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Kannada Short Stories by |
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The oldest known Kannada book is Kavirajamarga is dated to the 7th century AD. But the history of Kannada literature goes back quite a few centuries. Stone inscriptions belonging to the 5th century are known. Many of these inscriptions are in verse form. According to the information contained in Kavirajamarga the Ganga-King, Durvinita was also a writer. The language itself was in use at least in the 2nd century BC. Kannada words have been identified in a Greek play found in Egypt. (See R. S. Mugali) Thus the history of Kannada literature is at least 1500 years old. Even then the tradition of writing short stories began a little over 100 years ago. Keruru Vasudeva Acharya, Panje Mangesha Raya, A. R. Krishna Shastri were the writers who wrote short stories at the beginning of the 19th century. The noteworthy thing is that in the span of just 100 years four different stages can be traced in the development of the Kannada literature. The following article on the history of Kannada short stories is based mainly on the work of R. Divakar, editor of the collection, 'Shatamanada Sanna Kathegalu', Short Stories of the Century. R. Divakar identifies the following four distinct stages that characterised the writing of short stories in Kannada in the 19th century. (a) Renaissance literature starting around the turn of the century: Masti, K. V. Iyer, Kuvempu, Devudu are perhaps the names that come up immediately while thinking about this period of Kannada literature. Masti is considered to be the father of short stories. This development is said to be influenced by the English romantic literature. It was the period which saw the beginning of the indepence movement. Independence was thought to herald a golden age. People started to appreciate the value of their own culture and heritage. (What had happened till then and around this time is one of the gravest consequences of the English rule, in my opinion. I mean the propagation of English literature at the cost of own literature. Generations of students in Karnataka - one of my grand fathers included - who could recite the entire collection of Shakespeare's writing but had no inkling of what Kannada writers had written before that time.) The characteristics of the renaissance literature was love towards own culture, heritage, awaeness of one's history, acceptance of the value of the old teaching (concepts of Dharma etc), awareness of the stupidity of a blind imitation of other cultures. In short, there was a feeling of being proud of, being satisfied with one's own heritage. |