KANNADA POETRY AND SANSKRIT PROSODY
The relationship
between Kannada poetry and Sanskrit prosody is a corollary of the relationship that
prevailed between those languages at various points of time in the history of Kannada
language. It should be borne in mind that every language has its own distinctive
features that are conducive to particular metrical patterns. For instance, Dravidian
languages do not usually have more than two or three syllables in a single word
and this has its own impact on its poetry. Similarly, Kannada does not revel in
long compounded words. (DIrGa samAsa) and Sanskrit has a panache for such formations.
As a result, any language that retains its original form without invasive onslaught
of alien languages has a tendency to stick to its own prosodic patterns and innovations
if any are internal. On the contrary foreign influences, that too an influx of loan
words in to the cultural vocabulary could influence the prosodic patterns also.
Kannada, which
is a Dravidian language must have passed through a stage where it did not have any
contact with Sanskrit. The literature that came in to being during that period was
obviously oral and not much has survived from those days. However, it goes with
out saying that many prosodic forms that are indigenous to Kannada were used by
these oral poets. A look at Tamil literature of this early period bears witness
to these conjectures. Kannada might have been akin to the prose that we see in ‘vaDDArAdhane’.
However, Kannada did come in to contact with
the itinerant emissaries of Buddhism and Jainism. The expansionist tendencies of
kings and monarchs furthered these activities. Consequently one finds a tangible
presence of Sanskrit words even in the earliest documentations of Kannada dating
back to 5th century A.D. Most of our inscriptions have a style and structure
that combine Kannada and Sanskrit. For instance, the Badami Inscription of 7th
century uses ‘tripadi’ and indigenous prosodic form but it has a number words borrowed
from Sanskrit.
If we move on
to the literary texts, one finds that the ‘Champu tradition’ and the prosodic forms
of Sanskrit are interwoven. This is true whether we are talking about a literary
classic such as ‘AdipurANa’ or a knowledge based work like ‘kavirAjamArga.’ It is
to be noted that Kannada poets were not un duly impressed by the ‘Vaidic Prosody’
that made use of ‘slOkas, but preferred ‘Laukik Meters’ such as ‘Vrutta’and ‘’kanda
padya’. Even here they were quite choosy and picked only a handful among thousands
of options available. For instance ‘khyAta karnATaka vrutta’s are only six in number
and even among them two are used very sparingly. An exception was made only in the
case of ‘kanda padya’ and that form makes use of ‘mAtrA gaNa chandassu’. Kannada
did take the idea of mAtrAgaNa from Sanskrit but used them in forms that were indigenous
to the language. Forms like ‘mAlA vrutta’ and ‘danDaka’ were used very sparingly.
With the passage
of time, the prosodic forms of Sanskrit were found only in Champu works whether
it was the tenth century or seventeenth century. A shift to medieval Kannada from
old Kannada went with the usage of non Sanskrit prosodic forms. Vocabulary was replete
with Sanskrit words but the prosody under went a transformation. However Kannada
did not go back to the indigenous forms of the pre Sanskrit days. Both ‘akshara
gaNa’ and ‘amsha gaNa’ gravitated towards ‘mAtrA gaNas’ which suited the genius
of Kannada. It may be mentioned in passing that Bendre a great poet of the twentieth
century experimented with Vedic meters and wrote a few poems in that genre.
Some poets who
had panache for classical music have used Sanskrit prosodic forms coupled with musical
nuances in their poems.