Hoysala Literature - Literature After The Hoysalas

Literature After The Hoysalas

Literary developments during the Hoysala period had a marked influence on Kannada literature in the centuries to follow. These developments popularised folk metres which shifted the emphasis towards desi (native or folk) forms of literature. With the waning of Jain literary output, competition between the Veerashaiva and Vaishnava writers came to the fore. The Veerashaiva writer Chamarasa (author of Prabhulingalile, 1425) and his Vaishnava competitor Kumaravyasa (Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari, 1450) popularised the shatpadi metric tradition initiated by Hoysala poet Raghavanka, in the court of Vijayanagara King Deva Raya II. Lakshmisa, the 16th–17th century writer of epic poems, continued the tradition in the Jaimini Bharata, a work that has remained popular even in the modern period. The tripadi metre, one of the oldest in the Kannada language (Kappe Arabhatta inscription of 700), which was used by Akka Mahadevi (Yoganna trividhi, 1160), was popularised in the 16th century by the mendicant poet Sarvajna. Even Jain writers, who had dominated courtly literature throughout the classical period with their Sanskritic champu style, began to use native metres. Among them, Ratnakaravarni is famous for successfully integrating an element of worldly pleasure into asceticism and for treating the topic of eroticism with discretion in a religious epic written in the native sangatya metre (a metre initiated by Hoysala poet Sisumayana), his magnum opus, the Bharatadesa Vaibhava (c. 1557).

Though the Vaishnava courtly writings in Kannada began with the Hoysala poet Rudrabhatta and the devotional song genre was initiated by Naraharitirtha, the Vaishnava movement began to exert a strong influence on Kannada literature only from the 15th century on. The Vaishnava writers consisted of two groups who seemed to have no interaction with each other: the Brahmin commentators who typically wrote under the patronage of royalty, and the Bhakti (devotion) writers (also known as haridasas) who played no role in courtly matters. The Bhakti writers took the message of God to the people in the form of melodious songs composed using folk genres such as the kirthane (a musical composition with refrain, based on tune and rhythm), the suladi (a composition based on rhythm) and the ugabhoga (a composition based on melody). Kumara Vyasa and Timmanna Kavi were well-known among the Brahmin commentators, while Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa were the most notable of the Bhakti writers. The philosophy of Madhvacharya, which originated in the Kannada-speaking region in the 13th century, spread beyond its borders over the next two centuries. The itinerant haridasas, best described as mystic saint-poets, spread the philosophy of Madhvacharya in simple Kannada, winning mass appeal by preaching devotion to God and extolling the virtues of jnana (enlightenment), bhakti (devotion) and vairagya (detachment).

Vachana poetry, developed in reaction to the rigid caste-based Hindu society, attained its peak in popularity among the under-privileged during the 12th century. Though these poems did not employ any regular metre or rhyme scheme, they are known to have originated from the earlier tripadi metrical form. The Veerashaivas, who wrote this poetry, had risen to influential positions by the Vijayanagara period (14th century). Court ministers and nobility belonging to the faith, such as Lakkanna Dandesa and Jakkanarya, not only wrote literature but also patronised talented writers and poets. Veerashaiva anthologists of the 15th and 16th centuries began to collect Shaiva writings and vachana poems, originally written on palm leaf manuscripts. Because of the cryptic nature of the poems, the anthologists added commentaries to them, thereby providing their hidden meaning and esoteric significance. An interesting aspect of this anthological work was the translation of the Shaiva canon into Sanskrit, bringing it into the sphere of the Sanskritic (marga or main stream as opposed to desi or folk) cultural order.