Madara Chennaiah was an 11th-century

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

vachana poet and saint who was a cobbler by profession. He is widely regarded as the first Vachanakara in India who lived in the reign of

Western Chalukyas The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the Deccan Plateau, western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannada people, Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the ''Kalyani Chalukya'' after its regal capital at Kalya ...

* Satyanarayana, K & Tharu, Susie (2011) ''No Alphabet in Sight: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 1: Tamil and Malayalam'', New Delhi: Penguin Books. * Satyanarayana, K & Tharu, Susie (2013) ''From those Stubs Steel Nibs are Sprouting: New Dalit Writing from South Asia, Dossier 2: Kannada and Telugu'', New Delhi: HarperCollins India. Dalit writers Indian male poets Dalit Hindu saints Kannada-language writers 11th-century Indian poets Western Chalukya Empire Dalit saints {{India-writer-stub

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