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Kannada Literature/111
Geographically, the region of the modern North Karņāțaka was more prolific of the sramaņa faculty during this period.
5.2. Jaina authors of this age were equally proficient in all three languages of Prakrit, Sanskrit and Kannada. Jaina authors had a number of titles too. Most of them are recorded in their works. Some of the praśastis were common. But, each poet had distinct and peculiar birudas of his own. The epithet of ubhaya-bhāṣā-viśārada was not unusual, whereas kavi-cakravartti was rare. Only four poets-Ponna, Ranna, Janna and Brhamasiva had this unique distinction and all of them were Jains. A few of them like Pampa, Ponna, Jinavallabha, son of Pampa, were versed in Telugu also. It is said that Ponna has authored the earliest work in Telugu language. Pampa was poet-laureate of Vēmulavāda kings who were holding Telugu speaking area also as their fief. Therefore, Pampa was obviously conversant in Telugu. This assumption is ratified by the fact that Jinavallabha, his younger brother, has composed the famous charter of Gangādharam in C. E. 950, in three languages of Sanskrit, Kannada and Telugu, perhaps the only poet to do so. From inscriptions it is established that there were few Jaina families in Andhradeśa who had Telugu as their mothertongue. Besides, those who were placed in the bilingual border regions were freely knowledgeable in both Telugu and Kannada, whichever of the two be there mother-tongue. Vēngi, a buffer region, was a sweet-home of many Jaina families of warriors and of authors, during the Rāstrakūta times. Pampa, Ponna, Nāgavarma originally belonged to Vēnigi-Vişaya, but preferred to author in the pure and plithy Kannada, that too in the dialect spoken in and around Puligere, the modern Lakşmeśvara.
5.2.1. In the Rāştrakūta period some memorable Brāhmin families accepted Jaina faith on their own accord, mostly in the region of Kamme-nādu in Vengi-visaya. Among
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