TWENTIETH-CENTURY KANNADA LITERATURE-A STUDY

KANNADALITERATURE

Writers belonging to different movements write in Kannada at one and the same time. Till recently, Kuvempu or Adiga, two writers belonging to two completely opposite literary movements, were writing along with Devanura Mahadeva, another totally different kind of writer. As a result, one comes across varieties of literary expression in Kannada. This has also resulted in the interpretation of reality through different viewpoints. One can say that all these viewpoints help in understanding Indian reality. They have also added significant chapters to the history of Kannada literature, which began with Pampa in the tenth century A.D. Among writers in the three centuries after, Muddana (1869-1901) had the potentialities of a great writer, and Śiśunāla śarīpha Saāheba (1819-89) did achieve greatness. But Muddana died young. Moreover, his works gained critical recognition only in the twentieth century, after his death. Śiśunāla Śarīpha Sāheba, a Sufi poet, could predict industrialization, emergence of big cities, and the destruction of traditional village culture. But his poetry was edited and published only in the 1970s. Till then, he was known only to the people in and around Dharwad district, where he lived (see Mugali 1953).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.