The Shravanabelagola inscription of Nandisena, dated to the 7th century, is one of the early poetic inscriptions in the

Kannada language 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 sp ...

. The inscription extols saint Nandisena of

Shravanabelagola Shravanabelagola () is a town located near Channarayapatna of Hassan district in the Indian state of Karnataka and is from Bengaluru. The Gommateshwara Bahubali statue at Shravanabelagola is one of the most important tirthas (pilgrimage des ...

(a prominent place of Jain religious power and worship) and his journey to heaven ("world of gods", ''lit'', ''devaloka'').Nagaraj in Pollock (2003), p.325 According to the "Institute for Classical Kannada Studies", the inscription, which it dates to 700 A.D., is suffused with literary characteristics and figure of speech. It is therefore important to the study of the development of Kannada literature. According to the scholar D.R. Nagaraj, exalting the "individual as the hero of the community" is the commonality the Nandisena inscription has with the other metrical Kannada inscriptions of the period; the

Halmidi inscription The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada language inscription in the Kadamba script. While estimates vary slightly, the inscription is often dated to between 450 CE - 500 CE. The inscription was discovered in 1936 by Dr. M. H. Krishn ...

Text of Inscription

Text in Modern Kannada script

English translation

Notes

References

See also