Nagavarma
II (mid-11th or
mid-12th century) was a Kannada language scholar and grammarian in the court of
the Western Chalukya Empire that ruled from Basavakalyan, in modern Karnataka
state, India. He was the earliest among the three most notable and
authoritative grammarians of Old-Kannada language (Keshiraja of c. 1260 and
Bhattakalanka Deva of c. 1604 being the other two).Nagavarma II's reputation
stems from his notable contributions to various genres of Kannada literature
including prosody, rhetoric,poetics, grammar and vocabulary. According to the
scholar R. Narasimhacharya, Nagavarma II is unique in all of ancient Kannada
literature, in this aspect. His writings are available and are considered
standard authorities for the study of Kannada language and its growth.
Nagavarma
II was awarded the
title "poet laureate" (Katakacharya) and "military teacher"
(Katakopadhyaya) by Chalukya King Jagadhekamalla. His most famous works are
Kavyavalokana ("Treatise on the art of poetry) on grammar, rhetoric and
poetics,Karnataka-Bhashabhushana ("Ornament of the Karnataka
language"), on grammar, Vastukosa (or Abhidanavastukosa, lit,
"Treasury of significations"), a lexicon, and Varadhamanapurana, on
Jain purana (doctrine). Nagavarma II's grammatical model is based on the
Katantra school of Sanskrit grammar and the author styles himself Abhinava
Sarvavarma ("Modern Sarvavarma"), Sarvavarma being a noted Sanskrit
grammarian to a Satavahana king.
Life
Historians
are divided about the actual period when Nagavarma II lived. According to the
scholars R. Narasimhachar (author of Kannada Kavicharitre), and K.A. Nilakanta
Shastri, Nagavarma II was the poet laureate of Chalukya king Jagadhekamalla II
(r. 1138–1153) and his works are hence datable to c. 1145–1150. The modern
Kannada poet and scholar Govinda Pai, in his researchNagachandrana Kala Vichara
("Nagachandra's age", 1955) identified three famous Nagavarmas in
medieval Kannada literature. Pai estimated that Nagavarma II lived from c.
1120–1200. However, after the discovery of the writing Varadhamanapurana, dated
to c. 1042, and authored by Nagavarma II, it is now held by scholars such as
D.R. Nagaraj and Sheldon Pollock that the grammarian was under the patronage of
Chalukya King Jayasimha II (r.1015–1042) who also went by the title
"Jagadekhamalla", and therefore all of his works were written around
c. 1042.
Writings
Nagavarma II
wrote his grammatical works at a time when native Kannada language writers were
focussed on establishing Kannada language on an equal footing with Sanskrit and
Prakrit. With reference to earlier Kannada language grammarians or
rhetoricians, Nagavarma II named Gunavarma and Sankavarma as "path
makers", and the phrase "Gunavarma Nagavarmara adhvanagal" may
refer to an earlier literary or grammatical tradition.
Despite
being a work on poetics and rhetoric, the historically important
Kavyavalokanam, in its first section called Sabdasmriti, deals with grammar. By
adding a section on grammar, Nagavarma II had emulated the style of the
previous Sanskrit grammarians, Daṇḍin(author of Kavyadarsha) and Bhamaha
(author of Kavyalankara). The Sabdasmriti comprises five chapters (prakarnas)
which deal with euphonic combinations (sandhis), nouns, compounds, nominal
derivatives and verbs respectively. The 422 verses in the text are written in
kanda metre (chaper format), of which 96 are aphorisms (sutras) (the 18th among
which focusses on framing grammatical rules based on the spoken language), and
the remaining verses are example quotations from the writings of earlier
notable Kannada poets such as Adikavi Pampa, Sri Ponna and Ranna.
His
Abhidanavastukosa is a dictionary (nighantu) of 8,000 Sanskrit words for Kannada
language users, again an attempt to integrate the Kannada literary culture into
the popular Sanskritic cultural cosmopolitan.
Nagavarma
II's Kannada grammar, Karnataka Bhashabhushana, which is based on his
Sabdasmriti, and follows the general framework of Sanskrit grammar, is actually
written in Sanskrit language. This has prompted claims that the author did so
to prove to Sanskrit scholars of the day, who may have had a callous attitude
towards Kannada the local language (Prakrita Bhasa), that it was a rich
literary language. From an invocatory verse in the text, another probable
reason is also proposed, in that, being a Jain, Nagavarma II saw all languages
as equals.Though the aphorisms are written in Sanskrit, the glosses (vrittis)
are in Kannada, and as a whole, the writing is considered simple to understand,
requiring of a student just the basic knowledge of Sanskrit.
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Notes
1.
Jump
up^ Sahitya Akademi (1987), p. 476
2.
^ Jump up to:a b Narasimhacharya
(1988), p. 65
3.
^ Jump up to:a b Pollock
(2006), p. 340, p. 349
4.
^ Jump up to:a b c Narasimhacharya
(1988), pp. 64–65, p. 19
5.
^ Jump up to:a b c Shastri
(1955), p. 358
6.
^ Jump up to:a b Kamath
(2001), p. 115
8.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Nagaraj
(2003), p. 327
9.
Jump
up^ Mugali (2006), p. 176
10.
Jump
up^ Bhat (1993), p. 106
11.
Jump
up^ Singh (2001), p. 6147
References[edit]
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Kamath, Suryanath U.
(2001) [1980]. A concise history of Karnataka : from pre-historic times to
the present. Bangalore: Jupiter books. LCCN 8095179. OCLC 7796041.
Mugali, R.S. (2006)
[2006]. The Heritage of Karnataka.
Lightning Source Inc. ISBN 1-4067-0232-3.
Nagaraj, D.R. (2003)
[2003]. "Critical
Tensions in the History of Kannada Literary Culture". In Sheldon I. Pollock. Literary
Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. Berkeley and London: University of California Press. Pp. 1066.
pp. 323&ndash.ISBN 0-520-22821-9. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help)
Narasimhacharya, R (1988)
[1934]. History of Kannada Literature. Mysore: Government Press. Reprinted by Asian Educational
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Pollock,
Sheldon (2006). The
Language of Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture and Power in Pre-modern
India. Berkeley and London: University
of California Press. Pp. 703. ISBN 0-520-24500-8.
Rice,
B.L. (2001) [1897]. Mysore Gazatteer Compiled for Government-vol 1. New Delhi, Madras: Asian Educational Services.ISBN 81-206-0977-8.[1]
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(2002) [1955]. A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of
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Singh, Nagendra K R
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