KABBIGARA KAVAM (ANDAYYA)

 

1.      ಕಬ್ಬಿಗರ ಕಾವಂ (ಸೊಬಗಿನ ಸುಗ್ಗಿ, ಕಾವನ ಗೆಲ್ಲ, ಮದನ ವಿಜಯ)

2.      kabbigara kAva

3.       The Poets’ Defender ( The Harvest of Beauty, Cupid’s Conquest, The Victory of Cupid)

4.       Andayya (ANDayya)

5.       12th and 13th Century

6.       Hanagallu (Dharwar District)

7.       Jaina

8.       Patronage of Kamadeva belonging to Kadamba dynasty (1180-1217)

9.      ..

10. Poetry- Champu Kavya

11. Vrutta, Kanda and prose. (272 poems)

12. Palm leaf and Manuscripts

13. 1893, (Karnataka Kavya Manjari), 1896, (Karnataka Kavyakalanidhi)

14. Ramanuja Iyengar M.A. and Narasimhachar S.G.

15. Karnataka Kavya Kalanidhi Granthamale, Mysore.

16. Later Editions : 1. De. Javaregouda, 1964, Sharadamandira, Mysore 2. R.V.Kulakarni, (With prose rendering) 1976, Kannada Sahityaparishattu, Bangalore 4. ‘Kabbigara Kava Sangraha’, S.S.Kothina, Sahityabhandara, Hubli.

17. Introduction: ‘Kabbigara Kava’ is an interesting work because it exhibits a couple of features that are unique. Andayya has written neither a Jaina story nor a laukika story like Pampa and others. It’s a fictional work containing mythological characters such as Shiva, Manmatha and Chandra. The story goes like this: Shiva imprisons the moon in his ‘jaTA’ as is well known. (Chandrashekhara) Manmatha, a friend of Chandra is enraged by this act and attacks Shiva with his army. He releases an arrow on Shiva and almost defeats him. Finally he receives a curse from Shiva. In addition to this confrontation with Shiva he meets a Jaina monk and tries to insult him. But he could not cope up with this and accepts defeat and prostrates before the monk. (Shravana) He is converted in to an arrow of flowers. However he is freed from the curse after listening to this very story, he gains back his original form and leads a happy life. The story s slightly complicated and contains many inconsistencies. This work is a curious combination of history, doctored mythology and motifs taken the folklore.Many scholars have opined that this story contains a historical allusion also. Kadamba Kamadeva, the royal patron of Andayya was a Jain and he defeated Ballala a Hindu king. This event acquires a lot of significance during the medieval period when Jainas and Veerashaivas were contenders for political power. But the poet has not managed this merger of history and mythology properly and the story line is rather week containing many contradictions.This story gives many opportunities to describe nature and also erotic events. Many descriptions in this work are admirably done and have an evocative element.                                                                                                

‘Kabbigara Kava’ is best known for another reason which has to do with language.    Andayya makes a conscious decision to use only Kannada words in his work and eschews Sanskrit all together. Possibly he was taking a jibe at other Kannada poets who used Sanskrit extensively. However he takes a devious way to use Sanskrit. He avoids only ‘Tatsama’ words. (Sanskrt words that are adapted to Kannada with out any phonetic or semantic change) But he uses ‘Tadhbhava’ words with out any compunction. (Tadbhavas are Sanskrit words that are adapted to Kannada, invariably with phonetic changes and once in a while with semantic changes. Thus Sanskrit gains a backdoor entry of sorts and “Kabbigara Kava’ sounds rather incongruous. That explain the fact that Andayya has not found any imitator in this respect.Any way this curious little work is admired for some of these reasons and descriptive passages from this work invariably find their way in to school text books.  

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19. References and translations

20. Links

 

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