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Kannada literature is the corpus of written forms of the Kannada language, a member of the Dravidian family spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka and written in the Kannada script.〔 Krishnamurti (2003), p. 78; Steever (1998), p. 129, 131.〕 Attestations in literature span something like one and a half millennia,〔 Ramanujan, A. K. (1973), ''Speaking of Śiva'' Harmondsworth: Penguin, p. 11, ISBN 0-14-044270-7〕〔 R.S. Mugali (2006), ''The Heritage of Karnataka'', pp. 173–175 ISBN 1-4067-0232-3〕〔(Kannada literature ). (2008). Encyclopædia Britannica: "The earliest records in Kannada are full length inscriptions dating from the 5th century AD onward. The earliest literary work is the Kavirajamarga (c. AD 850), a treatise on poetics based on a Sanskrit model."〕〔David Crystal's ''Dictionary of Language'', , "... with inscriptions dating from the late 6th century AD, ...〕〔Other scholars have dated the earliest Kannada inscription to 450 A.D., 500 A.D. , and "about 500" . Epigraphist G. S. Gai has dated it to the "end of the fifth century A. D. or the beginning of the 6th century A.D." ; epigraphist, D. C. Sircar to "about the end of the 6th century," ()〕 with some specific literary works surviving in rich manuscript traditions, extending from the 9th century to the present.〔Zvelebil (2008), p.2〕 The Kannada language is usually divided into three linguistic phases: Old (450–1200 CE), Middle (1200–1700 CE) and Modern (1700–present);〔 Steever, S.B. (1998), p. 129; Krishnamurti (2003), p. 23; Pollock (2007), p. 81; Sahitya Akademi, ''Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, vol. 2'' (1988), p. 1717〕 and its literary characteristics are categorised as Jain, Veerashaiva 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.〔 Kittel in Rice E.P. (1921), p. 14〕〔Sastri 1955, pp. 355–365〕〔Narasimhacharya (1934), pp. 17, 61〕 Although much of the literature prior to the 18th century was religious, some secular works were also committed to writing.〔Narasimhacharya (1934), pp. 61–65〕〔Rice E. P, (1921), p. 16〕 Starting with the ''Kavirajamarga'' (''c''. 850), 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〔 Narasimhacharya (1934), pp. 1, 65; Sastri (1955), pp. 355-366〕〔Rice E.P. (1921), p. 17; Kamath (1980), pp. 49-50, 67, 88-90, 114-115, 132-134〕 and the Yadava kings.〔Dalby (1998), p. 300; Masica (1993), pp. 45-46; Kamath (1980), pp. 143-144〕 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.〔 Sahitya Akademi (1988), pp. 1474–1475; Sastri (1955), p. 355; Steever (1998), p. 4〕〔N.S. Lakshminarayan Bhatta in Kavirajamarga, Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, Volume 3, 1994, pp. 2033–2034; Mugali (1975), p. 13〕〔Seshagiri Rao (1994), pp. 2278–2283; B.L.Rice (1897), pp. 496–497; Narasimhacharya (1934), p. 2; E.P.Rice: (1921), p. 25〕 The Veerashaiva 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 eight Jnanpith awards, 58 Sahitya Akademi awards and 9 Sahitya Akademi Fellowships in India.〔〔Murthy (1997), p. 190〕〔 ==Content and genre== 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.〔〔Narasimhacharya (1934), p. 17〕〔 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.〔Shiva Prakash (1997) p. 163〕 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.〔Shiva Prakash (1997), pp. 167, 202〕 The ''champu'' Sanskritic metre (poems in verses of various metres interspersed with paragraphs of prose, also known as ''champu-kavya'') 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'' (seven line verse), the ''ashtaka'' (eight line verse) and the ''shataka'' (hundred-line verse).〔Sahitya Akademi (1987), p. 248〕〔〔Shiva Prakash (1997), p. 210〕 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'' (three-line verse, in use from the 7th century), one of the oldest native metres; the ''shatpadi'' (six-line verse, first mentioned by Nagavarma I in ''Chhandombudhi'' of c. 984 and in use from 1165), of which six types exist; the ''ragale'' (lyrical narrative compositions, in use from 1160); the ''sangatya'' (compositions meant to be sung with a musical instrument, in use from 1232) and the ''akkara'' which came to be adopted in some Telugu writings.〔Rice E.P. (1921), p. 59〕〔Shiva Prakash in Ayyappapanicker (1997), p. 203〕〔Narasimhacharya (1934), p. 27〕〔Sahitya Akademi (1996), pp. 4002–4003〕 There were rare interactions with Tamil literature, as well.〔Narasimhacharya (1934), p. 29〕 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.〔Narasimhacharya (1934), pp. 61–64〕〔Karmarkar (1947), p. 124〕 According to critic Joseph T. Shipley, over fifty works on scientific subjects including medicine, mathematics and astrology have been written in the Kannada language.〔Shipley (2007), p. 528〕 Kannada literature of this period was mainly written on palm leaves. However, more than 30,000 more durable inscriptions on stone (known as ''shilashasana'') and copper plates (known as ''tamrashasana'') have survived to inform modern students of the historical development of Kannada literature.〔Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1717〕 The Shravanabelagola inscription of Nandisena (7th century), Kappe Arabhatta inscription (c. 700), and the Hummacha and Soraba inscriptions (c. 800) are good examples of poetry in ''tripadi'' metre,〔Sahitya Akademi (1996), p. 4392〕 and the Jura (Jabalpur) inscription of King Krishna III (964) 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.〔Kamath (1980), p. 83〕 Elegiac poetry on hundreds of ''veeragallu'' and ''maastigallu'' (hero stones) written by unknown poets in the ''kanda'' and the ''vritta'' (commentary) metre mourn the death of heroes who sacrificed their lives and the bravery of women who performed ''sati''.〔Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1150〕 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 (''ankita'') used in their poems. Most Jain writings included in the list are from the period 1200-1450 CE, while Veerashaiva and Vaishnava writings are from later periods. Secular topics include mathematics, medicine, science of horses and elephants, architecture, geography and hydrology.〔Sahtiya Akademi (1987), pp. 183-184〕 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.〔Murthy (1997), p. 167〕 Modern English education and liberal democratic values inspired social changes, intertwined with the desire to retain the best of traditional ways.〔Kamath (2001), pp. 277–278〕 New genres including short stories, novels, literary criticism, and essays, were embraced as Kannada prose moved toward modernisation.〔Murthy (1997), pp. 189–190〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kannada literature」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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