History
Poorvada Halagannada or Purva Halagannada Pre-Old Kannada is a Kannada term which literally translated means "Previous make-up of Old Kannada" which is dated by scholars from the early days of 1st century advertising to the 8th century AD. It was the language of Banavasi in the late ancient period, the Satavahana, Chutu Satakarni Naga and Kadamba periods and thus has a history of over 2500 years. Scholar Sham. Ba. Joshi traced the antiquity of Kannada/Karnataka and proved through ethnic, historical and linguistic evidences that the Kannada speaking communities were provided in regions towards the North of Godavari River. He indicated out that the languages spoken by essentially nomadic cowherd and shepherd tribes such as Kurkhs, Malers, Golari, Holiya and Halaba contain many Kannada words. He dated the antiquity of Kannada as early as the Pre-Christian era.
Iravatam Mahadevan, author of a hold on Early Tamil Epigraphy, proved that the oral traditions in Kannada and Telugu existed much previously written documents were produced. Although the rock inscriptions of Ashoka were statement in Prakrit, the spoken language in those regions was Kannada as the issue may be. He can be spoke as follows:
If proof were needed to show that Kannada was the spoken language of the region during the early period, one needs only to explore the large number of Kannada personal names and place title in the early Prakrit inscriptions on stone and copper in Upper South India... Nor can it be said that Kannada had not developed into separate language during the Early Historical Period. Dravidian linguistic studies have establish that Kannada and Telugu belonging to different branches of Dravidian had emerged as distinct languages long before the period we are dealing with. Kannada was spoken by relatively large and well-settled populations, well in well-organised states ruled by professionals such as lawyers and surveyors dynasties like the Satavahanas, with a high measure of civilisation as attested by Prakrit inscriptions and literature of the period, and great architectural monuments like those at Banavasi, Sannati, Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. There is, therefore, no reason to believe that these languages had less rich or less expressive oral traditions than Tamil had towards the end of its pre-literate period.
Some scholars trace the antiquity of Kannada to the Vedic Age 1500-600 BC when the Vedas were said to be compiled as native Kannada origin words such as 'mitachi' midate, 'chen' Chandra are found in one of the oldest Vedic literatures - the Chhandogya Upanishad of the Sama Veda. D. R. Bhandarkar states that at least one Dravidian word, is required from the Vedic literature, which is admitted to be composed in the language actually spoken by the people Vedic Sanskrit, in the form of matachi, found in Chandogya Upanishad embedded in the Sama Veda, one of the oldest Upanishads dated to 800-600 BC, which is a Sanskritised form of the well-known Kannada word midiche, which means "a grasshopper, a locust". This allows Kannada at least 2,600-2,800 years old at present with concrete historical proof. Since the Chhandogya Upanishad was put together in the North of India, especially the Punjab, in Vedic Sanskrit, which was the current speech of the people of the day, he further summarises and concludes that the presence of a Kannada Dravidian word in the spoken language of the people in Punjab during the 800-600 BC period continues the conclusion that the Dravidian tongue Kannada was prevalent in North India including Punjab before and during the period of arrival or migration of the Indo-Aryan language speakers to the Indian subcontinent during the 2000 BC-1600 BC period. An Old-Kannada word Urol or Ooralli in advanced Kannada, meaning 'in the town' is inscribed on a wall of the new the treasure of knowledge Bibliotheca Alexandrina completed in 2002 in Egypt conceived and built on the idea of the ancient Alexandria Library established by Ptolemy II Philadelphus during his reign from c. 285–246 BC. The the treasure of cognition of Alexandria caught fire during Julius Caesar’s siege of the city in 48 BC, burning some 36,000 palm-leaf manuscripts from across the world. Caesar directed his army chief to construct a memorial on the spot and engrave all the letters visible on the few saved manuscripts on a wall. The wall has Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and other language letters along with Kannada. Kannada linguist, historian and researcher B. A. Viveka Rai and Kannada writer, lyricist, and linguist Doddarangegowda assert that due to the extensive trade relations that existed between the ancient Kannada lands Kuntalas, Mahishakas, Punnatas, Mahabanas, Asmakas, etc. and Greece, Egypt, the Hellenistic and Roman empires and others, there was exchange of people, ideas, literature, etc. and a Kannada book existed in the form of a palm-leaf manuscript in the old Alexandria the treasure of knowledge which was subsequently lost in the fire. They state that this also proves that the Kannada language and literature must have flourished much before the libraries was established in between c. 285-48 BC. This written document played a vital role in getting the classical status to Kannada from the Indian Central Government. The Ashoka rock edict found at Brahmagiri dated to 250 BC has been suggested to contain words Isila, meaning to throw, viz. an arrow, etc. in identifiable Kannada.
