100. Kadamba Dynasty

An image of Halmidi inscription with Buddhist wheel at the top.

The period of Mayura Sharma (later he was known as King Mayura Varma), who established possibly the first Kannada dynasty and his successors (ca.345-525 CE) at Banavasi (near Sirsi in the present Uttara Kannada district) is a significant milestone for both Kannada and Tulu history. There is a viewpoint that he came from northern India and settled in Banavasi area.

Kadamba tree
The traditional accounts describe him as a Brahmin turned Kshatriya. However there are claims that he hailed from an ancient tribe known as ‘Kadambu’ tribe, who worshipped Kadamba tree. The early Munda civilization that was prevalent in peninsular India since ca.3000BC had a cult of worshipping Kadamba trees. The Kadamba trees are worshipped as apart of festivals even today by the Munda tribes presently living in Chotanagapur areas.
It is possible that the selected from brighter students from the population were trained in Vedic studies and made priests (Brahmins).It is possible that Mayura thought high of an educated priestly career but could not accomplish it because of the humiliation he suffered.

Mayura Sharma/Varma
His background is quite interesting. He was said to be a student and went to Kanchi, (now a part of Tamilnadu), a major educational centre of that time for pursuing Vedic studies. On an occasion, he was slighted and insulted by Pallava guard at Kanchi. The young Mayura could not bear the humiliation and vowed to avenge for it. He returned to his place, organized the people and built an army. He fought against the ruling Pallava Kings and retrieved the Kannada areas around Banavasi and other areas. The Alupas of Tulunadu were chieftains under the Kadamba Kings.
Obviously the Mayura Varma was influenced by the Tamil language and literary activities. He was impressed by the use of Tamil script for documenting literary works and temple culture of the Tamils. The Tamils had a flourishing temple culture at that time.

Introduction of Script for Kannada
Therefore when he established a new kingdom at Banavasi, he introduced a script for the archaic form of Kannada (now known as old Kannada) prevalent at that time. The script was based on the Brahmi script but was deeply influenced by the Tamil script of that time.

Halmidi inscription
The Kadamba period is a datable event since the Halmidi inscription (ca.450CE) belongs to the reign of Kakusthavarma. Possibly, he can be credited for laying the foundation for evolving and popularizing the initial form of Kannada script. The script used in Halmidi (near Belur, Hassan district) used Brahmi characters but was influenced by Tamil script. Interestingly, a wheel has been sculpted at the top of the Halmidi inscription. The wheel is a symbolic of existence of Buddhism and the King who installed the Halmidi inscription (Kakustha varma?) may have been a Buddhist in faith. However, some have interpreted the wheel as ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ of Lord Vishnu.It seems that the Kadamba kings favoured all religious cults including Jainism and Buddhism.

Introduction of Temples and Brahmins
Mayura Varma, influenced by the Tamil temple culture, initiated the temple culture in Karnataka and Tulunadu. He built several new temples and organized people to run the temples in an orderly manner. This necessitated the immigration of priests (Brahmins) to regularly carry out the ceremonial pooja in the temples. He is said to have brought Brahmins (those trained in Vedic studies) from Ahicchatra and granted 144 villages (agrahara) for Brahmins to settle in the area. The exact location of Ahicchatra has been disputed with opinions ranging from banks of Godavari River to parts of Uttar Pradesh.
Until then the spirit cult was the dominant form of religious faith in both Karnataka and Tulunadu. The Spirit cult was largely centered on families and landlords, whereas the temple cult became a community affair that involved the people of the whole village or cluster of villages. New communities like Sapaligas were introduced to play musical notes in the Karavali temples. Devadiga were introduced to look after sundry works in the temple premises.

Parashurama cult
The cult of Parashurama was re-introduced during Kadamba period. The story of Mayura Sharma and his conquest of Pallava kings bear similarity to the legend of Parashurama.. Moreover the legend is a part of ‘Sahyadri Kanda’, the Sahyadri being the environs of Banavasi, the Kadamba capital. It was probable that myths of his time considered Mayura Varma to be an incarnation of Parashurama the saviour of sages and priests (Brahmins) from the tyranny of the ruling class (Kshyatriyas).
Consequent upon the introduction of Parashurama cult and the associated myths, the coastal Karavali, Malabar, Konkan people were made to believe that their land was retrieved from the Sea.
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13. The Tulu Script: Origin and Revival

Hosabettu Viswanath, a resident of Pune and a well wisher impressed with my fathers book, ‘Tulu Patero’, has kindly sent me a copy of the article written by Ramchander Baikampadi published in ‘Mogaveera’, a Kannada monthly published from Mumbai.

The Kannada article entitled “Malayalam bhashege lipi neeDidavaru naavu tuluvaru” (=Script to Malayalam language was given by we Tuluvas) discusses the adoption of the Tulu script by the Raja of Travancore (Kerala), for writing in Malayalam during 12^th century AD.

For a long time during the last century, our people lamented that Tulu did not had any script. But later a large number of taalegari - palmyra leaf- manuscripts written in Tulu script were unraveled and presently more than 2000 of these are in the collection of Dharmasthala Cultural Research Trust. Many of these are reported to be about 800 year old. Venkataraja Punimchattaya (2001) brought out a booklet on Tulu script. Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy is at present popularizing the Tulu script. Neria Harish Hebbar (2003) has published the details of the Tulu script in his internet articles in www.boloji.com/places.

