Harihara (poet)

Famous writings

Harihara began his literary career as a royal accountant (karaṇika) and poet. The Girijākalyāṇa ("The Marriage of Girijā") is one of his surviving compositions out of his many works. It utilizes the campū style favored by the earlier Jain Kannada poets and describes the events leading to the marriage of Shiva and his consort Parvati in ten chapters. Harihara brings out his ability for narration while describing the lamentation of Rati for Kama, and the intense love and devotion of Parvati for Shiva.

Though he was skilled in the styles of courtly poetry, Harihara is most widely remembered for his collection of ragaḷes, poems written in the flexible meter of the same name. This work is most often called the Śivaśaraṇara ragaḷegaḷu ("Ragaḷes on the Devotees of Śiva") or Hariharana ragaḷegaḷu ("The Ragaḷes of Harihara"), though sometimes it is called Śaraṇacaritamānasa, "the Lake of the Deeds of Devotees") or Śivagaṇada Ragaḷegaḷu ("Ragaḷes on the Attendants of Śiva"). The 108 narratives tell the life stories of Śaiva saints in a native Kannada metrical style known as the ragaḷe. These poems show a deep familiarity with not only Āgamic Śaiva practices but also the vernacular Śaiva traditions that appear in the vacana sāhitya. The ragaḷes are notable for their flexible use of courtly and vernacular poetic style, and their inclusion of a wide variety of Śaiva personalities. From the Tamil nāyaṉārs to the Kannada śaraṇas, and even a handful of legendary northern devotees like Ōhila and Udbhaṭa, the ragaḷes demonstrate Harihara's acquaintance with a vast religious and literary tradition.

Harihara is regarded as the inaugurator of the Śaiva hagiographic tradition in Kannada, and effectively the Kannada counterpart to Cēkkiḻār (writing in Tamil) and Pālkuriki Sōmanātha (writing in Telugu), who were his rough contemporaries. Harihara is credited with the popularization of the ragaḷe, a meter native to the Kannada language. In a deviation from the norm of the day, Harihara avoided glorifying famous mortals and continued the Jain tradition of "glorifying the spirit" and the "conquest of evil within oneself". He was so against praising earthly mortals, that a popular story relates that he slapped his protégé and nephew, Rāghavāṅka for writing about King Harishchandra in the work Harīścandrakāvya (c. 1200).