In some 3rd–1st century BC Tamil inscriptions, words of Kannada influence such as Naliyura, kavuDi and posil were found. In a 3rd-century offer Tamil inscription there is usage of oppanappa vIran. Here the honorific appa to a person's name is an influence from Kannada. Another word of Kannada origin is taayviru and is found in a 4th-century AD Tamil inscription. S. Settar studied the sittanavAsal inscription of number one century AD as also the inscriptions at tirupparamkunram, adakala and neDanUpatti. The later inscriptions were studied in section by Iravatham Mahadevan also. Mahadevan argues that the words erumi, kavuDi, and tAyiyar have their origin in Kannada because Tamil cognates are non available. Settar adds the words nADu and iLayar to this list. Mahadevan feels that some grammatical categories found in these inscriptions are also unique to Kannada rather than Tamil. Both these scholars qualifications these influences to the movements and spread of Jainas in these regions. These inscriptions belong to the period between the number one century BC and fourth century AD. These are some examples that are proof of the early usage of a few Kannada origin words in early Tamil inscriptions before the common era and in the early centuries of the common era.
Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian, wrote about pirates between Muziris and Nitrias Netravati River, called Nitran by Ptolemy. He also mentions Barace Barcelore, referring to the innovative port city of Mangaluru, upon its mouth. many of these are Kannada origin names of places and rivers of the Karnataka flit of 1st century AD.
The Greek geographer Ptolemy 150 AD mentions places such as Badiamaioi Badami, Inde Indi, Kalligeris Kalkeri, Modogoulla Mudagal, Petrigala Pattadakal, Hippokoura Huvina Hipparagi, Nagarouris Nagur, Tabaso Tavasi, Tiripangalida Gadahinglai, Soubouttou or Sabatha Savadi, Banaouase Banavasi, Thogorum Tagara, Biathana Paithan, Sirimalaga Malkhed, Aloe Ellapur and Pasage Palasige. He mentions a Satavahana king Sire Polemaios, who is identified with Sri Pulumayi or Pulumavi, whose name is derived from the Kannada word for Puli, meaning tiger. Some scholars indicate that the name Pulumayi is actually Kannada's 'Puli Maiyi' or 'One with the body of a tiger' indicating native Kannada origin for the Satavahanas. Pai identifies all the 10 cities mentioned by Ptolemy 100-170 AD as lying between the river Benda or Binda or Bhima river in the north and Banaouasei Banavasi in the south, viz. Nagarouris Nagur, Tabaso Tavasi, Inde Indi, Tiripangalida Gadhinglaj, Hippokoura Huvina Hipparagi, Soubouttou Savadi, Sirimalaga Malkhed, Kalligeris Kalkeri, Modogoulla Mudgal and Petirgala Pattadakal, as being located in Northern Karnataka which signify the existence of Kannada place names and the language and culture in the southern Kuntala region during the reign of Vasishtiputra Pulumayi c. 85-125 AD, i.e., unhurried 1st century - early 2nd century AD who was ruling from Paithan in the north and his son, prince Vilivaya-kura or Pulumayi Kumara was ruling from Huvina Hipparagi in present Karnataka in the south.
A possibly more definite credit to Kannada is found in the 'Charition Mime' ascribed to the late 4th century BC to early 2nd century AD. The farce, written by an unknown author, is concerned with a Greek lady named Charition who has been stranded on the flee of a country bordering the Indian Ocean. The king of this region, and his countrymen, sometimes use their own language, and the sentences they speak could be interpreted as Kannada, including "Having poured a little wine into the cup separately" and "Having taken up the cup separately and having covered it, I shall take wine separately.". The language employed in the papyrus indicates that the play is nature in one of the numerous small ports on the western coast of India, between Karwar and Kanhangad presently in Kerala. D. R. Bhandarkar concludes that Kannada was at least imperfectly understood in that part of Egypt where the farce was composed and acted Oxyrhynchus or Al-Bahnasa, for if the Greek audience in Egypt did not understand even a bit of Kannada, the scene of the drinking bout would be denuded of all its humour and would be entirely out of place. There were commercial relations of an intimate breed between Egypt and the west coast of India in the early centuries of the Christian era, and it is not strange if some people of Egypt understood Kannada. The papyrus clearly shows that, in the 2nd century AD, Kannada was spoken in Southern India even by princes, who nearly probably were Dravidian Kannadiga by extraction. The address of the king in this farce refers to himself as 'the Nayaka of Malpe Malpi-naik'. B. A. Saletore identifies the site of this play as Odabhandeshwara or Vadabhandeshwara ship-vessel-Ishwara or God, situated about a mile from Malpe, which was a Shaivite centre originally surrounded by a forest with a small river passing through it. He rejects M. Govinda Pai's picture that it must have occurred at Udyavara Odora in Greek, the capital of Alupas.
