page_title: Lakshmisa
section_title: Magnum opus
hierarchical_section_title: Lakshmisa / Magnum opus
caption_attribution_description: English: Jaimini Bharata, Wesleyan Mission Press, Bangalore, 1852
context_page_description: Lakshmisa was a noted Kannada language Brahmin writer who lived during the mid-16th or late 17th century. His most important writing, Jaimini Bharata is a version of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The writing focuses on the events following the battle of Indraprastha between the Pandavas and Kauravas, using the Ashvamedha conducted by Yudhishthira as the topic of the epic narrative. The writing is in the shatpadi metre and was inspired by the Sanskrit original written by sage Jaimini.
context_section_description: The Jaimini Bharata, one of the most well known stories in Kannada literature was written in the tradition of sage Jaimini. It has remained popular through the centuries. In a writing full of similes and metaphors, puns and alliterations, Lakshmisa created a human tale out of an epic,  earning him the honorific "Upamalola" ("One who revels in similes and metaphors") and "Nadalola" ("Master of melody"). The writing focusses on the events following the battle when the victorious Pandavas conducted the Ashvamedha Yagna to expiate the sin of fratricide. The writing differs entirely from Kumara Vyasa's rendering of the same epic (called Karnata Bharata Kathamanjari) of c. 1430, both in metre and content. Kumara Vyasa had used the flexible bhamini shatpadi metre and followed the Vyasa tradition whereas Lakshmisa used the vardhaka shatpadi metre which is well suited for figures of speech. The work has been criticised though, for failing to achieve the level of devotion towards Hindu God Krishna that Kumara Vyasa managed in the various stages of his story.
  However, Lakshmisa is considered a successful story-teller with an ability to narrate the Upakhyanas ("story within a story"), describe the physical beauty of a woman at length and to hold the reader with his rich Kannada diction and rhetoric. The writing has been considered an asset to the enlightened reader as well as those not so educated. Lakshmisa authored some poems reminiscent of the Haridasa poetry but without the same success.
  In 1852, the Wesleyan Mission Press published the Jaimini Bharata with an English translation by Daniel Sanderson, a Wesleyan missionary at the Bangalore Wesleyan Canarese Mission.
caption: Jaimini Bharata, Wesleyan Mission Press, Bangalore, 1852
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