''Vikramarjuna Vijaya'' (Kannada- ವಿಕ್ರಮಾರ್ಜುನ ವಿಜಯ) (''victory of the mighty Arjuna''), also known as Pampa Bharatha is a classic work of the 10th century
Jain
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
poet
Pampa (902–975 AD). It is a
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 ...
version of the great epic, the ''
Mahabharata
The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the s ...
'' of
Vyasa
Krishna Dvaipayana ( sa, कृष्णद्वैपायन, Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (; sa, व्यासः, Vyāsaḥ, compiler) or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, ''Veda-vyāsaḥ'', "the one who cl ...
. Pampa choose the
Arjuna, the central figure of the Pandava Clan, as the hero of his epic. This work differs from ''Mahabharata'' in several aspects, one of them being Arjuna crowned the king,
subhadra the queen, after
Kurukshetra war, instead of
Yudhishthira
''Yudhishthira'' (Sanskrit: युधिष्ठिर, IAST: ''Yudhiṣṭhira'') is the eldest among the five Pandava brothers. He is mentioned in the ancient epic Mahabharata. He was sired by King Pandu of the Kuru Dynasty and his firs ...
, and
Draupadi respectively.
A court poet of
Chalukya
The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty ...
king
Arikesari II
Arikesari II ( ) was a ruler of the Vemulavada Chalukya dynasty of present-day Telangana, India. A Rashtrakuta vassal, he played an important role in dethroning the Rashtrakuta emperor Govinda IV and enthroning Amoghavarsha III as the new empero ...
, a
Rashtrakuta feudatory, he is most known for his epics, ''Vikramarjuna Vijaya'' (Pampa Bharata) and ''
Adipurana'', both written in ''
Champu
Champu or Chapu-Kavya ( Devanagari: चम्पू-काव्य) is a genre of literary composition in Indian literature. The word 'Champu' means a combination of poetry and prose. A ''champu-kavya'' consists of a mixture of prose (Gadya ...
'' style, which he created and served as the model for all future works in Kannada. The works of Jain writers Adikavi Pampa, Sri Ponna and Ranna, collectively called the "three gems of
Kannada literature", heralded the age of classical Kannada in the 10th century, the
Medieval Kannada literature
Medieval Kannada literature covered a wide range of subjects and genres which can broadly be classified under the Jain, Virashaiva, Vaishnava and secular traditions. These include writings from the 7th century rise of the Badami Chalukya empire ...
.
History
Vikramarjuna Vijaya is a 10th-century work of
Adikavi Pampa.
Content
This work is not an abridged version of
Vyasa
Krishna Dvaipayana ( sa, कृष्णद्वैपायन, Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (; sa, व्यासः, Vyāsaḥ, compiler) or Vedavyasa (वेदव्यासः, ''Veda-vyāsaḥ'', "the one who cl ...
's ''Mahabharata'', but, rather, a recreation of the original in the cultural context of Karnataka and the religious context of Jainism. The relatively less dominant and slightly Machiavellian role given to
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
is a major change.
Pampa was the court poet of
Chalukya
The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynasty ...
King Arikesari, a
Rashtrakuta feudatory. The work acquires a historical significance because of the equation made by the poet between Arjuna and Arikesari his patron king belonging to the Ganga dynasty. This work was trendsetting in Kannada both in terms of subject and the form.
See also
*
Western Chalukya literature in Kannada
A large body of Western Chalukya literature in the Kannada language was produced during the reign of the Western Chalukya Empire (973–1200 CE) in what is now southern India. This dynasty, which ruled most of the western Deccan in South India, ...
*
Adi Purana Adi or ADI may refer to:
Names and titles
* Adi (mythology), an Asura in Hindu faith who appears in the Matsya Purāṇa
* Adi (name), a given name in Hebrew and a nickname in other languages
* Adi (title), a Fijian title used by females of chi ...
*original Text- Pamp Bharat- with word by word meaning
ಪಂಪಭಾರತ
Notes
Sources
* {{citation , last=Singh , first=Upinder , author-link=Upinder Singh , title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pq2iCwAAQBAJ , publisher=
Pearson Education , date=2016 , isbn=978-93-325-6996-6 , ref={{sfnref, Upinder Singh, 2016
Works based on the Mahabharata
10th-century Indian books
Jain texts
Western Chalukya Empire
Epic poems in Kannada