KANNADA AND SANSKRIT The relationship between Kannada and
Sanskrit (ಕನ್ನಡ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತ) has been a contentious issue
right from the documented beginning of Kannada speaking
communities. It has been a clash of cultures with diametrically
opposite ethnic and linguistic identities. It is now proved
beyond any doubt, that Kannada belongs to the Dravidian family
of languages and that it has not originated from Sanskrit or any
other Indo Aryan language. However, there is a deep rooted
conviction in a sizable percentage of Kannada speakers that
Sanskrit has sprung from Kannada. They base their conclusions on
the abundant presence of Sanskrit words in the vocabulary of
Kannada. They are also influenced by the pedagogy of Kannada in
our schools and colleges right from the beginning of the
twentieth century. An unreasonably heavy dependence on the
models provided by Sanskrit in matters relating to grammar,
poetics and prosody has lead to a wrong understanding of the
situation. The traditional scholarship, which was a