KANNADA LITERATURE.
◇ Earliest Kannada inscriptions date from the 5th/6th century onwards, but the oldest surviving piece of literature in this language is the Kavirajamarga (The Royal Road of the Poets), a 9th century work on poetics.
◇ The best known poets of the 10th century were Pampa, Ponna, and Ranna, all of whom wrote Jaina Puranas.
◇ Pampa, author of the Adi Purana (an account of the life of the first tirthankara Rishabha or Adinatha), also wrote the Vikramarjunavijaya, based on the Mahabharata story.
◇ Ponna wrote both in Sanskrit and in Kannada, and was given the title of Ubhaya-kavichakravarti.
◇ Chavunda Raya wrote the Trishashtilakshana Mahapurana, an account of the 24 Jaina saints, in continuous prose.
◇ In the 12th century, Nagachandra or Abhinava Pampa wrote the Ramachandracharitra Purana.
◇ Kannada works of the 12th century include Neminatha’s Lilavati which tells the love story of a Kadamba prince and a beautiful princess.
