Durgasimha

Durgasimha (c. 1025) was the minister of war and peace (Sandhi Vigrahi) of Western Chalukya king Jayasimha II (also known as Jagadekamalla, r. 1018–1042).^[1] Durgasimha adapted the well-known set of fables, Panchatantra ("The five strategems"), from Sanskrit language into Kannada language in champu metre (mixed prose-verse). The Sanskrit version, written by Vasubhaga Datta, is known to have originated from the Paishchi Prakrit original, Brihatkatha ("Ocean of stories") by Gunadhya. The Kannada language version, whose central theme has a strong Jain bent, contains 60 fables, 13 of which are original stories. All the stories have morality as their theme and carry a summary section (Katha Shloka). The Kannada version is the earliest Indian vernacular version, and the author being a minister, not surprisingly, choose to write a book on political science (Rajniti).^[1][2][3] The scholar R. Narasimhachar fixed the date of this work as c. 1025, but the modern Kannada poet and scholar Govinda Pai dated the work to March 8, 1031, based on information in the concluding stanza of the manuscript.^[1]

About the author

Durgasimha was a Brahmin by birth and is known to have belonged to the Smartha Bhagavata sub-sect of Hinduism, a community which gives equal importance to the Hindu gods Shiva and Vishnu.^[1][4] He was a native of Kisukadu Nadu, another name for ancient Karnataka, and was a resident of the Sayyadi Brahmin school of higher learning (agrahara).

History of Panchatantra literature

Until 1956, when the scholar A. Ventakasubbiah of Mysore and some western scholars researched all published and unpublished texts of the Panchatantra, it was widely accepted that all versions of this literature originated from the original Sanskrit writing by Vishnu Sharma. However, sufficient evidence now exists that there were two main recentions of the writing, one North Indian, by Vishnu Sharma, which made its way to north-west Asian and European countries through variant carriers and languages. The other recension, of South India, was written by Vasubhaga Datta which became the source for variant carriers to south-east Asia. The importance of the Kannada language version stems from being the only version available to reconstruct the history of Panchatantra literature from South India.^[1]

There is interesting information in the Kannada version by Durgasimha about the origin of this literature. The author states that Pushpdatta, a chief attendant of the Hindu god Shiva at Rajatagiri ("Silver mountain") overheard Shiva telling his consort Parvati an important story. This story was later reproduced as Brihatkatha in Paishachi Prakrit by Gunadhya, a re-incarnation of Pushpadatta, and a court poet of king Shalivahana. He further states that the Sanskrit version by Vasubhaga Datta was an selection of "five stories" from the Paishachi original, and hence the name Panchatantra ("The five strategems").^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1122
2. ^ Sahitya Akademi (1988), p. 1253
3. ^ Shastri (1955), p. 357
4. ^ Narasimhacharya (1988), p. 19

References

• Sastri, Nilakanta K. A. (2002) [1955]. A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar. New Delhi: Indian Branch, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-560686-8. 
• Narasimhacharya, R (1988) [1988]. History of Kannada Literature. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. ISBN 81-206-0303-6. 
• Various (1988). Encyclopaedia of Indian literature - vol 2. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 8126011947.