The steady maturation and evolution of modern period in Kannada literature can be traced back to the early 19th century, when Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar III and his court poets shifted away from the ancient champu form of prose (poems in verses of various metres intermingled with paragraphs of prose, also acknowledged as champu-kavya) towards prose interpretations and versions of Sanskrit epics and plays. Kempu Narayana`s Mudramanjusha ("Seal Casket", 1823) is the first instance of modern novel penned in Kannada language, prior to British influences and charms of English language. The novel by Kempu Narayana indeed had ushered in even greater changes.
With gradual advancement of time, modern period in Kannada literature gathered up pace and pulse and translations were being produced from English, Bengali and Marathi. Kerur and Galaganatha had assayed the first novels in Kannada, succeeded by a host of novelists like Shivarama Karanta, K. V. Puttapa, G P Rajaratnam, Basavaraja Kattimani, Nanjanagudu Tirumalamba (the first major woman writer in modern Kannada language) and others. The short story too made its tremendous advent with Panje Mangesha Rao and Masti Venkatesha Ayyangar. A new trend in drama began to seep in with the employment of colloquial language. Poetry, too, was not left far behind - B. M. Shrikanthayya took Kannada poetry to peak heights, with innovations and inventions like the `blank verse`. Literature in Kannada in present times is a big enterprise, with bustling and vivacious centres like the University of Mysore, the Karnataka University at Dharwar and the Kannada Sahitya Parishad of Mysore.
During the 19th century, Western-styled education, Christian missionaries who depended upon the local language to circularise their Gospels, and ultimately the arrival of the printing press, incredibly sped up the development of modern period in Kannada literature. A well-known and distinguished Christian missionary, Hermann Mögling, had published the first-ever Kannada newspaper named Mangalore Samachara in 1843. Hermann Mögling also had gone ahead to publish Kannada classics as a series, referred to as Bibliotheca Carnataca during the period from 1848 - 1853. British officers Benjamin L. Rice and J. H. Fleet also had begun to edit and issue critical editions of surviving literary classics, contemporary folk ballads and inscriptions. The first Kannada-English dictionary by Ferdinand Kittel was brought out in 1894.
Modern period in Kannada literature started to witness a forceful thrust towards original works in prose narratives and a calibration of prose during the late 19th century. Translations of compositions from English, Sanskrit and other Indian regional languages like Marathi and Bengali continued at such an accelerated pace. Lakshman Gadagkar`s Suryakantha (1892) and Gulvadi Venkata Rao`s (1899) Indira Bai signalised the shift away from the exceedingly stylised mores and aesthetics of antiquated Kannada to contemporary prose, which brought along with it a plethora of latest genres, encompassing and incorporating the novel, essay, literary criticism and drama.
Kempu Narayana and N.Lakshminarayanappa (`Muddanna`) forever are considered the two `jewels` of Kannada literature during the modern period. B.M. Srikanthayya (also referred to as `Sri`) was unanimously considered as the groundbreaker of modern poetry in Kannada literature. He was the person behind creating and introducing several new metres and translating some of the best lyrics of English poets into Kannada language. B.M. Srikanthayya`s most memorable works include: Gitegalu, Honganasuglu, Asvatthaman and Parasikaru. The other significant and authoritative modern poets of Kannada include: Panje Mangesa Rao, Manjeswar Govinda Pai, K. V. Puttappa (`Kovempu`), Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, P.T. Narsimhachar (`Putina`), D.V. Gundappa (`DVG`) and Govinda Pai. D.V. Gundappa`s Umarana Osage, Belurina Silabalikeyaru, Sri Ramapariksanam and the grand philosophical poem Manku-Timmana-kagga are some of his greatest works. G.P. Rajaratnam, known for his creations like the Ratnana-padagalu and Nagana-padagalu fame and K.S. Narasimhaswamy, legendary and respected for his Maisuru Mallige, are two other huge stalwarts of modern Kannada poetry. Indeed, modern period in Kannada literature was almost overwhelmingly witnessing a rush of literary personalities and their contrived genres, masterpieces in every way.
Masti Venkatatesa Iyengar (also acknowledged as `Srinivasa`) had brought in short stories into Kannada literature during modern period. Some of Srinivasa`s most celebrated short stories include: The last Days of Sariputra, The Rani of Nijagal, Vasumati and Mosarina Mangamma. The other well-known short story writers in Kannada consist of Gorur Ramaswamy, Purnachandra Tejaswi, U.R. Anantamurthy and Gopal Krishna Rao. Kannada literature during its modern period was very much nourished and nurtured in all its genres and their advancements, with capable and worthy contributions from memorable authors. The most admired and venerated names amongst the Kannada playwrights comprise: Garuda (Paduka Pattabhisheka), C.K. Venkataramiah (Mandodari), Srinivasa Murthy (Nagarika and Dharmaduranta), Sriranga (Sanjivini, Savitri, Kelu Janamejaya) and Sivarama Karanta (Garbha Gudi). P.T. Narasimhachar was regarded the trailblazer of the Kannada opera.
