 The exact beginnings of the haridasa movement in the Kannada @-@ speaking region have been disputed . <unk> <unk> , a noted <unk> scholar , claimed in his book Karnataka <unk> that the movement was inspired by saint <unk> Dasa of <unk> ( in the modern <unk> district ) in the 9th century . However , neither the language used in <unk> Dasa 's compositions nor the discovery of a composition with the pen name " <unk> <unk> " , which mentions the 13th @-@ century philosopher Madhvacharya , lends support to the 9th @-@ century theory . Naraharitirtha ( 1281 ) , one of earliest disciples of Madhvacharya , is therefore considered the earliest haridasa to write Vaishnava compositions in Kannada . <unk> topics were popular and included <unk> on poetry ( <unk> ) and writings on natural sciences ( <unk> ) , mathematics ( <unk> ) , fiction ( Lilavati ) , grammar ( Shabdamanidarpana ) , rhetoric ( <unk> ) and others . 
