 As in earlier centuries , Jain authors wrote about <unk> ( saints ) , princes and other personages important to the Jain religion . Jain versions of the Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and Bhagavata ( tales of Hindu god Krishna ) were also written . According to R. <unk> , a noted scholar on Kannada literature , more Jain writers wrote in Kannada than in any other <unk> language during the " Augustan age " of Kannada literature , from the earliest known works to the 12th century . The Veerashaiva writers , devotees of the Hindu god Shiva , wrote about his 25 forms in their <unk> of <unk> . Vaishnava authors wrote treatments of the Hindu epics , the Ramayana , the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata . Breaking away from the old Jain tradition of using the champu form for writing Kannada literature , Harihara penned poems in the ragale metre in <unk> @-@ <unk> @-@ <unk> ( 1160 ) . His nephew Raghavanka established the shatpadi tradition by writing a unique version of the story of King Harishchandra in Harishchandra Kavya ( 1200 ) . Sisumayana introduced the sangatya metre in his <unk> and <unk> ( 1235 ) . However , some scholars continued to employ Sanskritic genres such as champu ( Ramachandra <unk> ) , <unk> ( 100 verse compositions , Pampa sataka ) and ashtaka ( eight line verse compositions , <unk> ashtaka ) . 
