Bhaṭṭākalaṅka Deva (also Bhaṭṭākalaṅka) was the third and the last of the notable

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

grammarians from the

medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. In 1604 CE, he authored a comprehensive text on old-

grammar called ''Karnāṭaka Śabdānuśāsana'' ("A Consequent Teaching on the Language of Karnāṭaka") in 592

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

aphorisms (Sanskrit: '' sūtras'', a literary form written for concision) with glossary (Sanskrit: ''vṛtti'') and commentary (Skt.: ''vyākhyā''). The work contains useful references to prior poets and writers of

Kannada literature Kannada literature is the Text corpus, corpus of written forms of the Kannada language, a member of the Dravidian language, Dravidian Language family, family spoken mainly in the Indian state of Karnataka and written in the Kannada script. A ...

and is considered a valuable asset to the student of old-Kannada language.Sastri (1955), pp. 355–356 A native of

South Canara South Canara was a district of the Madras Presidency of British India, located at . It comprised the towns of Kassergode and Udipi and adjacent villages, with the capital in Mangalore city. South Canara was one of the most heterogeneous areas o ...

and a student of the Haduvalli monastery, the

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

grammarian was learned in over six languages including

, Sanskrit,

Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...

and

Magadhi The Magahi language (), also known as Magadhi (), is a language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives. ...

.Rice E.P. (1921), p. 83

Karnataka Sabdanusasana

It is believed that Bhaṭṭākalaṅka Deva may have undertaken the work of writing exhaustively on old-Kannada grammar in response to contempt from Sanskrit scholars of the day toward Kannada language, despite its rich literary tradition.Sahitya Akademi (1987), p. 476 His writing is the third authoritative grammar on old-Kannada, the first of which was authored by Nāgavarma II in the mid-12th centurySastri (1955), p. 358 and the second by Keśirāja in the mid-13th century.Sastri (1955), p. 359 The grammar containing 592 aphorisms is divided into four chapters (Skt.: ''padas'') and each aphorism has a glossary and a lengthy commentary. The authorship of entire work has been settled with the full credit going to the Bhaṭṭākalaṅka Deva. The ''Karnāṭaka Śabdānuśāsana'' is modelled mostly on the earlier Sanskrit grammars written by

Pāṇini , era = ;;6th–5th century BCE , region = Indian philosophy , main_interests = Grammar, linguistics , notable_works = ' (Sanskrit#Classical Sanskrit, Classical Sanskrit) , influenced= , notable_ideas=Descript ...

Śākaṭāyana (814760 bce) was the name of Sanskrit grammarian, one who was a predecessor of Yaska and Panini in Iron Age India, circa 9th century BCE, and one who was a Sanskrit grammarian Ancient Grammarian Śākaṭāyana was an early "etymologist" o ...

, Śaravarma,

Pūjyapāda Acharya Pujyapada or Pūjyapāda (464–524 CE) was a renowned grammarian and ''acharya'' (philosopher monk) belonging to the Digambara tradition of Jains. It was believed that he was worshiped by demigods on the account of his vast scholarship ...

and others, though some rules have been borrowed from earlier Kannada grammatical works; one or two rules from the ''Karnāṭaka Bhāṣābhūṣaṇa'' by Nāgavarma II and about fifteen from '' Śabdamaṇidarpaṇa'' by Keśirāja. The first chapter (up to 101 rules) consists of euphonic combinations, technical words, signs of nouns and verbs, numbers and indeclinables. The second chapter (101–299 rules) consists of the gender classification of indigenous Kannada nouns and those inherited from the Sanskrit (Sanskrit: ''tadbhava "''naturalised, loanword" and ''samāsamaskṛta''–non-naturalised). The third chapter (set in 291–441 rules) consists of the compound words and the fourth chapter (written in 442–592 rules) focuses on verbal roots and verbal nouns.

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Karnataka Sabdanusasana

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See also