Old Kannada
In this, haḷe, from Old Kannada paḻe ಪೞೆ, means “old,” and gannaḍa is the sandhi form of Kannaḍa, the name of the language, presumably deriving from a Sanskrit reloan of a Dravidian word for “land of the black soil.” This is contrasts with [p/h]osagannaḍa “Modern [New] Kannada.” A 5th century copper coin was discovered at Banavasi with an inscription in the Kannada script, one of the oldest such coins ever discovered.
A mantapa to house a fibreglass replica of the original inscription has been built at Halmidi village.
References made in the Kavirajamarga, however, prove that Kannada literature flourished in the Chattana, Beddande and Melvadu metres during earlier centuries.
Demonstrative pronouns were composed of two morphemes: a spatial deictic prefix and a person-number-gender termination, generally homophonous with the morph used in verbal agreement.
As mentioned earlier, demonstrative pronouns could be formed by adding deictic prefixes to person-number-gender terminations.
Whereas most other South Dravidian languages attest the change in the masculine suffix wherein Proto-Dravidian *-anṯᵊ > *-an, Old Kannada retains the earlier form in some plurals, such as avandir “they” (< *aḥ-anṯ-ir) in lieu of avar “id.” Old Kannada nouns (nāmaṅgaḷ ನಾಮಂಗಳ್) can be inflected in seven cases: the nominative, the accusative, the instrumental, the dative, the ablative, the genitive, and the locative.
Some classes only appear in certain stages, which is why there are gaps in the table below: †Class XI is erroneously listed as a past stem, although it is likely something else.
The inscriptions include text in the Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Marwari and Mahajani languages.
Some of these inscriptions mention the rise to power of the Gangas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagar empire and Mysore Wodeyars.
These inscriptions have immensely helped modern scholars in properly understanding the nature, growth and development of the Kannada language and its literature.
The earliest full-length Kannada copper plates in Old Kannada script (early 8th century) belongs to the Alupa King Aluvarasa II from Belmannu, South Kanara district and displays the double crested fish, his royal emblem.
In this period Kannada showed a high level of maturity as a language of original literature.
[23] By the 10th century, Kannada had seen its greatest poets, such as Pampa, Sri Ponna and Ranna, and its great prose writings such as the Vaddaradhane of Shivakotiacharya, indicating that a considerable volume of classical prose and poetry in Kannada had come into existence a few centuries before Kavirajamarga (c.850).
[24] Among existing landmarks in Kannada grammar, Nagavarma II's Karnataka-bhashabhushana (1145) and Kesiraja's Shabdamanidarpana (1260) are the oldest.
These inscriptions belonged to different dynasties that ruled this region such as Kadambas, Western Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Vijayanagar kings, Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan and the Mysore Wodeyars.
The lecture series unveiled the indigenous wealth of the language, the stone inscriptions belonging to different periods, besides the folk and medicinal knowledge people possessed in this region in that age.
An Expert Committee comprising eminent researchers, distinguished academicians, reputed scholars, well known historians and renowned linguists prepared a report by collecting all the documents and credentials to prove the claim of its antiquity.
This document was submitted to the Committee of Linguistic Experts set up in November 2004 by the Government of India for recognition of Kannada as a classical language.
The notification is subject to the decision in Writ Petition no 18180 of 2008 in the High Court of jurisdiction at Madras.
