Main articles: List of milestones in Kannada literature, List of epics in the Kannada language, and List of Yakshagana plays in the Kannada language Native Kannada prosody from 7th century CE

Modern Kannada literature is now widely known and recognised: during the last half century, Kannada language authors have received eight Jnanpith awards, 63 Sahitya Akademi awards and 9 Sahitya Akademi Fellowships in India. In the 19th century, some literary forms, such as the prose narrative, the novel, and the short story, were borrowed from English literature.

Īfter the decline of the Vijayanagara empire in the 16th century, Kannada literature was supported by the various rulers, including the Wodeyars of the Kingdom of Mysore and the Nayakas of Keladi. With the waning of Jain influence during the 14th-century Vijayanagara empire, a new Vaishnava literature grew rapidly in the 15th century the devotional movement of the itinerant Haridasa saints marked the high point of this era. The Lingayatism movement of the 12th century created new literature which flourished alongside the Jain works. Īlthough the Kavirajamarga, authored during the reign of King Amoghavarsha, is the oldest extant literary work in the language, it has been generally accepted by modern scholars that prose, verse and grammatical traditions must have existed earlier. 850), and until the middle of the 12th century, literature in Kannada was almost exclusively composed by the Jains, who found eager patrons in the Chalukya, Ganga, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala and the Yadava kings.

Īlthough much of the literature prior to the 18th century was religious, some secular works were also committed to writing. The Kannada language is usually divided into three linguistic phases: Old (450–1200 CE), Middle (1200–1700 CE) and Modern (1700–present) Īnd its literary characteristics are categorised as Jain, Lingayatism and Vaishnava-recognising the prominence of these three faiths in giving form to, and fostering, classical expression of the language, until the advent of the modern era. With some specific literary works surviving in rich manuscript traditions, extending from the 9th century to the present. Īttestations in literature span one and a half millennia, Kannada literature is the corpus of written forms of the Kannada language, a member of the Dravidian family spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka and written in the Kannada script. Old-Kannada inscription dated 578 CE (Badami Chalukya dynasty) outside Badami cave temple no.3

Small moral stories in kannada