Kannada literature
Kannada literature is the corpus of written forms of the Kannada language, which is spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka and written in the Kannada script.
Attestations in literature span one and a half millennia,
with some specific literary works surviving in rich manuscript traditions, extending from the 9th century to the present.
The Kannada language is usually divided into three linguistic phases: Old, Middle and Modern ;
and its literary characteristics are categorised as Jain, Lingayatism and Vaishnava—recognising the prominence of these three faiths in giving form to, and fostering, classical expression of the language, until the advent of the modern era.
Although much of the literature prior to the 18th century was religious, some secular works were also committed to writing.
Starting with the Kavirajamarga, and until the middle of the 12th century, literature in Kannada was almost exclusively composed by the Jains, who found eager patrons in the Chalukya, Ganga, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala and the Yadava kings.
Although the Kavirajamarga, authored during the reign of King Amoghavarsha, is the oldest extant literary work in the language, it has been generally accepted by modern scholars that prose, verse and grammatical traditions must have existed earlier.
The Lingayatism movement of the 12th century created new literature which flourished alongside the Jain works. With the waning of Jain influence during the 14th-century Vijayanagara empire, a new Vaishnava literature grew rapidly in the 15th century; the devotional movement of the itinerant Haridasa saints marked the high point of this era.
After the decline of the Vijayanagara empire in the 16th century, Kannada literature was supported by the various rulers, including the Wodeyars of the Kingdom of Mysore and the Nayakas of Keladi. In the 19th century, some literary forms, such as the prose narrative, the novel, and the short story, were borrowed from English literature. Modern Kannada literature is now widely known and recognised: during the last half century, Kannada language authors have received 8 Jnanpith awards, 68 Sahitya Akademi awards and 9 Sahitya Akademi Fellowships in India. In 2025, Banu Mushtaq won the coveted International Booker Prize for her book Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories in Kannada.
Content and genre
| Literature | Period |
| Tripadi | 7th century |
| Chattana | pre 9th century |
| Bedandegabbam | pre 9th century |
| Melvadu | pre 9th century |
| Bajanegabbam | pre 9th century |
| Gadyakatha | pre 9th century |
| Akkara | pre 9th century |
| Ragale | 10th century |
| Vachana | 11th century |
| Shara Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Kusuma Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Bhoga Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Bhamini Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Parivardhini Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Vardhaka Shatpadi | 11th century |
| Bedagu | 1160 |
| Hadugabba | 1160 |
| Sangatya | 1232 |
| Suladi | 16th century |
| Ugabhoga | 16th century |
| Mundige | 16th century |
In the early period and beginning of the medieval period, between the 9th and 13th centuries, writers were predominantly Jains and Lingayats. Jains were the earliest known cultivators of Kannada literature, which they dominated until the 12th century, although a few works by Lingayats from that period have survived. Jain authors wrote about Tirthankaras and other aspects of religion. The Veerashaiva authors wrote about Shiva, his 25 forms, and the expositions of Shaivism. Lingayat poets belonging to the vachana sahitya tradition advanced the philosophy of Basava from the 12th century.
During the period between the 13th and 15th centuries, there was decline in Jain writings and an increase in the number of works from the Lingayat tradition; there were also contributions from Vaishnava writers. Thereafter, Lingayat and Vaishnava writers dominated Kannada literature. Vaishnava writers focused on the Hindu epics – the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata – as well as Vedanta and other subjects from the Puranic traditions. The devotional songs of the Haridasa poets, performed to music, were first noted in the 15th century. Writings on secular subjects remained popular throughout this period.
An important change during the Bhakti "devotion" period starting in the 12th century was the decline of court literature and the rise in popularity of shorter genres such as the vachana and kirthane, forms that were more accessible to the common man. Writings eulogising kings, commanders and spiritual heroes waned, with a proportional increase in the use of local genres. Kannada literature moved closer to the spoken and sung folk traditions, with musicality being its hallmark, although some poets continued to use the ancient champu form of writing as late as the 17th century.
The champu Sanskritic metre was the most popular written form from the 9th century onwards, although it started to fall into disuse in the 12th century. Other Sanskritic metres used were the saptapadi, the ashtaka and the shataka. There were numerous translations and adaptations of Sanskrit writings into Kannada and, to a lesser extent, from Kannada into Sanskrit. The medieval period saw the development of literary metres indigenous to the Kannada language. These included the tripadi, one of the oldest native metres; the shatpadi, of which six types exist; the ragale ; the sangatya and the akkara which came to be adopted in some Telugu writings. There were rare interactions with Tamil literature, as well.
