mass appeal by preaching devotion to God and extolling the virtues of (enlightenment), (devotion) and (detachment). This was the age of the metre, although only the most skilled of poets, such as Chamarasa, Kumara Vyasa, Kanaka Dasa and Bhaskara used it to the best effect. Mentioned for the first time in Kannada literature by Nagavarma I in his (c. 990) and successfully used by the 12th century Hoysala poet Raghavanka, this hexa-metre style suited for narrative poetry found immense popularity throughout the Vijayanagara period. The metre (string of 100 verses) was put to best use by the Veerashaivas who produced most of the didactic writings in this metre, although the Jain poet Ratnakaravarni is the most famous exponent of it. The writings of Ratnakaravarni and Kanaka Dasa in metre are considered masterpieces from this period. In the royal courts, there was increased interaction between Kannada and Telugu literatures, continuing a trend which had begun in the Hoysala period. Translations of classics from Kannada to Telugu and vice versa became popular. Well-known bilingual poets of this period were Bhima Kavi, Piduparti Somanatha and Nilakanthacharya. Some Telugu poets, including Dhurjati, were so well versed in Kannada that they freely used many Kannada terms in their Telugu writings. It was because of this "familiarity" with Kannada language that the notable writer Srinatha called his Telugu writings "Kannada". Translations by bilingual writers continued in the centuries to follow. With the disintegration of the Vijayanagara Empire in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the centres of Kannada literature moved to the courts of the emerging independent kingdoms, the Kingdom of Mysore and the Keladi Nayakas. Writers in these courts, many of whom were Veerashaiva by faith, were not only adept in Kannada but often also in Sanskrit and/or Telugu. Two such writers were Kalale Nanjaraja and Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bangalore. This multi-linguality was perhaps a lingering legacy of the cosmopolitan Vijayanagara literary culture and the emerging social responsibilities of the Veerashaiva monastic order which no longer confined itself to a Kannada only audience, but rather sought to spread its influence across southern India. In the Kingdom of Mysore, the Veerashaiva literary school was challenged by the growing influence of the Srivaishnava intelligentsia in the Wodeyar court. The Srivaishnava writers (followers of a sect of Vaishnavism) of Kannada literature were also in competition with Telugu and Sanskrit writers, their predominance continuing into the