grammarofkannada00kittuoft
Transcript of grammarofkannada00kittuoft
Presented to the
LIBRARY of theUNIVERSITY OF TORONTOby
PROF. A. GLEASON
OF THE
KANNADA LANGUAGEIN ENGLISH
BY
THE REV.
DR.
F.
K ITT
EL
MANGALOREBASEL MISSION BOOK AND TRACT DEPOSITORY
1903
PREFACE.The present GrammarThe terminologydialectsof thisis
chiefly based
on Kesava's Sabdamanidarpana.is
his
Grammar
simple,it
and
fit
for the three
of Kannacla.
At the same time
will
be interesting to learnteaching
the
general
way
of
an
ancient
native
scholar's
Kannada
grammar.In Kesava's age most of the rules of Kannada grammar were fixed.before
That
him there had been grammarians who had not deserved that name, seemsfrom his quoting a part of a Kanda verse thatitsis
to follow
fullyit
quoted in theas follows
Sabdanusasana (under1
sutra 469), from which
we
translate
Remain,
daughter!
Could the unprofitable grammarian
(sushkavaiyakarana),
the unprofitable sophist and the rustic have as (their) subject matter thepoetical composition whichis
gem
of
the subject matter of the assemblage of very clever
poets?'
Some
specific
statements of Kesava concerning bis predecessors or contempo-
raries are the following
Hefinal1
considered
it
a matter of necessity to caution literary writers against usingwords, as only rustics would do soif(
in several
Kannada252) that
228).
He
teaches
(
there exist Tadbhavas of two words compounded, both
words ought to be
in their
Tadbhava form.Hamsaraja
In this respect he quotes an instance941, according to Mr. B. Lewissays,is
from his great predecessorRice), viz. taravel(tappu), as
(of A, D.
manikyabhandarada putikegalam, which, he
a mistak
manikabhandarada would be right (suddha).(
He
says that in satisaptami
365) which always refers to two subjects, the
letter e is to
be used; by some (of his predecessors or contemporaries^ al has.it;
without hesitation, been employed for
clever peoplecalls
do not agree
to
that.
Then he quotes two sentences with
al,
and
them wrong plioation of
name
tiiM
l>y
tin-
Dravidian languagesestablished.5.
of
Samskrita
can
satisfactorily
and
conclusively
be
The
earliest written
on walls and
detached stone-tablets pillars of temples, on
documents of the Kannada language are inscriptions and monumental stones,;
and on copper-plates of the Canarese country. The inscriptions are often dated if they have no date, the form of the letters used and historical references todated inscriptions serve to ascertain their age.6.
As regards the forms
of the Old and
Modern Kannada alphabets, they arefor the
varieties of the so-called Cave-character,
an alphabet which was used
cave hermitages of Buddhists in India (e. g. at Salsette, Kanheri, Nasik, Sabyadri, Ajanta), and rests on the Southern Asoka character. This character was about 250 B. C. employed in the Edicts of the Buddhist king Asoka.inscriptions in the
Different forms of the letters used for the
Kannada
inscriptions
appear at
differ-
ent periods, the earlier forms differing in the greatest degree from those of the 1 Modern Kannada alphabet ^. At the time of the composition of the Basavapurana
1369 A. D. theof thatto the past.
old alphabet
work mentions the
letters
had become already out of use, as the author a of Old Kannada (5to rf3j30&) as belonging
The Kannada language in the old inscriptions (of the Kadamba, Ganga, Calukya, Rashtrakuta and other kings) of which specimens exist that belong to7.
about 600 A. D.,
is
not the
same as that of the present day;is
it is
what
is
called
Old Canarese.
This Old CanareseIt
also the language of the early
Kannadathe
authors or the literary style.
may be
said to
have continued
in use to
109), when by degrees the language of the and literary compositions begins to evince a tendency to become inscriptions Modern Canarese or the popular and colloquial dialect of the present time. A
middle of the 13th century (see
characteristic of the literary or classical style of the early authors
is its
extra-
ordinary amount of polish and refinement.
The
classical authors
were Jainas.(a treatise
One
of
them was Nripatunga, who wrote the Kavirajamarga
on
l' The earliest authentic specimens of writing in India are the edictal inscriptions of the Buddhist king Asoka (also called Dharmasoka and Priyadarsi) who was the grandson of the Maurya king Candragupta at Pataliputra (the modern Patna), and ruled from the extreme
north-west of India as far asSouth.
Magadhaare
in
the East andin
Theseis
inscriptionsinis
writtenis
two
different
Mahishmandala (Mysore) in the The alphabet alphabets.is
which
found
the inscription that
at
Kapurdigiri (near Peshawar),(it
written from
right to
left,;
and
clearly of Phenician or old Semitic (Aramaic) origin
has been calledin
Khanoshti)
the Southern inscriptions that are found inin the
numerous places from Girnarlast
Gujerat to Siddapuraof all other Indian
Chitaldroog district of Mysore (these
ones discovered by Mr.
