KARNATAKA SHABDANUSHASANA
‘Karnataka Shabdanushasana’
(karnATaka shabdAnushAsana) (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ
ಶಬ್ದಾನುಶಾಸನ) by Bhattakalanka (BaTTAkaLanka)
who lived in the seventeenth century is a Kannada grammar written in Sanskrit. Bhattakalanka was a Jaina sanyasi who had Arasappa Nayaka-2
of the Svadi dynasty as his royal patron. He was the
head of a Jaina maTha in Sonda a small town in
Bhattakalanka was a scholar in Kannada and Sanskrit and was
erudite in various disciplines such as grammar, logic, sculpture, astrology,
dance and mathematics. He was a polyglot with a working knowledge of six
languages including Prakrit and Magadhi.
Even though the author wrote his work in Sanskrit it
does not show his contempt for Kannada. He creates an interesting backdrop for
his work. A scholar who is not well disposed towards Kannada makes some
disparaging remarks about Kannada and avers that it does not need a grammar of
its own. He opines that Kannada is essentially a spoken language. Bhattakalanka deems it fit to answer this doubting Tom
before he embarks on his work. He describes the history, literary tradition and
the capacity of Kannada in a detailed manner with a lot of patience. He
justifies his decision to write a prescriptive grammar of Kannada as it will
help both the lay man and the scholar alike to formulate a standard language.
Bhattakalanka’s erudition in the grammatical tradition of Sanskrit
and Kannada had equipped him suitably for this task. His work is full of rigour and precision. He depends on the past grammarians of
Kannada for his subject matter and the Sanskrit grammarians for his mode of
presentation.
‘Shabdanushasana’ contains
four sections and 592 sutras. He delineates the concepts of ‘Varnamale’, ‘Sandhi’, ‘Nipaatha’ and ‘Avyaya’ in the
first chapter. The second chapter deals with gender, case suffixes and the
words borrowed from Sanskrit. The concepts of compound words, (Samasa) pronouns, and numerals are discussed in the third
chapter. The concluding chapter is reserved for verbs and the corresponding
suffixes.
The range of illustrations given by Bhattakalanka is rather confined to literary texts, both
Kannada and Sanskrit. He has not paid much attention to the spoken variety of
the language like Keshiraja. However his sources
include classics of Kannada literature such as ‘Adipurana’,
‘Vikramarjunavijaya’, ‘Jinaksharamale’, ‘Gadayuddha’, ‘Panchtantra’, Pampa Ramayana’, ‘Kabbigara Kava’
and ‘Kavyasara’. There are two commentaries in
Sanskrit on this work. They are ‘Bhashaamanjari’ and
‘Manjarii Makaranda’. Some
commentaries are composed in the twentieth century also.
‘Shabdanushasana’ was published for the first time in book form in 1890 edited by B.L.Rice. He was assisted in his task by Brahmasuri Shastry of Shravanabelagola, Brahmasuri Pandita of Chamarajanagara, B.Mallappa of Mysore and Ferdinand Kittel. It contains a detailed introduction and a short history of Kannada literature: Bhattakalanka Deva's Karnataka-sabdanusasanam
. . . Edited [with an account of Kannada literature and translation of each aphorism] by B. Lewis Rice. 1890.
·
Book
details: Bhattakalanka Deva's Karnataka-Sabdanusasanam with its vritti or
gloss, named Bhasha-mańjari ... called Mańjari Makaranda =: Bhattakalanka devakrta karnataka ... vyakyana ca sahita (Bibliotheca Carnatica) 590
pages, Publisher: Mysore Government Central
Press (1923)