This article should specify the language of its non-English content using {{lang}} or {{langx}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. See why. (August 2024)

Old Kannada (Kannada: ಹಳೆಗನ್ನಡ, romanized: haḷegannaḍa) is the earliest attested stage of the Kannada language, known primarily from the inscriptional record going back to the 4th-5th century CE in Halmidi inscription from the reign of the Kadambas of Banavasi. The earliest known literary work in Kannada is the Kavirājamārga (9th century CE). This work describes Kannada poetics as well as grammar to some extent, citing earlier authorities and forms of the language. The Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa of Kēśirāja, dating to the 12th century CE, is the earliest systematic grammar of Kannada, which remains authoritative today.^[1][2][3]

Sanskrit grammars of Kannada also exist, drawing on the Sanskrit tradition of Pāṇinī. These include the Karṇāṭakabhāṣābhūṣaṇa of Nagavarma II, composed prior to Kēśirāja (12th century CE), and the Karṇāṭaka Śabdānuśāsana of Bhaṭṭākalaṅka Dēva was composed in the 16th century CE. Later commentaries on Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa include the 16th century Sūtrānvayaratnamāle of Liṅgaṇārādhya and the 18th century commentary by Niṣṭhūra (or Niṭṭūru) Nañjayya.^[5][6] Despite being called "Old Kannada", this stage of Kannada was frequently revived in courtly literature, as the Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa was the standard for literary Kannada well into the early modern period. Even while Middle Kannada emerged, court poets would continue to use the morphology and style of Old Kannada to generate a "classical" style.

A 5th century copper coin was discovered at Banavasi with an inscription in the Kannada script, one of the oldest such coins ever discovered.

In a report published by the Mysore Archaeological Department in 1936, Dr. M. H. Krishna, (the Director of Archaeology of the erstwhile Mysore state) who discovered the inscription in 1936 dated the inscription to 450 CE. This inscription in old-Kannada was found in Halmidi village near Hassan district. Many other inscriptions having Kannada words had been found like the Brahmagiri edict of 230 BCE by Ashoka. But this is the first full scale inscription in Kannada. Kannada was used in the inscriptions from the earliest times and the Halmidi inscription is considered to be the earliest epigraph written in Kannada.^[7][8] This inscription is generally known as the Halmidi inscription and consists of sixteen lines carved on a sandstone pillar. It has been dated to 450 CE and demonstrates that Kannada was used as a language of administration at that time.^[9] Dr K.V.Ramesh has hypothesized that, compared to possibly contemporaneous Sanskrit inscriptions, "Halmidi inscription has letters which are unsettled and uncultivated, no doubt giving an impression, or rather an illusion, even to the trained eye, that it is, in date, later than the period to which it really belongs, namely the fifth century A.D."^[11] The original inscription is kept in the Office of the Director of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Karnataka, Mysore,^[12] and a fibreglass replica has been installed in Halmidi. A maṇṭapa to house a fibreglass replica of the original inscription has been built at Halmidi village. The Government has begun to promote the village as a place of historical interest.^[13]

Evidence from edicts during the time of Ashoka the Great suggests that the Kannada script and its literature were influenced by Buddhist literature. The Halmidi inscription, the earliest attested full-length inscription in the Kannada language and script, is dated to 450 CE while the earliest available literary work, the Kavirajamarga, has been dated to 850 CE. References in the Kavirājamārga indicate an earlier tradition of Kannada literature, including genres such the bedaṇḍe, cattāṇa and melvāḍu forms during earlier centuries.^[14] The 5th century Tamatekallu inscription of Chitradurga, and the Chikkamagaluru inscription of 500 CE are further examples.^[15][16][17]

Old Kannada’s phonology is virtually identical to that of Modern Kannada, having five groups of "classed" (vargīya) sounds, comprising contrastive voice, aspiration, and nasal stops, along with "unclassed" (avargīya) sounds, which includes fricatives, approximants, and laterals.^[18] Vowels are distinguished as short (hrasva) and long (dīrgha). Kēśirāja and other grammarians classify certain sounds as native to Kannada and those shared with Sanskrit, though not all agree on whether aspirates are considered native or whether the vocalic liquids of Sanskrit (ṛ and ḷ, as well as their long counterparts).^[19] The ಳ ⟨ḷ⟩ that occurs in native Kannada words (and which may alternate with ಲ in certain places) is called ಕುಳ (kuḷa).

