The earliest Kannada work of merit is the Kavirajamarga by the Rashtrakuta Nripatunga Amogavarsha I. Pampa who lived in the court of one Arikesari II, a feudatory of Krishna III Rashtrakuta, was one of the greatest among Kannada poets. Pampa s junior contemporary was Ponna who wrote the famous Santhipurana, the story of the 16th Tirthankara.
There were three great poets in the early stages of Kannada literature; and they were Pampa, Ponna and Ranna. Ranna lived in the court of Taila II, Chalukya. Ranna has been hailed as an emperor among poets. His Ajitapurana is quite famous. Durgasimha a Brahmin minister of Jayasimha II Jagadekamalla wrote the Panchatantra. Chamundaraya another Brahmin Saiva protege of Jayasimha was the Chamundaraya who wrote the Lokopakara, an encyclopaedic work.
To the 12th century belongs Nagavarma II who wrote the kavyavalokand, a Kannada work on grammar and rhetoric. He wrote another work called Vastukosa, a lexicon. These writers were mostly Jainas. They continued to thrive under the Hoysalas also. Nemichandra a court poet of Vira Ballala wrote the Lilavathi, a romance. Andayya’s Madanavijaya, an epic and Kesiraja’s Sabdamani Darpana (a mirror of verbal jewels) deserve mention. Rattakavi’s Rattamala is important for unusually it deals with natural phenomena.