ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to discuss, in its implications, the tradition of re-writing the epics into Kannada, started by Pampa in Kannada. Picking up a number of great names since Pampa – such as Raghavanka, Kanakadasa – against the unique work of the Vachanakaras, it offers a significant and critical glimpse of Kannada literary history. Further, the chapter also takes up to discuss the great modern writers – K. V. Puttappa, Shivarama Karanth, and Masti Venkatesa – Iyengar in respect of the question of breaking/making tradition, while demonstrating how the tradition continues to wield its hold on them all.