Kēśirāja also classifies certain consonants as śithila ("slack, loose"), namely r, l, ḷ, and ḻ, listing words where these sounds may be dropped or are mandatory.^[20] Sounds that are considered "slack" are those which may be pronounced such that they lose their syllabic weight. For example, sorku ("madness") is ordinarily scanned as having a heavy and light syllable, but because the r is considered "slack", it may be scanned as two light syllables. This feature of Kannada is frequently used to meet different metrical requirements in verse (see Kannada prosody).

Old Kannada, like certain varieties of Modern Kannada, also exhibits nasality. Kēśirāja indicates that the sounds y, v, and l may be nasal or non-nasal, though he has no clear way of marking this in his vṛtti (explanation).^[21] Kulli remarks that these are merely allophonic variations of sounds that come from a neighboring nasal consonant.^[22] However, B. Ramachandra Rao points out that the bindu or anusvāra, which is usually pronounced m at the end of words, varies with n word-finally and, m varies with v intervocalically (ex. māva, "mother's brother" also occurs as māma).^[23] This may explain why certain instances of y, v, and l are thought to be nasal, especially certain parallels in other South Indian languages (especially Tamil) point specific instances where nasality occurs. For example, nāmbu "we (inclusive)" in Tamil is parallel to the Kannada nāvu, which is sometimes pronounced with a nasal vowel. The word māva can also be similarly nasalized.

Old Kannada nouns are marked for case and plurality. In some cases, nouns must first be formed as an oblique stem by adding an augment (āgama).

B. Ramachandra Rao describes six noun classes based on syllable structure and other characteristics in his descriptive grammar of the Old Kannada work, the Pampa Bhārata.^[32] It is worth noting that Kēśirāja does not systematically describe which nouns receive which augment, instead just listing broad categories of nouns by their augment.^[33]

Kannada's epigraphical record is vast, including more than 800 inscriptions found at Shravanabelagola dating from various points between 600 and 1830 CE. A large number of these are found at Chandragiri, and the rest can be seen at Indragiri.^{[citation needed]} The inscriptions include text in the Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Marwari and Mahajani languages. The second volume of Epigraphia Carnatica, written by Benjamin L. Rice is dedicated to the inscriptions found here. The inscriptions that are scattered around the area of Shravanabelagola are in various Halegannada (Old Kannada) and Purvadahalegannada (Pre-Old Kannada) characters. Some of these inscriptions mention the rise to power of the Gangas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagar empire and Mysore Wodeyars. These inscriptions have played an important role in modern scholarship's understanding of the nature, growth and development of the Kannada language and its literature.

Epigraphia Carnatica by B.L.Rice published by the Mysore Archeology department in 12 volumes contains a study of inscriptions from 3rd century until the 19th century. These inscriptions belonged to different dynasties that ruled this region such as Kadambas, Western Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagar kings, Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan and the Wadiyars. The inscriptions found were mainly written in Kannada language but some have been found to be written in languages like Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Urdu and even Persian and have been preserved digitally as a CD-ROM in 2005.^[51]

The earliest full-length Kannada copper plates in Old Kannada script (early 8th century) belongs to the Alupa King Aluvarasa II from Belmannu, South Kanara district and displays the double crested fish, his royal emblem. The oldest well-preserved palm leaf manuscript is in Old Kannada and is that of Dhavala, dated to around the 9th century, preserved in the Jain Bhandar, Mudbidri, Dakshina Kannada district. The manuscript contains 1478 leaves written using ink.^{[citation needed]}

Scholars typically divide Kannada literature according the phases of its linguistic development: "Old Kannada" (8th-13th century CE), "Middle Kannada" (14th century CE-18th century CE), and "Modern Kannada" (19th century CE-present). However, this classification applies mostly to literary works and not to the devotional corpora (such as the vacanas and folk literature), which often display new characteristics earlier. Courtly writing in Kannada also frequently preserved the language of Kēśirāja's Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa (12th century CE), with many latter-day court poets consciously emulating it as late as the 18th century CE.

