Re: Pampa Kavi and some random thoughts
Ramakrishna S. Pillalamarri (pkrishna@ARL.MIL)
Wed, 19 Mar 97 16:58:21 EST
Dr. Mysore Nataraja, a friend of mine says as folows:
"Regarding Pampa, he is considered Adikavi in Kannada. The history
is somewhat confusing because there are several Pampa-s. One of the
Pampa-s was also known as nAgavarma, (or nAgachandra? I have
forgotten), There was one known as Hampa, etc. In any case, the
rAmayaNa and mahABArata attributed to Adikavi-Pampa are considered
the greatest kAvyAs. It should also be noted that one or several of
these Pampa-s were jains by religion!
I believe that pampa-rAmayaNa is available in Bangalore. I won't be
surprised if the Library of Congress has a copy! (I have not
checked.)"
I vaguely remember reading a while (make that a long while), ago that
the telugu kavi who translated (started to, in this case) mahAbhAratam
is a kannaDiga, and the kannaDa kavi who did the same is a telugu
person. I am racking my brain as to where I read that statement.
In case of pampa, if he is from vEmulawADa, it could still be that he is
a kannaDiga, living in that region. Pure and rank speculation! Take that
with a ton of salt.
A search for "PAMPA RAMAYANA" on the Internet produced surprising hits.
One of them is for PAMPA, Prabhat Academy for Music and Performing Arts!
Ramakrishna