Profiles

Personality

The Kannada literary world was familiar with two works of the poet Janna[1], namely - Anantanātha-purāṇa and Yaśodhara-carita. Shastry published yet another work of Janna called Anubhavamukura, which runs to about 109 verses. The work is based on smara-tantra, i.e., kāma-śāstra. The publication of this work was an important contribution to the world of Kannada literature. It opened new doors for the study of the poet and his works.

High-water Mark of Critical Examination

The forewords that Sarma wrote to some of the books in Telugu and Kannada have turned out to offer an excellent, holistic view of the entire subject rather than being mere introductory words of formality that appear at the beginning of the book. His forewords to books have been published as a separate volume.

Powerhouse of Genius

Sarma received awards for many of his Sanskrit and Telugu works. Śrī Mahīśūra-rājyābhyudayādarśaḥ, his classical poetry composition about the progress of Mysore, was awarded the first prize. Those verses are delightful to hear. In his eyes, Karnataka was a land of enjoyment in all seasons^[1] and this kingdom of Mysore could only be enjoyed by fortunate people.^[2]

Subrahmanya Shastry seemed to have had quite a long relationship with the Skānda-mahā-purāṇa. This was probably the earliest of the works he had taken up. He had started working on a prose rendition of the Skānda-mahāpurāṇa running to twelve volumes back in 1928. In the edition thus published, the original text was not given and only the translation was given in the form of running prose. He has dedicated the work to his father, Moṭagānahaḻḻi Śaṅkara-śāstri.[1]

Music Practice