Literature

Another legend in Sl Bhyrappa's ‘Daatu’ relates to the belief that is prevalent among persons of 'lower castes' that if a Brahmin enters their slums, the deity of wealth, Lakshmi would go away from their houses. It is not known why and how this belief came into existence. When Venkataramanayya entered the ‘Harijana keri’, i.e., the area where Harijans (people belonging to 'lower castes') in his insane state of mind, he is pelleted with dung and shooed away like a mad dog, in keeping with the prevalent beliefs. The folk legend runs as follows:

‘Gruhabhanga’ is one of Bhyrappa’s profound yet simple and sad stories, set in the background of rural Karnataka. The novel presents the rites, rituals, witchcraft, village deities, and the beliefs of the villagers. Usually, the deity of the village is called ‘Ooramma’, or the mother of the village, and it is believed that she protects the village from epidemics like the plague, cholera and small pox. People belonging to all strata of society worship this deity, both individually and collectively.

Poems on Renunciation

Vairāgyaśataka

The concept of the deity Maramma is a fusion of mythical, folklorish and legendary elements. According to the prevalent belief, a woman of brahmin community burns herself, her husband and children, when she get to know that her husband, being an untouchable, had deceived her and her father, by telling them he was a brahmin youth. Thus the myth of the deity Maramma throws light on the social structure and the caste system of a particular period in India, specially in south lndia.

Nīlakaṇṭhavijayacampū

A Summary of the Story

III

Similar to the unified theory of matter and energy, which modern science concerns itself with, we have a unified theory of rasa. The following is its mathematical representation:

R = (V×D)^au     OR     R = V × _an ʃ ^au D

(R = Rasa, V = Vakrokti, D = Dhvani, au = Aucitya, and an = Anaucitya)

नित्यौचित्यकरावलम्बरुचिरो वक्रोक्तिवर्तिस्तुतो

ध्वन्युद्दामशिखास्फुटोऽक्षयरसस्नेहस्समुद्द्योतयन्।

धन्यानां सहृदां हृदि प्रतिपदं काव्यार्थमात्मोपमं

वाणीप्राणसमीरणो विजयते विद्याप्रदीपः कवेः॥

I

Sarga 6

The sixth Sarga describes Bhagīratha's efforts at procuring Gaṅgā from Śiva through penance and praise. Trickling from ¾iva’s dreadlocks, the river, now subdued, follows Bhagīratha. On her way, Gaṅgā engulfs the hermitage of Jahnu, is drunk up by him and then released through his ear. She then reaches the holy city of Kāśi –

आमन्त्र्य मूर्ध्ना प्रणतेन शम्भुमारुह्य च स्यन्दनमग्रतस्तम् ।
संप्रस्थितं पार्थिवमन्वयासीत्स्रोतः पयं कीर्तिरिवास्य मूर्ता ॥

Verbs alone are the lifeline of language; this is the opinion of Indian grammarians. But for our logicians (i.e. the proponents of the Nyāya [epistemology] and Vaiśeṣika [ontology] schools of philosophy), the subject indicated by the nominative case (prathamā vibhakti) alone is the lifeline of a language – i.e. the doer alone is the soul of language. The reason for this difference is crystal clear. Grammarians are śabdādvaitis (i.e.

Gaṅgāvataraṇam

This work, in eight Sargas, describes the story of how the celestial river, Gaṅgā, descended to the world of mortals. The potted contents of this poem, which like Śivalīlārṇava, also fulfils the criteria for a Mahākāvya, are given below. Also given are the translations of some fine verses