[11][13][14] The earliest surviving literature in rich manuscript form, the Kavirajamarga ("Royal Path for Poets") is dated to 850 CE; references are made in it to earlier prose writers such as Durvinita, Vimalachandra, Udaya, Nagarjuna, Jayabhandu and to poets including Kavisvara, Srivijaya, Pandita Chandra, Ravi Kirti (634) and Lokapala.
Kavirajamarga discusses earlier composition forms peculiar to Kannada, the gadyakatha, a mixture of prose and poetry, the chattana and the bedande, poems of several stanzas that were meant to be sung with the optional use of a musical instrument.
[21] Other writers, whose works are not in existence now but titles of which are mentioned in independent references[22] are Syamakundacharya (c. 650), who authored the Prabhrita, and Srivaradhadeva (also called Tumubuluracharya, c. 650 or earlier), who wrote the Chudamani ("Crest Jewel"), a 96,000-verse commentary on logic.
The composition served as the basis for two popular folk songs, ovanige and onakevadu, which were sung either while pounding corn or to entice wild elephants into a pit (ovam).
[29] During the same period, the Digambara Jain poet Asaga (or Asoka) authored, among other writings, Karnata Kumarasambhava Kavya and Varadamana Charitra.