Travelling farther from 19th century, the period during which Kannada literature had entered its modern period, time had arrived for the Dravidian language to look towards its forthcoming shining future and with it, the literary genres and their writers. As such, the period was successfully termed Navodaya - the period of awakening. As such, at the dawn of 20th century, B. M. Srikantaiah (also recognised as `B. M. Sri`), considered the "Father of modern Kannada literature", beckoned up a new era of penning original works in modern Kannada, simultaneously shifting away from primitive Kannada forms. This exemplary and classic a shift had bred an age of prolificacy in Kannada literature and thus came to be nicknamed the Navodaya (literally standing for `A new rise`) period - a period of awakening. B. M. Sri amazingly led the way with his English Geethagalu ("English Songs") - a compilation of poems translated from English established a stable backdrop for even more translations, utilising a standardisation of a modern written expression. Original and seminal works, which had heavily harnessed from native and folk traditions, also burst forth alongside the translations. Stalwarts like S. G. Narasimhachar, Panje Mangesha Rao and Hattiangadi Narayana Rao also added and chipped in with worthy and ground breaking efforts. Kannada literature in the modern period now turned sharply from discussing kings and gods to more humanistic and secular quests and chases.
The first quarter of the 20th century was a period of total `experiment and innovation` for Kannada literature in the modern period, consequent to which the succeeding quarter was one of `inspired and ingenious accomplishment`. This epoch witnessed the gradual mounting of much-admired and revered lyricists whose works subtly blended native folk songs and the mystic poetry of the medieval vachanas and kirthanas, with dollops of influences from modern English romantics.
Development and maturation in poetic drama in Kannada literature in the modern period was profoundly inspired by B.M. Sri`s Gadayuddha Natakam (1925), a poignant and soulful adaptation of Ranna`s medieval epic. While Kuvempu and B.M. Sri were exalted by old Kannada, Masti and later P. T. Narasimhachar (`Pu. Ti. Na`) scouted within modern sensibilities in their Yashodhara (1938) and Ahalye (1940). The 1930s in Kannada literature witnessed the ultimate materialisation of Sriranga, who got together with Samsa and Kailasam to author some of the most prosperous plays in Kannada. Samsa completed his trilogy pertaining to Ranadhira Kantirava, a Mysore king of yesteryears, with his Vijayanarasimha (1936) and Mantrashakti (1938). Kailasam`s command and authority over wit and stage rhetoric arrived at the forefront with his Home Rule (1930) and Vaidyana Vyadi ("A Doctors Ailment", 1940), while he surveys and scouts his `solemn side` in Bhahishkara (1929). With Soole ("Prostitute", 1945), Kailasam had almost let loose his disapproval for obsolete `quasi-religious mores`. Societal evils and tribulations were also analysed and studied in D. R. Bendre`s Nageya Hoge ("Fumes of Laughter", 1936), and in Karanth`s Garbhagudi ("Sanctum", 1932), which forcefully had condemned the mistreatment and oppression of society in the name of religion.
The genre of `novel` absolutely came of age during the modern period in Kannada literature, with Karanth (Chomana Dudi, 1933), Masti (Subbanna, 1928) and Kuvempu ("Subbamma Heggadathi of Kanur", 1936) leading the company. Appreciably, writers of novel in the 20th century, opted to continue and proceed from where Puttanna, Gulvadi and Kerur had left off at the turn of the century, as opposed to continue with popular translations in the modes of Venkatachar and Galaganath. Aesthetic interests and pursuits superseded the didactic; hence a sense of form developed accordingly.
Literary criticism, which had its initiations in the first quarter-century during modern period in Kannada literature, also strode significant steps towards sizeable advancements. B.M. Sri`s Kannada Sahitya Charitre (1947), Gundappa`s Sahitya Shakti (1950), Masti`s Adikavi Valmiki (1935), Bendre`s Sahitya Hagu Vimarshe ("Literature and Criticism", 1932) and Krishna Shastry`s Samskrita Nataka (1937) can be especially mentioned as momentous and noteworthy. The essay, yet another stupefying and astonishing literary form borrowed from western literature, was luxuriously attended to by A N Murthy Rao (Hagaluganasugalu, 1937), Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar`s (`Gorur`) comical Halliya Chitragalu (1930) and Karanth`s Hucchu manassina Hattu mukhagalu (1948).
As the Navodaya period mounted towards its summit, the Pragatishila (progressives) movement headed by novelist A. N. Krishna Rao (also recognised as `Anakru`), gathered up considerable thrust in the early 1940s. This school, primarily inclined towards being a leftist, debated that literature must serve as a tool of social revolution and considered the Navodaya to be the result of aesthetes, too straight-laced to be of any social significance. This Navodaya movement hence, attracted both veteran and young writers into its clique and, while it brought out no poetry or drama of extraordinary excellence, its contributions to short story and novel forms were undoubtedly substantial. Pragatishila was honourably ascribed with diversifying and widening out readers` purviews; works developed during this modern period in Kannada literature extensively covered and focused upon subjects of day-to-day life, rural themes and the everyday layman. Kannada language was less repressed and subdued and made munificent employment of colloquialism and slang expressions.