B. L. Rice), are written from left to right,It
and the alphabet employed in them is the source has been thought by some scholars (Professors Weber, alphabets. Biihler and others) that the character of the Southern inscriptions also may be traced backto
a Phenician prototype.
alankara)
in
the 9th century; another was
Pampa
or
Hampa who composedin1
his D.;
Bharata (an itibasa more or less based on Vyasa's Mahabharata) and a third one was Argaja who finished his Purana in 1189 A. D.8.
941 A.
*
plan.
The grammatical treatises on Kannada were constructed on the Samskrita Their Jaina authors took Panini and others as their guides. The earliestto us, is
grammarian, whose works have come down belong to the first half of the 12th century.
Nagavarma who appears
to
Kosiraja or Kesava, the author of a
well-known grammar, lived about one hundred years later, in the 13th century. The above-named authors treat on the Old Canarese language, illustrating it byquotations from the writings of former (or
wrote his
firstit
grammar, an epitome,
in
Nagavarma contemporary) poets. Kanda verses and Old Canarese, and(in
embodied
in his treatise
on the art of poetry, the Kavyavalokana
Old
Canarese); his second grammar, the Karnatakabhashabhushana, is in Samskrita proso sutras, each accompanied by a vritti or explanatory gloss also in Samskrita.
grammar, the Sabdamanidarpana, is composed wholly in Kanda verses and Old Canarese (each verse having its prose vritti), and is the fullestKesiraja's
systematic exposition of that language ^.9.
The ancient Kannada grammarians held the study:
of
grammar
in
high
may be learned from the following words of the author of the Sabda" manidarpana Through grammar (correct) words originate, through the words of that grammar meaning (originates), through meaning the beholding ofesteem, as
through the beholding of truth the desired final beatitude; " (sutra 10 of the Preface). beatitude) is the fruit for the learnedtruth,')
this
(final
The Kavirajanmrga wasK.,
edited in 1898 by K. B. Pathak,in
B. A.,
Assistant to the Direc-
tor of Archaeologicalc.i.
ResearchesDirectorof
Mysore, the Bharata also in 1898 by Lewis L. Rice?
M. R. A.
.,
Archaeological
Researches
in
Mysore.
(Mysore Govern-
ment Central Press, Bangalore.) *) Nagavarma's KarnatakabhashabhushanaDirector of Public Instruction (Bangalore,10 paricchedas, viz.ritividhana,vi. Hi
was edited by B- Lewis Rice, M. R. A. 8., It contains Mysore Government Press, 1884). sandhividhana. vibhaktividhana, karakavidhana. sabdasanjnavidhana,taddhitavidhana.in
samasavidhana,
Ana. and nipatanirupaaavidhana,
akhyataniganiavidhana, avyayanirupana280 sutras. An edition of Kesiraja's Sabdamani8 sandhis orI.
darpana was printed at Mangalore (Basel Mission Press. 1872). His work has A short summary of its contents is as follows: chapters and 322 sutras.euphonic combinations ofused asletters.
Sandhi or
letters.
1)
aksharasanjnapraknrana or the section of the signsb)
a) the letters of the alphabet;2)
the vowels in particular;
c)
the conso-
nants in particular.letters,
themes,suffixes,
sandhiprakarana or the section of combination of the mentioned II. Nama or nominal a) combination of vowels; b) combination of consonants. a) lingas or declinable bases, a) krits or bases formed from verbs by means ofi>ii)
suffixes,
taddhita-bases formed from nouns and verbs by means of certain other eamasas or compound bases, !?;t3*
anusvara) o;fej-
stf
13*
op
dc^*
g
n*
3*
r n*
s*
s33*i#
sl
16.
The consonants*
(25)
that in the preceding paragraph appear
with the top-mark
which indicates that they are to be (3j>, 03 H>,r
of letters (savarna) whether its letters be read in regular order (anuloraa)
as
e>
w,3
a
-ds,
etc.,
or out of the usual order (viloma) asdi-d?,
y,
&
-a, etc.,
or as
w,
e?
w,
'a,
etc.;
and
(in Samskrita) into four diphthongs>
(sandhyakshara):are eso&*,
io S3 lo
5?.
The vowelsin this
so
to
O, however,
are no
real diphthongs in trueSO
S5o5o,
Kannada; and those of O are 3^,
),
strange forms tfMrt (for 3vrt), below, GJ'j^tf (for having gained or overcome.thetill
e3je?tf),
From about 900we
about 1200 A. D.
a transition of the(for,
C3*
into
r and
v*,
is
observed, as
find aCS^,
pleasure, nnd
SaS^oand #&->C3J),
aa^Oj),fallen.
seventeen, s3?v* (forof
s3?C3*),
to speak, in a(for
sasana of 929 A.it
D.;
*C3Jla
to
ecO' rfjcSj),
~ immersed, &:&and
la
wash, in one
951 A. D.;>Qj),
(for
havingfield,
>so (for
seven,
(for
toCS),
increase,
a ndi^F (for nO^),staff,
paddya
in
place, etc..
n
5
?
(for rtW*),to
r!C^
paddy(for
field,
Srts-*, to shine,'att*, to be,
(for wC3),
place, etc.,
ffoto
^OJ^),
one of 1019 A. D.; to