A Descriptive Grammar of Pampa Bharata (An Old & Rare Book)

Pampa Bharata, the greatest first Kavya in Kan nada, has been chosen as the most representative one of the 10th Century literary Kannada for analytical study of the language of a definitely known place and period. The present work is perhaps the first attempt to describe the language of an early literary work of Kannada, considered authentic for Old Kannada. language and style by traditional grammarians. The scope of the present book of grammar is confined to phonology and morphology of words in the text.

A thorough concordance of Pampa Bharata, which is the basis for this grammar is also included as Part II of the present work.

BALLAKUK RAMACHANDRA Rao M.A., Ph.D. Born: 1933, Manjeshwar passed M.A. (First Class) from Presi dency College, Madras in 1956; awarded Ph.D. in 1966 by the Osmania University.

Presently: Reader in Kannada, Osmania University, Hyderabad. Formerly: Assistant Professor of Kannada Presidency College, Madras; Kannada Research Assistant in Telugu Etymological Dictionary Scheme, Andhra University, Waltair. Published many papers of research value in standard journals.

The present work, A Descriptive Grammar of Pampa Bharata', is the result of five years of research work done by me at Osmania University. Prof. Bh. Krishnamurti, my esteemed guide and philosopher, suggested this topic to me several years ago when I was working at the Andhra University as Kannada Assistant in the Telugu Etymological Dictionary Project. For various reasons, I could not begin this work until after I entered the service of Osmania University, in 1959 as Lecturer in Kannada. The first two years of this endeavour were spent in preparing a thorough concordance of Pampa Bharata (which runs into 648 typed foolscap pages) as the basis for the preparation of a descriptive grammar of the language of Pampa Bharata. Because of its bulk I could not include the concordance as a part of my thesis. It is now included as Part II of the present work.

The analysis has been worked out and cast into a final shape during the years 1962 to 1964, under the inspiring guidance of Prof. Krishnamurti. The scope of the present book of grammar is confined to phonology and morphology of words in the text.

This work is, I believe, the first attempt to describe the language of an early literary work of Kannada, considered authentic for Old Kannada language and style by traditional grammarians.

**Contents and Sample Pages**