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Kannada Literature / 155
this family, and equated these two brothers with Anantavirya and Aparäjita, characters of Sāntipurāņa. Both the protege and patrons belong to Vēngi-Visaya, a province in Andradēša. Attimabbe, the most celebrated lady of late tenth century, was the sprout of the same family tree and a daughter of Mallapa. It so happened that later, after a lapse of two decades, Attimabbe caused to be made a thousand palm leaf copies of Sāntipurāņa to freely distribute to the laics. This re-copying amounts to the reprint of the text in the modern terminology. Thus, Attimabbe is the earliest in the annals of Indian literature to bring out the second edition of a poem!
5.6.3.5.1. Ponna has borrowed the theme of śāntipurāņa from Uttarapurāņa of Guṇabhadradēva and from Sāntipurāņam of Asaga. Kannada poem is highly indebted to the Sanskrit source, the latter in particular. Ponna has either tanslated or adopted many stanzas of Asaga's work. Inspite of such plagiarization, Ponna has the adacity to boast himself that he is manifold greater to Asaga. His obligation does not end with Asaga. He has appropriated certain stanzas from Raghuvamsa of Kālidāsa. Ponna's delineation of the svayamvara, marriage of Jyotihprabhā and digvijaya, the subjugation of various countries in all directions of śāntiśa, are enmass imitation of the immortal Kālidāsa's Raghuvamsa, that too copying the scenes of Indumatisvayamvara and digvijaya of Raghu-mahārāja. Here again, Ponna proclaims that he is four times above par to Kālidāsa! Albeit, Ponna has assimilated the best from early masters and made his poem a superb work in Kannada literature. He is the best translator, if it comes to the question of adoptation. To sum up, excellent diction, rich vocabulory, varieties of metrical composition, equal command over Sanskrit and Kannada languages are the special traits of śāntipurāņa of Ponna. The condemnation of the fault
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