Though religious literature was prominent, literary genres including romance, fiction, erotica, satire, folk songs, fables and parables, musical treatises and musical compositions were popular. The topics of Kannada literature included grammar, philosophy, prosody, rhetoric, chronicles, biography, history, drama and cuisine, as well as dictionaries and encyclopedias. According to critic Joseph T. Shipley, over fifty works on scientific subjects including medicine, mathematics and astrology have been written in the Kannada language.
Kannada literature of this period was mainly written on palm leaves. However, more than 30,000 more durable inscriptions on stone and copper plates have survived to inform modern students of the historical development of Kannada literature. The Shravanabelagola inscription of Nandisena, Kappe Arabhatta inscription, and the Hummacha and Soraba inscriptions are good examples of poetry in tripadi metre, and the Jura inscription of King Krishna III is regarded as an epigraphical landmark of classical Kannada composition, containing poetic diction in kanda metre, a form consisting of a group of stanzas or chapters.
Elegiac poetry on hundreds of veeragallu and maastigallu written by unknown poets in the kanda and the vritta metre mourn the death of heroes who sacrificed their lives and the bravery of women who performed sati. According to the scholar T. V. Venkatachala Sastry, the book Karnataka Kavicharitre compiled by Kannada scholar R. Narasimhachar lists over one thousand anonymous pieces of Kannada literature that cover an array of topics under religious and secular categories. Some fifty Vachana poets are known only by the pen names used in their poems. Most Jain writings included in the list are from the period 1200–1450 CE, while Lingayat and Vaishnava writings are from later periods. Secular topics include mathematics, medicine, science of horses and elephants, architecture, geography and hydrology.
The pace of change towards more modern literary styles gained momentum in the early 19th century. Kannada writers were initially influenced by the modern literature of other languages, especially English. Modern English education and liberal democratic values inspired social changes, intertwined with the desire to retain the best of traditional ways. New genres including short stories, novels, literary criticism, and essays, were embraced as Kannada prose moved toward modernisation.
Classical period
Rashtrakuta court
The reign of the imperial Rashtrakutas and their powerful feudatory, the Gangas, marks the beginning of the classical period of writings in the Kannada language under royal patronage, and the end of the age of Sanskrit epics.There was an emphasis on the adoption of Sanskritic models while retaining elements of deshi literary traditions, a style that prevailed in Kannada literature throughout the classical period. Kavirajamarga, written during this period, is a treatise on the Kannada speaking people, their poetry and their language. A portion of the writing qualifies as a practical grammar. It describes defective and corrective examples of versification and native composition styles recognised by earlier poets. These composition meters are the bedande, the chattana and the gadyakatha – compositions written in various interspersed metres. In some contexts, the term puravcharyar, which may refer to previous grammarians or rhetoricians, have also been mentioned. Some historians attribute Kavirajamarga to the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha I, but others believe that the book may have been inspired by the king and co-authored or authored in full by Srivijaya, a Kannada language theorist and court poet.
The earliest existing prose piece in old Kannada is Vaddaradhane by Shivakotiacharya. It contains 19 lengthy stories, some in the form of fables and parables, such as "The Sage and the Monkey". Inspired by the earlier Sanskrit writing Brihatkatha Kosha, it is about Jain tenets and describes issues of rebirth, karma, the plight of humans on earth, and social issues of the time such as education, trade and commerce, magic, superstition, and the condition of women in society.
The works of Jain writers Adikavi Pampa, Sri Ponna and Ranna, collectively called the "three gems of Kannada literature", heralded the age of classical Kannada in the 10th century. Pampa, who wrote Adipurana in 941, is regarded as one of the greatest Kannada writers. Written in champu style, Adipurana narrates the life history of the first Jain Thirtankar, Rishabhadeva. In this spiritual saga, Rishabhadeva's soul moves through a series of births before attaining emancipation in a quest for the liberation of his soul from the cycle of life and death. Pampa's other classic, Vikramarjuna Vijaya, is loosely based on the Hindu epic the Mahabharata.
Sri Ponna, patronised by King Krishna III, wrote Santipurana, a biography of the 16th Jain Tirthankar Shantinatha. He earned the title Ubhaya Kavichakravathi for his command of both Kannada and Sanskrit. Although Sri Ponna borrowed significantly from Kalidasa's earlier works, his Santipurana is considered an important Jain purana.