NAYASENA
1.
ನಯಸೇನÀ (Nayasena)
2.
nayasEna
3.
Twelfth
Century
4.
Mulugunda
(Dharwada District)
5.
Jaina
6.
Nayasena
is a champu poet who lived in a period when halagannada(Old
Kannada) was already .replaced by medieval Kannada. However as a Jaina he was
forced to write a champu kavya which is perforce more suitable for old Kannada
vocabulary. Consequently Nayasena takes resort to many innovative techniques.
By then, Jainism was gradually becoming the religion adopted by the merchant
classes and the affiliation to kings had more to do either money or power. Nayasena caters to this new set of patrons by
creating a text which is a continuum of stories that have some thing or the
other to do with the merchant class. The poet who was a sanyasi creates many a
confrontation between a merchant and a sage and invariably takes the side of
the latter. He portrays a very realistic picture of Karnataka of his times
giving much more importance to the details of evry day life rather than the
travails of the kings. In his own way he gives a meaningful response to the
cultural realities of his times. Karnataka was a battle ground of different
religions during Nayasena’s life. Jainism and Shaivism were great contenders
and Vaishnavism was not lagging far behind. This tension is palpable in
Dharmamrutam. Nayasena indulges in an examination of different religions that
were contemporary to him just as Brahmashiva in ‘Samayapareekshe’ Nayasena
makes greater use of the material drawn from folk literature rather than
classical Sanskrit texts. His choice of vocabulary is partial to medeival
Kannada and he is not a votary of a Sanskritised style. Actually, he compares mixing
of Kannada and Sanskrit words to an act of mixing oil and ghee. (Clarified
butter) His work gives greater importance to the prose part of the Champu Kavya
and kanda Padyas and Vruttas are relegated to the background. By doing this
Nayasena is facilitating the use of nadugannada vocabulary. Thus Nayasena’s
work is vibrant with life and eschews a mechanical style of concocting an epic.
7.
Sukavinikara
pika Makanda, Vatsalya Ratnakara
8.
Dharmamrutha
(112 A.D.)