Kannada vacanas

[Robert Zydenbos]

Replies to msg 13 May 98: indology at listserv.liv.ac.uk (DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA)

 nVNI> I differ with Robert Zydenbos for the following reasons

 nVNI> 1. The existence of two words kUDalasangadEva and kappaDi
 nVNI> sangadEva clearly shows that kUDala and KappaDi are
 nVNI> adjectives qualifying the noun sangadEva.

I fear that I must give a very dull response here: all the vacanas of Basava say "kuu.dalaSA:NGAMAdeeva", and never "kuu.dalaSA:NGAdeeva".

 nVNI> 2. The great bilingual virasaiva poet pAlakuriki sOmanAtha
 nVNI> who has written the epic basavapurANa based on the life of
 nVNI> basavEswara uses the the word sanga as the name of the god.
 nVNI> I am quoting from trlugu version from memory

 nVNI>         OdakumOdaku mOrOri sanga!
 nVNI>         ODakumODAku monDuyu nolla

 nVNI> Hey you sanga! Do not run! Do not run!
 nVNI> Do not run! I want nothing from you!

 nVNI> Unless there was a stromg virasaiva tradition of treating
 nVNI> the word sanga as a noun and a name of the god, sOmanAtha
 nVNI> would not have written like that. If there is some body on
 nVNI> the list who has the kannaDa version of bbasavapurANa I
 nVNI> will be very happy if they check there.

I have not yet read the Basavapuraa.na; but I hope to be back in India soon, and then I am curious to see whether this is there in the Kannada version too. And of course we would have to see where else "sa:nga" is used, if it is used elsewhere.

Without having at all seen the puraa.na yet, I think I may mention here that scholars in Karnataka, while appreciating Soomanaatha's work in general, are not always equally impressed with his sense of history, and that what he says at times is in conflict with other historical sources. He apparently wrote more as a devotee than as a scholar (which of course should not be held against him! Just as we do not dismiss Rembrandt as a painter because he dressed up a few biblical characters in 17th-century armour).

Robert Zydenbos
zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl