Presented to the

LIBRARY of theUNIVERSITY OF TORONTOby

PROF. A. GLEASON

OF THE

KANNADA LANGUAGEIN ENGLISH

BY

THE REV.

DR.

F.

K ITT

EL

MANGALOREBASEL MISSION BOOK AND TRACT DEPOSITORY

1903

PREFACE.The present GrammarThe terminologydialectsof thisis

chiefly based

on Kesava's Sabdamanidarpana.is

his

Grammar

simple,it

and

fit

for the three

of Kannacla.

At the same time

will

be interesting to learnteaching

the

general

way

of

an

ancient

native

scholar's

Kannada

grammar.In Kesava's age most of the rules of Kannada grammar were fixed.before

That

him there had been grammarians who had not deserved that name, seemsfrom his quoting a part of a Kanda verse thatitsis

to follow

fullyit

quoted in theas follows

Sabdanusasana (under1

sutra 469), from which

we

translate

Remain,

daughter!

Could the unprofitable grammarian

(sushkavaiyakarana),

the unprofitable sophist and the rustic have as (their) subject matter thepoetical composition whichis

gem

of

the subject matter of the assemblage of very clever

poets?'

Some

specific

statements of Kesava concerning bis predecessors or contempo-

raries are the following

Hefinal1

considered

it

a matter of necessity to caution literary writers against usingwords, as only rustics would do soif(

in several

Kannada252) that

228).

He

teaches

(

there exist Tadbhavas of two words compounded, both

words ought to be

in their

Tadbhava form.Hamsaraja

In this respect he quotes an instance941, according to Mr. B. Lewissays,is

from his great predecessorRice), viz. taravel(tappu), as

(of A, D.

manikyabhandarada putikegalam, which, he

a mistak

manikabhandarada would be right (suddha).(

He

says that in satisaptami

365) which always refers to two subjects, the

letter e is to

be used; by some (of his predecessors or contemporaries^ al has.it;

without hesitation, been employed for

clever peoplecalls

do not agree

to

that.

Then he quotes two sentences with

al,

and

them wrong plioation of

name

tiiM

l>y

tin-

Dravidian languagesestablished.5.

of

Samskrita

can

satisfactorily

and

conclusively

be

The

earliest written

on walls and

detached stone-tablets pillars of temples, on

documents of the Kannada language are inscriptions and monumental stones,;

and on copper-plates of the Canarese country. The inscriptions are often dated if they have no date, the form of the letters used and historical references todated inscriptions serve to ascertain their age.6.

As regards the forms

of the Old and

Modern Kannada alphabets, they arefor the

varieties of the so-called Cave-character,

an alphabet which was used

cave hermitages of Buddhists in India (e. g. at Salsette, Kanheri, Nasik, Sabyadri, Ajanta), and rests on the Southern Asoka character. This character was about 250 B. C. employed in the Edicts of the Buddhist king Asoka.inscriptions in the

Different forms of the letters used for the

Kannada

inscriptions

appear at

differ-

ent periods, the earlier forms differing in the greatest degree from those of the 1 Modern Kannada alphabet ^. At the time of the composition of the Basavapurana

1369 A. D. theof thatto the past.

old alphabet

work mentions the

letters

had become already out of use, as the author a of Old Kannada (5to rf3j30&) as belonging

The Kannada language in the old inscriptions (of the Kadamba, Ganga, Calukya, Rashtrakuta and other kings) of which specimens exist that belong to7.

about 600 A. D.,

is

not the

same as that of the present day;is

it is

what

is

called

Old Canarese.

This Old CanareseIt

also the language of the early

Kannadathe

authors or the literary style.

may be

said to

have continued

in use to

109), when by degrees the language of the and literary compositions begins to evince a tendency to become inscriptions Modern Canarese or the popular and colloquial dialect of the present time. A

middle of the 13th century (see

characteristic of the literary or classical style of the early authors

is its

extra-

ordinary amount of polish and refinement.

The

classical authors

were Jainas.(a treatise

One

of

them was Nripatunga, who wrote the Kavirajamarga

on

l' The earliest authentic specimens of writing in India are the edictal inscriptions of the Buddhist king Asoka (also called Dharmasoka and Priyadarsi) who was the grandson of the Maurya king Candragupta at Pataliputra (the modern Patna), and ruled from the extreme

north-west of India as far asSouth.

Magadhaare

in

the East andin

Theseis

inscriptionsinis

writtenis

two

different

Mahishmandala (Mysore) in the The alphabet alphabets.is

which

found

the inscription that

at

Kapurdigiri (near Peshawar),(it

written from

right to

left,;

and

clearly of Phenician or old Semitic (Aramaic) origin

has been calledin

Khanoshti)

the Southern inscriptions that are found inin the

numerous places from Girnarlast

Gujerat to Siddapuraof all other Indian

Chitaldroog district of Mysore (these

ones discovered by Mr.

