KARNATAKA SHABDANUSHASANA
‘Karnataka Shabdanushasana’
(karnATaka shabdAnushAsana) (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಶಬ್ದಾನುಶಾಸನ)
by Bhattakalanka
(BaTTAkaLanka) who lived in the seventeenth century
is a Kannada grammar written in Sanskrit. Bhattakalanka
was a Jaina sanyasi who
had Arasappa Nayaka-2 of the Svadi
dynasty as his royal patron. He was the head of a Jaina
maTha in Sonda a small town
in
Bhattakalanka was a scholar in Kannada and Sanskrit and was erudite
in various disciplines such as grammar, logic, sculpture, astrology, dance and mathematics.
He was a polyglot with a working knowledge of six languages including
Prakrit and Magadhi.
Even though the author wrote his work in Sanskrit it
does not show his contempt for Kannada. He creates an interesting backdrop for his
work. A scholar who is not well disposed towards Kannada makes some disparaging
remarks about Kannada and avers that it does not need a grammar of its own. He opines
that Kannada is essentially a spoken language. Bhattakalanka
deems it fit to answer this doubting Tom before he embarks on his work. He describes
the history, literary tradition and the capacity of Kannada in a detailed manner
with a lot of patience. He justifies his decision to write a prescriptive grammar
of Kannada as it will help both the lay man and the scholar alike to formulate a
standard language.
Bhattakalanka’s erudition in the grammatical tradition of Sanskrit and
Kannada had equipped him suitably for this task. His work is full of
rigour and precision. He depends on the past grammarians of Kannada for
his subject matter and the Sanskrit grammarians for his mode of presentation.
‘Shabdanushasana’ contains
four sections and 592 sutras. He delineates the concepts of ‘Varnamale’,
‘Sandhi’, ‘Nipaatha’ and
‘Avyaya’ in the first chapter. The second chapter deals
with gender, case suffixes and the words borrowed from Sanskrit. The concepts of
compound words, (Samasa) pronouns, and numerals are
discussed in the third chapter. The concluding chapter is reserved for verbs and
the corresponding suffixes.
The range of illustrations given by
Bhattakalanka is rather confined to literary texts, both Kannada and Sanskrit.
He has not paid much attention to the spoken variety of the language like
Keshiraja. However his sources include classics of Kannada literature
such as ‘Adipurana’, ‘Vikramarjunavijaya’,
‘Jinaksharamale’, ‘Gadayuddha’, ‘Panchtantra’,
Pampa Ramayana’, ‘Kabbigara
Kava’ and ‘Kavyasara’. There are two commentaries in
Sanskrit on this work. They are ‘Bhashaamanjari’ and
‘Manjarii Makaranda’. Some
commentaries are composed in the twentieth century also.
‘Shabdanushasana’
was published for the first time in book form in 1890 edited by
B.L.Rice. He was assisted in his task by Brahmasuri
Shastry of Shravanabelagola,
Brahmasuri Pandita of Chamarajanagara, B.Mallappa
of Mysore and Ferdinand Kittel.
It contains a detailed introduction and a short history of Kannada literature: