I was appointed as the Senior Fellow of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics, Trivandrum for the year 1980-81. As a part of this I was to write THE HISTORY OF GRAMMATICAL THEORIES IN KANNADA. This work is the result of that assignment.
Kannada language which has the history of 1500 years, literature which has the history of more than thousand years, has four traditional grammars along with a number of modern works. These four grammars have attracted the attention of Western scholars in addition to the Indian grammarians like the author of Lilatilatkam. Shabdmanidarpana is a standard and popular grammar and Shabdanushasana is a precise and scholarly work.
Unlike Tamil, Kannada grammatical tradition is influenced by the Sanskrit tradition to a great extent. Hence, it was felt necessary to survey the Sanskrit grammatical tradition and in the light of this influence it is proposed to assess the debt of Kannada tradition,
Kannada being one of the literary languages with a proud past, has at least some ideas to share with the grammars in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam Hence, some important points which may throw more light on the topic are incorporated from those languages.
I am really thankful to Dr. V. I. Subramoniam and others of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics for providing me the senior fellowship. I have to thank also my student friends who have helped in many respects.
I am really gratful to Dr. K Kushalappagowda, who has given me valuable suggestions.
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