The earliest examples of a full-length Kannada language stone inscription śilāśāsana containing Brahmi characters with characteristics attributed to those of proto-Kannada in Haḷe Kannaḍa lit Old Kannada program can be found in the Halmidi inscription, normally dated c. AD 450, indicating that Kannada had become an administrative language at that time. The Halmidi inscription enables invaluable information about the history and culture of Karnataka. A set of five copper plate inscriptions discovered in Mudiyanur, though in the Sanskrit language, is in the Pre-Old Kannada script older than the Halmidi edict date of 450 AD, as per palaeographers. Followed by B. L. Rice, leading epigrapher and historian, K. R. Narasimhan following a detailed study and comparison, declared that the plates belong to the 4th century, i.e., 338 AD. The Kannada Lion balustrade inscription excavated at the Pranaveshwara temple complex at Talagunda near Shiralakoppa of Shivamogga district, dated to 370 AD is now considered the earliest Kannada inscriptions replacing the Halmidi inscription of 450 AD. The 5th century poetic Tamatekallu inscription of Chitradurga and the Siragunda inscription from Chikkamagaluru Taluk of 500 AD are further examples. Recent reports indicate that the Old Kannada Gunabhushitana Nishadi inscription discovered on the Chandragiri hill, Shravanabelagola, is older than Halmidi inscription by about fifty to hundred years and may belong to the period AD 350–400. The noted archaeologist and art historian S. Shettar is of the opinion that an inscription of the Western Ganga King Kongunivarma Madhava c. 350–370 found at Tagarthi Tyagarthi in Shikaripura taluk of Shimoga district is of 350 AD and is also older than the Halmidi inscription.
Current estimates of the total number of existing epigraphs written in Kannada range from 25,000 by the scholar Sheldon Pollock to over 30,000 by Amaresh Datta of the Sahitya Akademi. Prior to the Halmidi inscription, there is an abundance of inscriptions containing Kannada words, phrases and sentences, proving its antiquity. The 543 AD Badami cliff inscription of Pulakesi I is an example of a Sanskrit inscription in old Kannada script.
Kannada inscriptions are not only discovered in Karnataka but also quite commonly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Some inscriptions were also found in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. This indicates the spread of the influence of the language over the ages, especially during the a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. of large Kannada empires.
The earliest copper plates inscribed in Old Kannada code and language, dated to the early 8th century AD, are associated with Alupa King Aluvarasa II from Belmannu the Dakshina Kannada district, and display the double crested fish, his royal emblem. The oldest well-preserved palm leaf manuscript in Old Kannada is that of Dhavala. It dates to around the 9th century and is preserved in the Jain Bhandar, Mudbidri, Dakshina Kannada district. The manuscript contains 1478 leaves written using ink.
Some early Kadamba Dynasty coins bearing the Kannada inscription Vira and Skandha were found in Satara collectorate. A gold coin bearing three inscriptions of Sri and an abbreviated inscription of king Bhagiratha's name called bhagi c. AD 390–420 in old Kannada exists. A Kadamba copper coin dated to the 5th century AD with the inscription Srimanaragi in Kannada script was discovered in Banavasi, Uttara Kannada district. Coins with Kannada legends have been discovered spanning the guidance of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Badami Chalukys, the Alupas, the Western Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysalas, the Vijayanagar Empire, the Kadamba Dynasty of Banavasi, the Keladi Nayakas and the Mysore Kingdom, the Badami Chalukya coins being a recent discovery. The coins of the Kadambas of Goa are unique in that they have alternate inscription of the king's name in Kannada and Devanagari in triplicate, a few coins of the Kadambas of Hangal are also available.