Ranna (993 A.D)
In reviewing the literature of 10th century it has been pointed out that Pampa and Ranna were the most outstanding poets who have a claim to greatness. The ancients called them along with Panna as "the three gems" among Kannada poets.
Ranna was born in 949 A.D at Muduvolalu or the modern Mudhol in Bijapur district. His ancestors belonged to Vaishya caste and were bangle sellers by profession and jains by religion. Leaving the ancestral calling to his three elder brothers Ranna took to learning and became a master in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Kannada literatures. He was perhaps a classmate of Chavundaraya and later on was patronized by him. Ranna gradually made his way to the imperial court of Tailpa (973-997 A.D) and his son Sathyashraya (997-1009 A.D). He was the author of Parashuramacharitha, Ajitha-Purana and Sahasa Bhima Vijaya or Gadaa Yudda. The first two are not yet come to light and the fame of Ranna as a poet rests on the other two, which are now extant. A fragment of a lexical work called Ranna-Kanda is also available.
The Ajitha-Purana was completed in 993 A.D. It narrates the story of Ajithanatha, the second Tirthankara. This is the shortest Jinapurana in Kannada and is also the sweetest, second in quality only to the Adhipurana of Pampa. It narrates but only two stories of the previous births of the Jina. A prince named Vimalavahana is overwhelmed by an intense feeling of renunciation on beholding a few gray hairs on his cheek, which remind him of the transitoriness of life and the supreme power of death. He took to a life of meditation and was born as a god in one of the heavens. In his next birth he becomes Ajithanatha, the King of Ayodhya.
The customary five-fold auspicious in the life of a Thirthankara have been described at great length by Ranna with his usual gusts and devotion and piety. This is the first part of the work. Herein we see the great qualities of Ranna as a poet. He was subject to intense emotional disturbances and did not know how to control them except by giving them to eloquent expression in words.
In the next part occurs the story of Sagara, the second Chakravarti of Jainism. He was reluctant to give up the kingly pleasures of life and was attached to them so firmly that he forgot the highest value of life, Moksha. His friend Maniketu tried his best to turn the attention of the king towards renunciation but could not succeed. Finally he contrived a plan by which the 60,000 sons of Sagara were killed and in the guise of an old man with a dead son in his arms presented himself before the king and begged of him to enliven the child by fighting with death. Sagara felt helpless in the matter and said that death was no respecter of persons and all must suffer sorrow and pain. There upon Maniketu revealed to him the simultaneous death of his sons. Sagara was overcome with grief but bore it heroically and taking to a life of penance realized him in the end. Ranna has depicted this story in all its pathos and the character of Maniketu in the role of hold man bereaved of his son is the center of interest. The above are the finest parts of his work and when compared with the corresponding parts of the Sanskrit original the improvements made by Ranna can be appreciated. The feature of Ajitha - Purana is the portrait of Attimabbe painted with grateful devotion by Ranna. She was a pious and dutiful Jaina lady famous for her generosity in extending patronage to poets, in erecting temples to the Jina, and in the propagation of Jaina texts. An inscription at Lakkigundi in Dharwar district,, probably written by Ranna gives a few more details concerning her religious life. It was for her sake that Ranna wrote the Ajitapurana.
Her personality was so pure and noble that the poet has compared her to the sacred waters of the Ganges and to a leap of Snow-White cotton. Altogether the Ajitapurana is a worthy work of a sensitive mind.
The Gadha-yuddha is the greatest work of Ranna and makes him one of the immortals of Kannada literature. It is the story of the final fight between Bhima and Dhuryodhana towards the evening of the eighteenth day of the Mahabaratha war. The poet has identified his patron, Iriva Bedanga Satyasharya with Bhima, the hero of the poem, after the manner of Pampa and indicates contemporary historical events. In the matter of his identification Ranna is more convincing than Pampa the thirteenth chapter of the Pampa Bharatha is the basis on which Ranna has built up his work of ten chapters. This at once indicates the wealth of suggestion in the original and the imaginative keenness of Ranna in catching and making the suggested world his own. it does knot mean that Ranna has no originality, there are many brilliant flashes of thought and feeling supplementing the richness of Pampa. Ranna's mind was essentially dramatic in quality, vigorous action; powerful dialogue, living characterization and emotional fire are some of its elements.
The Gada-Yuddha contains with in itself a complete and most powerful drama. The attention of the poet was to glorify Bhima-Satyashraya-and he succeeded in it; but the reader's sympathy goes forth in its fullest measure to Duryodhana in his vast sorrow and suffering and heroic death akin to the Splendor of the setting sun; his is the more aesthetically satisfying character. The style of Ranna is "The grand style" of Milton or Dante and knows nothing greater than itself. Ranna and the Gada-Yuddha are the proud possessions of Kannada literature.
With the passing away of Ranna there was a sunset in Kannada literature but the night was not long or unlit by lesser luminaries.
Shivakumar, Mysore.
