NAYASENA
1.
ನಯಸೇನÀ (Nayasena)
2.
nayasEna
3.
Twelfth
Century
4.
Mulugunda
(Dharwada District)
5.
Jaina
6.
Nayasena
is a champu poet who lived in a period when halagannada(Old
Kannada) was already .replaced by medieval Kannada. However as a Jaina he was forced
to write a champu kavya which is perforce more suitable for old Kannada vocabulary.
Consequently Nayasena takes resort to many innovative techniques. By then, Jainism
was gradually becoming the religion adopted by the merchant classes and the affiliation
to kings had more to do either money or power.
Nayasena caters to this new set of patrons by creating a text which is a continuum
of stories that have some thing or the other to do with the merchant class. The
poet who was a sanyasi creates many a confrontation between a merchant and a sage
and invariably takes the side of the latter. He portrays a very realistic picture
of Karnataka of his times giving much more importance to the details of evry day
life rather than the travails of the kings. In his own way he gives a meaningful
response to the cultural realities of his times. Karnataka was a battle ground of
different religions during Nayasena’s life. Jainism and Shaivism were great contenders
and Vaishnavism was not lagging far behind. This tension is palpable in Dharmamrutam.
Nayasena indulges in an examination of different religions that were contemporary
to him just as Brahmashiva in ‘Samayapareekshe’ Nayasena makes greater use of the
material drawn from folk literature rather than classical Sanskrit texts. His choice
of vocabulary is partial to medeival Kannada and he is not a votary of
a Sanskritised style. Actually, he compares
mixing of Kannada and Sanskrit words to an act of mixing oil and ghee. (Clarified
butter) His work gives greater importance to the prose part of the Champu Kavya
and kanda Padyas and Vruttas are relegated to the background. By doing this Nayasena
is facilitating the use of nadugannada vocabulary. Thus Nayasena’s work is vibrant
with life and eschews a mechanical style of concocting an epic.
7.
Sukavinikara
pika Makanda, Vatsalya Ratnakara
8.
Dharmamrutha
(112 A.D.)