In which language did the poet Mallanarya write the texts named “Bhava Chinta Ratna” and “Veerasaivamrita” in the court of Krishandev Ray ?

Correct — option (4), Kannada.

E. P. Rice's A History of Kanarese Literature (1921) describes Mallanarya of Gubbi as 'a learned man who lived in the reign of Krishna-deva-raya', who 'wrote both in Kanarese and Sanskrit'. Kanarese is the older English name for Kannada.

Rice says he is chiefly known by two works, and places both in Kannada verse. His Bhava-chintaratna (1513) is 'a reproduction in Kanarese shatpadi' of a seventh-century Tamil work by Jnanasambandar.

The other, the Virasaivamrita, is 'also in shatpadi', which Rice defines as six-lined stanzas, one of the purely Kanarese metres. He says the Virasaivamrita gives a full statement of Lingayat beliefs and traditions and describes Shiva's twenty-five lilas.

Wikipedia's article on Vijayanagara literature in Kannada, citing Rice, agrees: Mallanarya's important writings in Kannada, in the shatpadi metre, are the Bhava Chintaratna and the Virasaivamrita Purana.

Both texts named in the stem are therefore in option (4), Kannada.

The idea to remember: Mallanarya of Gubbi, a Virashaiva (Lingayat) poet, wrote the Bhava-chintaratna and Virasaivamrita in Kannada shatpadi.

Why the others are wrong

• (1)
  Sanskrit — Sanskrit is a near miss: Rice says Mallanarya 'wrote both in Kanarese and Sanskrit'.

  But the two works in the stem are his Kannada ones, both composed in the Kannada shatpadi metre. Knowing a poet was bilingual does not tell you the language of a particular text.

• (2)
  Tamil — Tamil enters through the source, not the text. Rice says the Bhava-chintaratna reproduces, in Kannada, a Tamil work by Jnanasambandar of the seventh century.

  The story, of a Chola king, came from Tamil, but Mallanarya retold it in Kannada verse.

• (3)
  Telugu — Telugu is the language of Krishnadevaraya's own work: NCERT (Class XII) says he composed a work on statecraft in Telugu, the Amuktamalyada. Wikipedia calls his reign a golden age of Telugu literature, with eight Telugu poets known as the Ashtadiggajas.

  Mallanarya, though, wrote these two works in Kannada. The court patronised poets in several languages.

Vijayanagara under Krishnadevaraya was a multilingual court. Wikipedia records that Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit and Tamil poets enjoyed his patronage, and that he issued inscriptions in all four languages.

So the patron does not fix the language. The poet's tradition is a better guide: Mallanarya was a Lingayat (Virashaiva) writer, and Rice says Lingayat poetry is mostly in six-lined Kannada stanzas called shatpadi.

A source text is a third layer. A Kannada work can retell a Tamil original, as the Bhava-chintaratna does.

Key facts

• E. P. Rice (1921): Mallanarya of Gubbi lived in the reign of Krishnadevaraya and wrote both in Kannada and Sanskrit.
• Rice dates the Bhava-chintaratna to 1513 and calls it a Kannada shatpadi reproduction of a Tamil work by Jnanasambandar.
• Rice says the Bhava-chintaratna is sometimes called the Satyendra-Chola-kathe, as it tells a story of a Chola king.
• Rice: the Virasaivamrita, also in shatpadi, gives a full statement of Lingayat beliefs and describes Shiva's twenty-five lilas.
• NCERT (Class XII): Krishnadevaraya composed a work on statecraft in Telugu, the Amuktamalyada.

Common traps

• Taking the king's own language for the poet's: Krishnadevaraya wrote the Amuktamalyada in Telugu, but Mallanarya's two works are in Kannada.
• Confusing a work's source with its language: the Bhava-chintaratna retells a Tamil original in Kannada.
• Letting a bilingual poet decide the answer: Mallanarya also wrote in Sanskrit, but these two texts are in Kannada shatpadi.

UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2023 and 2021 here once those papers are published on this site.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In which language did Krishnadevaraya compose the Amuktamalyada?

  • (a)Kannada
  • (b)Sanskrit
  • (c)Telugu
  • (d)Tamil
  Answer(3) — NCERT (Class XII) says Krishnadevaraya composed a work on statecraft in Telugu known as the Amuktamalyada. Options (1), (2) and (4) were languages of other poets at his multilingual court, not of this work.
• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Bhava-chintaratna of Mallanarya of Gubbi is a Kannada retelling of a work originally composed in which language?

  • (a)Sanskrit
  • (b)Tamil
  • (c)Telugu
  • (d)Prakrit
  Answer(2) — E. P. Rice calls it a reproduction in Kannada shatpadi of a seventh-century Tamil work by Jnanasambandar. Option (1) is a language Mallanarya also wrote in, and options (3) and (4) do not appear in Rice's account of the work.