Stevenagok at 20:43, 27 February 2026

2026-02-27T20:43:42Z

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{{Short description|11th century Indian politician and translator}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=January 2020}}
'''Durgasimha''' ({{circa|1025}}) was the minister of war and peace (''Sandhi Vigrahi'') of [[Western Chalukya Empire|Western Chalukya]] King [[Jayasimha II (Western Chalukya dynasty)|Jayasimha II]] (also known as Jagadekamalla, r. 1018–1042).<ref name="history">Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1122</ref> Durgasimha adapted the well-known set of [[fable]]s, ''[[Panchatantra]]'' ("The five stratagems"), from [[Sanskrit language]] into the [[Kannada language]] in ''champu'' style (mixed prose and verse). The Kannada-language version, whose central theme has a strong [[Jainism|Jain]] bent, contains 60 fables, 13 of which are original stories. All the stories have morality as their theme and carry a summary section (''Katha Shloka''). The Kannada version is the earliest Indian vernacular version, and the author, being a minister, not surprisingly, chose to write a book on political science (''Rajniti'').<ref name="history"/><ref name="shloka">Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1253</ref><ref name="lang">Shastri (1955), p. 357</ref> The scholar R. Narasimhachar fixed the date of this work as c. 1025, but the modern Kannada poet and scholar [[Govinda Pai]] dated the work to 8 March 1031, based on information in the concluding stanza of the manuscript.<ref name="history"/>

==About the author==
Durgasimha was a Brahmin by birth and is known to have belonged to the [[Smartha]] [[Bhagavata]] sub-sect of Hinduism, a community which gives equal importance to the Hindu gods [[Shiva]] and [[Vishnu]].<ref name="history"/><ref name="brahmin">Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 19</ref> He was a native of Kisukadu Nadu, another name for ancient [[Karnataka]], and was a resident of the [[Savadi, Gadag|Sayyadi]] Brahmin school of higher learning (''agrahara'').

==History of ''Panchatantra'' literature==
{{main|Panchatantra}}
{{For|a content comparison of various versions of the Panchatantra|List of Panchatantra Stories}}

Although the original text of the ''Panchatantra'' is lost, it was evidently an independent work written in Sanskrit around 300 CE (give or take a century or two).<ref>Olivelle 1997, p xii-xiii.</ref> Within the text its putative author is often given as [[Vishnu Sharma]], but there is no evidence indicating this to be a real person, as opposed to a fictional story-telling figure.<ref name="Olivelle 1997, p xii">Olivelle 1997, p xii.</ref> Durgasimha's translation is based on the so-called "Southern ''Panchatrantra''" — a version closely resembling the original, which also engendered several other Indian vernacular versions, as well as the ''[[Hitopadesha]]''.<ref name="Olivelle 1997, p xlii">Olivelle 1997, p xlii.</ref>

===Legendary origin===

However, Durgasimha (or his source) puts forward his own legendary textual history, based on the assumption that the ''Panchatantra'' was originally part of the ''[[Brihatkatha]]'' (when in fact "[i]t appears that the original ''Bṛhatkathā'' did not include the ''Pañcatantra'', but a later version made in Kashmir or north-western India seems to have inserted the ''Pañcatantra'' into its repertoire of stories"<ref name="Olivelle 1997, p xlii"/>).

Durgasimha's version states that Pushpadatta, a chief attendant of the Hindu god Shiva overheard Shiva telling his consort [[Parvati]] a great story. This story was later reproduced as ''Brihatkatha'' in [[Paishachi]] by [[Gunadhya]], a reincarnation of Pushpadatta, and a court poet of king [[Shalivahana]]. He further states that the Sanskrit version by Vasubhaga Datta (who replaces Vishnu Sharma as the putative author in several of the "Southern" versions<ref name="Olivelle 1997, p xii"/>) was a selection of "five stories" from the Paishachi original, and hence the name ''Panchatantra'' ("The five stratagems").<ref name="history"/>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*{{cite book |last=Narasimhacharya|first= R|title= History of Kannada Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.489059|orig-year=1988|year=1988|publisher=Asian Educational Services|location= New Delhi|isbn= 81-206-0303-6 }}
*{{cite book
| year=1997
| title=The Pañcatantra: The Book of India's Folk Wisdom
| last=Olivelle
| first=Patrick (translator)
| publisher=Oxford University Press
| isbn=978-0-19-955575-8
}}
*{{cite book |last=Sastri|first= Nilakanta K. A.|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= Various|title= Encyclopaedia of Indian literature - vol 2|year=1988|publisher= Sahitya Akademi|isbn=81-260-1194-7}}

{{Panchatantra}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Kannada-language writers]]
[[Category:Western Chalukya people]]
[[Category:11th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:Translators from Sanskrit]]
[[Category:Indian male poets]]
[[Category:11th-century Indian non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:11th-century translators]]
[[Category:Indian translators]]
[[Category:Panchatantra]]

Durgasimha - Revision history

Stevenagok at 20:43, 27 February 2026