B. L. Rice), are written from left to right,It

and the alphabet employed in them is the source has been thought by some scholars (Professors Weber, alphabets. Biihler and others) that the character of the Southern inscriptions also may be traced backto

a Phenician prototype.

alankara)

in

the 9th century; another was

Pampa

or

Hampa who composedin1

his D.;

Bharata (an itibasa more or less based on Vyasa's Mahabharata) and a third one was Argaja who finished his Purana in 1189 A. D.8.

941 A.

*

plan.

The grammatical treatises on Kannada were constructed on the Samskrita Their Jaina authors took Panini and others as their guides. The earliestto us, is

grammarian, whose works have come down belong to the first half of the 12th century.

Nagavarma who appears

to

Kosiraja or Kesava, the author of a

well-known grammar, lived about one hundred years later, in the 13th century. The above-named authors treat on the Old Canarese language, illustrating it byquotations from the writings of former (or

wrote his

firstit

grammar, an epitome,

in

Nagavarma contemporary) poets. Kanda verses and Old Canarese, and(in

embodied

in his treatise

on the art of poetry, the Kavyavalokana

Old

Canarese); his second grammar, the Karnatakabhashabhushana, is in Samskrita proso sutras, each accompanied by a vritti or explanatory gloss also in Samskrita.

grammar, the Sabdamanidarpana, is composed wholly in Kanda verses and Old Canarese (each verse having its prose vritti), and is the fullestKesiraja's

systematic exposition of that language ^.9.

The ancient Kannada grammarians held the study:

of

grammar

in

high

may be learned from the following words of the author of the Sabda" manidarpana Through grammar (correct) words originate, through the words of that grammar meaning (originates), through meaning the beholding ofesteem, as

through the beholding of truth the desired final beatitude; " (sutra 10 of the Preface). beatitude) is the fruit for the learnedtruth,')

this

(final

The Kavirajanmrga wasK.,

edited in 1898 by K. B. Pathak,in

B. A.,

Assistant to the Direc-

tor of Archaeologicalc.i.

ResearchesDirectorof

Mysore, the Bharata also in 1898 by Lewis L. Rice?

M. R. A.

.,

Archaeological

Researches

in

Mysore.

(Mysore Govern-

ment Central Press, Bangalore.) *) Nagavarma's KarnatakabhashabhushanaDirector of Public Instruction (Bangalore,10 paricchedas, viz.ritividhana,vi. Hi

was edited by B- Lewis Rice, M. R. A. 8., It contains Mysore Government Press, 1884). sandhividhana. vibhaktividhana, karakavidhana. sabdasanjnavidhana,taddhitavidhana.in

samasavidhana,

Ana. and nipatanirupaaavidhana,

akhyataniganiavidhana, avyayanirupana280 sutras. An edition of Kesiraja's Sabdamani8 sandhis orI.

darpana was printed at Mangalore (Basel Mission Press. 1872). His work has A short summary of its contents is as follows: chapters and 322 sutras.euphonic combinations ofused asletters.

Sandhi or

letters.

1)

aksharasanjnapraknrana or the section of the signsb)

a) the letters of the alphabet;2)

the vowels in particular;

c)

the conso-

nants in particular.letters,

themes,suffixes,

sandhiprakarana or the section of combination of the mentioned II. Nama or nominal a) combination of vowels; b) combination of consonants. a) lingas or declinable bases, a) krits or bases formed from verbs by means ofi>ii)

suffixes,

taddhita-bases formed from nouns and verbs by means of certain other eamasas or compound bases, !?;t3*

anusvara) o;fej-

stf

13*

op

dc^*

g

n*

3*

r n*

s*

s33*i#

sl

16.

The consonants*

(25)

that in the preceding paragraph appear

with the top-mark

which indicates that they are to be (3j>, 03 H>,r

of letters (savarna) whether its letters be read in regular order (anuloraa)

as

e>

w,3

a

-ds,

etc.,

or out of the usual order (viloma) asdi-d?,

y,

&

-a, etc.,

or as

w,

e?

w,

'a,

etc.;

and

(in Samskrita) into four diphthongs>

(sandhyakshara):are eso&*,

io S3 lo

5?.

The vowelsin this

so

to

O, however,

are no

real diphthongs in trueSO

S5o5o,

Kannada; and those of O are 3^,

),

strange forms tfMrt (for 3vrt), below, GJ'j^tf (for having gained or overcome.thetill

e3je?tf),

From about 900we

about 1200 A. D.

a transition of the(for,

C3*

into

r and

v*,

is

observed, as

find aCS^,

pleasure, nnd

SaS^oand #&->C3J),

aa^Oj),fallen.

seventeen, s3?v* (forof

s3?C3*),

to speak, in a(for

sasana of 929 A.it

D.;

*C3Jla

to

ecO' rfjcSj),

~ immersed, &:&and

la

wash, in one

951 A. D.;>Qj),

(for

havingfield,

>so (for

seven,

(for

toCS),

increase,

a ndi^F (for nO^),staff,

paddya

in

place, etc..

n

5

?

(for rtW*),to

r!C^

paddy(for

field,

Srts-*, to shine,'att*, to be,

(for wC3),

place, etc.,

ffoto

^OJ^),

one of 1019 A. D.; to