Just as it had arrived with a boom and bang as its influence had impressed upon, likewise, the Pragatishila wave was already witnessing a wave of downfall by the end of the 1950s, coming under the wondrously evolving modern period in Kannada literature. Celebrated and distinguished writers of the previous era however went forward and produced remarkable and visionary works in the Navodaya style. In poetry, D.R. Bendre`s Naku Tanti ("Four Strings", 1964) and Kuvempu`s Aniketana (1964) stood out as exemplaries. V.K. Gokak exposed and divulged the innate inadequacies of the more sophisticated western cultures in Indilla Nale (1965). Navodaya-styled novels still continued to be taste super success with such striking and remarkable works as Shivaram Karanth`s Mookajjiya Kanasugalu ("Mookajji`s visions", 1968), where he had penetrated deep within the inceptions of man`s faith in the mother goddess and the phases of evolution of humanity. Kuvempu`s Malegallali Madumagalu ("The Bride of the Hills", 1967) concerns itself with caring and bonding relationships that subsist and stay real in every stratum of society.
Masti Venkatesha Ayyangar`s two classic and archetypal novels from the modern period of Kannada literature comprise Channabasavanayaka (1950), which accounts the downfall of Bidanur`s chief Channabasava Nayaka (on Karnataka`s coast) by Haider Ali during the late 18th century, and Chickavirarajendra (1950), which delineates the collapse and declination of the tiny kingdom of Coorg (ruled by King Chikka Virarajendra) to the British East India Company. The widespread and universal theme in both these mentioned works is the autocracy and absolutism and totalitarianism of the office-holding native rulers, ensuing in the interference of a foreign power alighting on the scene to re-establish order, but with its own colonialist designs.
S. L. Bhyrappa, a captivating and arresting young writer, first came to mass consideration in the 1960s with his first novel Dharmasri, although it was his Vamsavriksha ("Family Tree", 1966) that placed him in the sophisticated and refined public eye as one of Kannada`s most accepted and well-liked novelists. Modern period in Kannada literature had begun to witness a thrusting drive towards the so termed `post-modernism`, with unusual and never-heard themes being adopted as a composition`s basic theme. The novel by S.L. Bhyrappa chronicles a story of an honoured and esteemed scholar, Srinivasa Srotri, his family and their values upheld since a long period of time.
During the 1950s, even as the Pragatishila integrated back into the Navodaya stream of thought, yet another new modernist school of writing named Navya came forth, as if in a cyclic motion. Though formally ushered in by V. K. Gokak (Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, a major writer of Kannada and English languages, winner of Jnanpith Award) with his Navya Kavitegalu ("Modern Poems", 1950), in reality it was Gopalakrishna Adiga who best illustrated the distinctive spirit of the movement. Poetry and, later, the short story became the most efficient and valuable medium of expression of the Navya movement, always considered an integral part in modern period of Kannada literature. With the elapsing and gliding by of the Gandhian era and its influences, a new era to put across modern sensibilities had arrived. The Navya writers verily called to question the long-established and age-old standards of plot from the Navodaya period. Interestingly, life viewed not as an undying quest of already existing ethics, but as a self-examining exploration for them, occasionally accounted in the `stream of consciousness` technique. Events and details were treated more and more in a metaphoric manner, and the short story attracted intimacy towards poetry during modern period in Kannada literature. Gopalakrishna Adiga is thus always deemed the father of this Navya form of expression with his Nadedu Banda Dari ("The Path Traversed", 1952) where he had harnessed inspiration from T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. Adiga`s other well-known and admired poems comprise Gondalapura ("Pandemonium", 1954) and Bhoota (1959).
The most spectacular and extravagant (in a symbolic sense) playwrights from the modern period in Kannada literature include Girish Karnad, P. Lankesh, Chandrashekhara Kambara and Chandrashekar Patil. Girish Karnad`s Tughlaq (1964) successfully tries to delineate brutality induced by idealism gone off beam. Deemed a substantial creation in Kannada theatre, the play portrays the 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Mohammad Bin Tughlaq in complementary and divergent styles, a despotic and capricious ruler, yet, at the same time, an idealist who tried and searched for the best for his subjects. Most plays written by Karnad bear either history or mythology as their theme, with maximum concentration upon their weight in the present Indian cosmopolitan society.
The most celebrated and heralded novel from the modern period in Kannada literature was Samaskara by U.R. Anantha Murthy (1965). The novel chronicles in detail the quest for new values and individuality by the protagonist, a Brahmin, who had sexual intercourse with the defiling mistress of his heretic antagonist. Another extraordinary work from modern Kannada literature is the Swarupa (1966) by Poornachandra Tejaswi. Anantha Murthy`s Prasne (1963) holds within his best compilation of short stories encompassing Ghatashraddha, which traces the tragedy that had befallen a young pregnant widow, from the approach and standpoint of a boy. His compendium Mouni (1973) encompasses the famed stories Navilugulu ("Peacocks") and Clip Joint.