The earliest Kannada literature, starting in the 8th century CE, was produced predominantly in the courts of Jain rulers. In these circles, poets like Pampa, Ponna and Ranna, lauded in modern Karantaka as the ratnatraya ("triple gems") of early Kannada literature, composed both secular and religious literature, including the Pampa Bhārata, the Ādipurāṇa, the Śāntipurāṇa, and Sāhasabhīmavijaya.^[53]

The 11th century CE saw the emergence of Śaiva devotional poets known as the śaraṇas, who inaugurated a new genre of prose-like poetry known as the vacana sahitya.^[54][55] Due to popularity of these works, among other social changes taking place in the region, Śaiva rulers began to patronize works featuring Śaiva devotion. Harihara (13th century CE) is widely regarded as the inaugurator of the Śaiva hagiographic tradition in Kannada.^[56] Poets like Rāghavāṅka, Harihara's nephew (13th century CE), and Cāmarasa (15th centutry CE) are two famous representatives of this tradition. Ṣaḍakṣaradēva was a Vīraśaiva poet (17th century CE) famed for his equal mastery in Kannada and Sanskrit, earning him the title ubhayakavi ("a poet of [Kannada and Sanskrit]). Jain poets, such as Bandhuvarma (13th century CE) and Maṅgarasa (15th century CE), continued to write into the medieval period.^[57]

Early "Brahminical" or Vaiṣṇava works also emerged from the 11th century.^[58] The Haridāsas began to spread their own devotional works in the 13th-14th centuries CE. Following their institutionalization in courtly settings, Vaiṣṇava poets like Rudrabhaṭṭa, Kumāravyāsa, and Cauṇḍarasa (not to be confused with a Jain poet of the same name) emerged over the centuries. Stylistic variety greatly increased in the medieval period, ranging from the Sanskritic forms such as the campū to the vernacular Kannada forms like the ṣaṭpadi and ragaḷe. Kumāravyāsa's Gadugina Bhārata (also known as the Kumāravyāsa Bhārata or Karṇāṭaka Bhāratakathāmañjari) is particularly famous for popularizing Middle Kannada as a legitimate literary idiom.

In 2008, Kannada was recognised as a Classical language of India by the Central Institute of Indian Languages.^[59] Their decision was based on fulfillment of four criteria:

• High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years.
• body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers.
• The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community.
• The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.^[60]

Middle Kannada (naḍugannaḍa) is a later phase of Old Kannada. It is generally identified by shifts in pronunciation and grammatical usage. These include the debuccalization of ⟨p⟩ to ಹ ⟨h⟩ (eg. ಬನ್ದಪೆನ್ bandapen “I come” > ಬನ್ದಹೆನ್ bandahen). The insertion of the epenthetic vowel ⟨u⟩ to the ends of consonant-final words and between consonant clusters also becomes prevalent.^[61] Middle Kannada generally sees greater case variation (vibhakti-pallaṭa), where various case functions are swapped for one another.^[62]

• Telugu-Kannada script
• Kadamba script
• Kannada language
• Kannada literature

1. The Expert Committee Report of the Government of Karnataka titled "Experts Report submitted to the Government of Karnataka on the subject of the recognition of Kannada as a classical Language" published in February 2007 by Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara of The Department of Kannada and Culture, Government of Karnataka, M.S. Building, Bangalore.
2. Government of India Notification No 2-16-/2004-Akademics dated 31 October 2008.

• Epigraphia Carnatica, online copy of the 1898 edition. (archive.org)