CleanupBot II at 18:02, 13 August 2023

2023-08-13T18:02:42Z

New page

{{short description|13th century Kannada poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| birth_date = 12th century CE
| death_date = 13th century CE
| occupation = Poet
| works = ''Kabbigara Kava''
}}
{{Jainism}}
{{Kannada poets in Hoysala Empire}}
'''Andayya''' (or '''Andaiah''', '''Āṇḍayya''', [[Kannada]]: ಆಂಡಯ್ಯ) was a notable 13th-century [[Hoysala literature|Kannada writer]] during the rule of the [[Hoysala empire]]. Andayya was a [[Jain]] by faith and came from a family of accountants. His most important extant work is the ''Kabbigara Kava'' ("Poets' Defender") which also goes by the names ''Sobagina Suggi'' ("Harvest of Beauty"), ''Madana Vijaya'' ("Triumph of Cupid") or ''Kavana Gella'' ("Cupid's Conquest") and was written in the 1217–1235 CE period.<ref name="period">Rao in Datta, Sahitya Akademi (1987), p. 169</ref><ref name="rice">Rice E.P. (1921), p. 44</ref>

==Vocabulary==
According to the historian Sastri, this writing is considered important in [[Medieval Kannada literature]] for its strict adherence to indigenous (''desya'') [[Kannada]] words and naturalised [[Sanskrit]] words (''tadbhava'') only, avoiding assimilated Sanskrit words (''tatsamas'') entirely.<ref name="tatsamas">Sastri (1955), p. 359</ref> According to the scholar G. Varadaraja Rao of the Sahitya Akademi, Kannada writers of this time, such as Nayasena (author of ''Dhramamruta''), had already begun avoiding the usage of Sanskrit words in their Kannada writings. In his opinion, Andayya's successful completion of this work furthered that cause and hence is a "great achievement".<ref name="achieve">Rao in Datta (1987). p. 170</ref>

==Magnum opus==
G. Varadaraja Rao is of the opinion that ''Kabbigara Kava'' was written for multiple reasons.<ref name="chaste"/> According to him the writing may have been inspired by the military success of [[Kadamba Dynasty|Kadamba]] king Kamadeva of [[Banavasi]] (1130–1217) against the Hoysala king [[Veera Ballala II]]. [[Kamadeva|Kama]] (Cupid), the god of Love, finds an important place in Jain writings and hence Andayya wrote about the victory of Kama over [[Ishwara]] (the Hindu God Shiva) in a battle fought in the [[Himalayas]] (the abode of Ishwara). Thus he connected a mythological event to a historical one. One of work's alternate names, ''Kavana Gella'', found in the colophon also suggests this.<ref name="period"/> According to the scholar D.R. Nagaraj, the possibility that this writing was yet another subtle weapon in the intensifying conflict between the Jains, who had dominated the Kannada literary culture in the centuries prior,<ref name="dominate">Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 65</ref> and the growing popularity of the [[Veerashaiva]]s is not lost on historians.<ref name="sakkada"/> However, he concedes that the influence of [[Harihara (poet)|Harihara]] (a Veerashaiva poet) on Andayya is also evident in this work.<ref name="sakkada"/>

Rao believes that the strict adherence to chaste Kannada words and naturalised Sanskrit words may have been Andayya's response to mainstream writers who may have claimed that writing literature in Kannada without using pure Sanskrit words was not possible.<ref name="chaste">Rao in Datta, Sahitya Akademi (1987), pp. 169-170</ref> This trend, it is known, was started by some authors such as Nayasena (c. 1112) who wrote the ''Dharmamruta'' choosing only those Sanskrit words that fit well with the Kannada vocabulary.<ref name="chaste"/> Andayya made his intention of using only pure Kannada clear, "without flashy Sanskrit", when he called Sanskrit by its Prakrit name "Sakkada". While the Kannada literature of earlier great poets like [[Adikavi Pampa]] (c.941) was strongly based on a Sanskritic tradition, Andayya achieved the same goal of writing a classical piece using a different technique, a practice not followed by later generation of Kannada writers.<ref name="tatsamas"/><ref name="sakkada">Nagaraj in Pollock (2003), p. 366</ref>

''Kabbigara Kava'' was written in the ''[[champu]]'' style (mixed prose-verse) and consists of 272 poems with some prose passages in it. In a deviation from the earlier versions of the story where Kama is burnt to ashes by Ishwara, Andayya gives Kama prominence and makes him victorious in battle with Ishwara, the reason for the contest being the [[moon]] that Shiva had taken possession of, but which actually belonged to Kama's army. Andayya further enhances Kama's victory by turning Ishwara in a half woman (''Ardhanariswara''). Kama for his part, incurs Ishwara's curse and experiences separation from his beloved [[Rati]], is born as a mortal on earth but finally re-unites with Rati after a long separation.<ref name="period"/><ref name="tatsamas"/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last= Sastri|first= K.A. Nilakanta|title= A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar|orig-year=1955|year=2002|publisher= Indian Branch, Oxford University Press|location= New Delhi|isbn= 0-19-560686-8}}
*{{cite book |last= Datta|first=Amaresh |title= Encyclopedia of Indian literature - vol 1|orig-year=1987|year=1987|publisher= Sahitya Akademi|isbn=81-260-1803-8}}
*{{cite book |last=Nagaraj |first=D.R.|editor=Sheldon I. Pollock|title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia |orig-year=2003|year=2003|publisher=Berkeley and London: University of California Press. Pp. 1066|chapter=Critical Tensions in the History of Kannada Literary Culture|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xowUxYhv0QgC&pg=PA323&dq=critical+tensions+in+history+kannada+literary+culture| pages= 323–383|isbn=0-520-22821-9}}
*{{cite book |last= Narasimhacharya|first= R|title= History of Kannada Literature|url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.489059|orig-year=1934|year=1988|publisher= Government Press. Reprinted by Asian Educational Services, New Delhi|location= Mysore|isbn= 81-206-0303-6}}
*{{cite book |last= Rice|first= E.P.|title= A History of Kanarese Literature|orig-year=1921|year=1982|publisher= Asian Educational Services|location= New Delhi|isbn= 81-206-0063-0}}

==See also==

* [[Jainism in Karnataka]]
* [[Jainism in north Karnataka]]
* [[Jainism in Tulu Nadu]]

{{Jainism topics}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andayya}}
[[Category:Writers from Karnataka]]
[[Category:History of Karnataka]]
[[Category:Kannada-language writers]]
[[Category:13th-century Indian Jain writers]]
[[Category:Kannada people]]
[[Category:Indian male writers]]

Andayya - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 18:02, 13 August 2023