BANGALORE: “It is not wrong to say Kannada literature has taken its birth from Jain literature. The journey for Kannada literature started from Pampa to Hampa (Nagarajaiah),” said Jnanpith awardee Prof Chandrashekhar Kambar. He was speaking at Sanmarga, a conference on the influence of Jainism in Art, Culture and Literature organised by Jain University on Monday.
Giving credit to the 9th century writer for paving the way for development of Kannada literature, Prof Kambar said: “Pampa showed the way for all successive writers in Kannada. He started the model of two poetic phases. In the first, poets write materialistic literature, while the second phase comes with experience, which is spiritual. Writers today still follow this tradition. I think we should be grateful to Pampa for introducing this tradition in Kannada.”