Mayura Sharma, during 5^th century AD, revolted against the Pallava kings and established the earliest known Kannada kingdom of Kadamba dynasty with capital at Banavasi (now in Uttara Kannada district). It appears that Tulunad and parts of Kerala which were ruled by smaller chieftains was under the suzerainty of the Kannada king Mayura Varma (Mayura Sharma became Mayura Varma after assuming the title of kingship).

The southern India was under the strong influence of Shaivism, with several Shiva temples built in various parts of Tamilnadu. Mayura Varma and his lieutenants installed new Shiva temples in Tulunad. Mayura Varma brought Brahmins from Ahichatra (a place on the banks of River Godavari), to conduct rituals (Puja ceremonies) in the temples of his territory as per the records in the epigraphs of his time. It appears he also sent some Brahmins to Kerala for conducting the temple rituals.

The relationship between Tulunad and Kerala was harmonious even in those time and Tulu Brahmins were traveling to Kerala for further studies in agama shastras or for conducting rituals in temples. The Tulu Brahmins used to write down the slokas on palmyra leaves (taalegari), which were used then for writing, in a curvy, floral style of script. Earlier it was considered as a variant of Malayalam script. But recent studies showed that this was the script used by the Brahmin scholars and later was adopted by the Kerala kings in their land.

It is well known that Malayalam had no independent script till 12^th century AD. The present Malayalam script came into usage only after the 12^th century. Thus the Tulu script used by the Tulu scholars for writing in Kerala at that time evolved into the present Malayalam script. Additional new information provided by Ramachander Baikampadi that Tulu script was adopted by the King of Travancore during the 12^th century AD, for writing in Malayalam, further asserts the antiquity of the Tulu script.

Origin of Tulu script

Now, where did the Tulu scholars found the script? The Tulu script was not a newly invented script. It was adapted from the alphabets that were in usage in that region at that time in the history. Variants of Brahmi and Grantha scripts were in usage in southern India at that time. It is said that Mayura Sharma himself went to Kanchi for education.It is possible that Mayura Sharma was using a version of Grantha script that was prevalent in southern India.

Since Kadamba period Kannada script was gradually evolving. It was developed based on earlier scripts like brahmi. We call the Kannada of that early period as Hale-Kannada (=Old Kannada). But then the Old Kannada apparently was not standardized yet. Halmidi epigraph (5^th century AD) is the oldest Kannada inscription found so far.

The Tulu scholars had knowledge of Devanagari as well as the state language (old) Kannada. I use the term State language because Tulu people were under the rule of Kannada kings, like Kadambas and Chalukyas, even in those times.

Thus Tulu scholars were using scripts which were mixtures of Devanagari and early Kannada. Besides, the Tulu and the old Kannada were quite similar languages, more like the dialectical variants of the same language at that time. (Kannada language evolved differently during the subsequent historical period.)

Thus the Tulu script has some of the alphabets comparable  to that of Sanskrit and others are analogous to the Old Kannada and Grantha alphabets prevalent that time. The initial ‘ah’ and ‘aah’ alphabets of the Tulu script are distinctly the smoothened, curvy variants of the Sanskrit ‘ah’ and ‘aah’. The ‘cha’ ,‘zha’, ‘jna’, ‘ya’, ‘la’ are similar to that of the old Kannada script. Several other Tulu alphabets are similar to those of Grantha script.

Thus, clearly the Tulu script was the general script used by scholars at that time, in Tulunad region, say between 5^th and 12^th century AD. It is possible that at that time there might have been local variations in Kannada script within various parts of the Kannada state mainly because of absence of standardization and paucity of scholars.

Thus, in view of the importance of study of the historical evolution of Kannada and Tulu scripts, it is necessary that the original taalegari Tulu scripts should be thoroughly studied evaluated scientifically. First, these palmyra leaves can be carbon dated to ascertain their age. Secondly, the variants in the script should be critically analysed with reference to the epigraphs of different times and regions and the chronological evolution of the script in Tulunad can be delineated. These studies are likely to have far-reaching bearing on the evolution of not only Tulu, but other south Indian scripts like Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Telugu script was developed based on the Kannada script of the Chalukya period of 7^th to 8^th century AD. During that period, the Chalukya kings ruled part of Andhra Pradesh and they introduced the Old Kannada script for writing in Telugu.

Now, we are witnessing a general awareness regarding towards revival of the old Tulu script. I use the term old Tulu script, just to signify that the Tulu language has also grown and evolved with time. We are already using the modern Kannada script for writing in Tulu. Our old Tulu script was based on old Kannada; similarly it is but natural that modern Tulu script should be based on modern Kannada script. After all, all languages have grown by borrowing from other neighboring languages and we should not feel embarrassed about using modern Kannada script.

Instead of enforcing the forgotten old script afresh on old and new learners of the language alike, is it not wise that we should continue to adapt the modern Kannada script for Tulu? We can modify the modern Kannada script to suit and accommodate the special nuances of the Tulu language.

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