 Contemporaneous literature and inscriptions show that Kannada was not only popular in the modern Karnataka region but had spread further north into present day southern Maharashtra and to the northern Deccan by the 8th century . Kavirajamarga , the work on poetics , refers to the entire region between the Kaveri River and the Godavari River as " Kannada country " . Higher education in Sanskrit included the subjects of Veda , Vyakarana ( grammar ) , Jyotisha ( astronomy and astrology ) , Sahitya ( literature ) , <unk> ( Exegesis ) , <unk> ( law ) , Puranas ( ritual ) , and Nyaya ( logic ) . An examination of inscriptions from this period shows that the Kavya ( classical ) style of writing was popular . The awareness of the merits and defects in inscriptions by the archivists indicates that even they , though mediocre poets , had studied standard classical literature in Sanskrit . An inscription in Kannada by King Krishna III , written in a poetic Kanda metre , has been found as far away as Jabalpur in modern Madhya Pradesh . Kavirajamarga , a work on poetics in Kannada by Amoghavarsha I , shows that the study of poetry was popular in the Deccan during this time . Trivikrama 's Sanskrit writing , <unk> , is perhaps the earliest in the champu style from the Deccan . 
