coins with Kannada legends have been discovered spanning the rule of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Badami Chalukyas, the Alupas, the Western Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysalas, the Vijayanagar Empire, the Kadamba Dynasty of Banavasi, the Keladi Nayakas and the Mysore kingdom, the Badami Chalukya coins being a recent discovery.Kamath (2001), p12, p57 The coins of the Kadambas of Goa are unique in that they have alternate inscription of the king's name in Kannada and Devanagari in triplicate,This shows that the native vernacular of the Goa Kadambas was Kannada – Moraes (1931), p384 a few coins of the Kadambas of Hangal are also available.Two coins of the Hangal Kadambas are preserved at the Royal Asiatic Society, Mumbai, one with the Kannada inscription Saarvadhari and other with Nakara. Moraes (1931), p385
Literature
Old Kannada