Durgasimha

Durgasimha (c. 1025) was the minister of war and peace (Sandhi Vigrahi) of Western Chalukya King Jayasimha II (also known as Jagadekamalla, r. 1018–1042). Durgasimha adapted the well-known set of fables, Panchatantra ("The five stratagems"), from Sanskrit language into the Kannada language in champu style (mixed prose and verse). The Kannada-language version, whose central theme has a strong Jain bent, contains 60 fables, 13 of which are original stories. All the stories have morality as their theme and carry a summary section (Katha Shloka). The Kannada version is the earliest Indian vernacular version, and the author, being a minister, not surprisingly, chose to write a book on political science (Rajniti). The scholar R. Narasimhachar fixed the date of this work as c. 1025, but the modern Kannada poet and scholar Govinda Pai dated the work to 8 March 1031, based on information in the concluding stanza of the manuscript.