Karnataka.
Capital. Bangalore.
Area. 74051 square miles.
Population.55 million.
Revenue Districts.30.
Karnataka was unified during the Vijayanagar kingdom (c. 1300-1600) until successive conquests by the Muslim kings of the Deccan, the Mughals, and the states of Maratha and Hyderabad greatly reduced its size. The remaining kingdom continued as the independent Hindu state of Mysore until British conquest in 1799. The Kannada-speaking people were leaders in the successful movement for the linguistic reorganization of India (1953 and 1956), which resulted in the addition of territories from Bombay, Hyderabad, and Madras to form Mysore state. The state was renamed Karnataka in 1973.
Mysore, state of India, located on the western coast has an area of 74,051 square miles.
It is bounded by the states of Goa and Maharashtra to the north, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, and Kerala to the south and by the Arabian Sea to the west. The state extends 420 miles from north to south and 300 miles from east to west.
It has a coastline 200 miles long. The capital is Bangalore. Before the independence, Mysore was a prosperous and progressive but landlocked princely state, with an area of less than 30,000 square miles, located on the Karnataka Plateau. The transfer of additional territories to the state in 1953 and 1956 united the Kannada speaking people, gave the state an outlet to the sea, and greatly extended its boundaries. The state took its present name in 1973. It now coincides approximately with the area in which Kannada is spoken. Karnataka is a Kannada name meaning "Lofty Land."
Karnataka has abundant hydroelectric power and extensive forests. It is also India's chief source of gold and silver and coffee, and it provides the bulk of the world's supply of sandalwood.
The name Mysore derives from the destruction of the buffalo-demon Mahisasura by the Goddess Chamunda. The prehistory of Mysore is lost in legends that concern the struggle that took place in southern India between invading Aryan peoples and the original inhabitants; in legendary form this struggle is represented as a conflict between devils and demons on the one hand and gods and goddesses on the other. The subsequent history of the region deals mainly with the princely state of Mysore as it was before 1953, for no dynasty succeeded in ruling the whole region occupied by the Kannada-speaking people.
After the reign of Ashoka, the emperor of Maurya in the mid-3rd century BC, the principal dynasties in the area of Mysore were the Kadambas of Banavasi, the Western Gangas, the Banas, and other feudatories of the Pallava dynasty, which ruled from about the 4th to the 9th century. The rich lands of the upper Tungabhadra region and the land between that river and the Krishna River were taken from the Kadambas in the 6th century by a central Karnataka dynasty, the Chalukyas. Their efforts and those of their competitors of the Rastrakuta dynasty to unite the plateau and exploit the softer lands of the coastal plains enriched Mysore but led to reprisals from the Tamils to the east and south. By the 12th century the Hoysala dynasty had absorbed Gangavati as the state of Mysore was then called, but after the Hoysalas had been obliged to submit to the sultan of Delhi, Mysore gradually came under the sway of the state of Vijayanagar, whose capital of the same name stood on the site now partly occupied by the village of Hampi on the Tungabhadra River in contemporary Karnataka. In the latter part of the 16th century the Vijayanagar empire faded, giving place to Mughal power north of the Tungabhadra River and to the rajas of Mysore in the south. In the 17th century the wadiyars, of Mysore profited from the conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Marathas in western India, as well as from the internal power struggles that occurred in the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb, to expand their rule. In 1610 the wadiyar of Mysore seized Seringapatam; later, Bangalore was also acquired and wadiyar power consolidated. Later, maladministration at home and interference in wars of succession in the plains led to the usurpation of power in 1761 by the military adventurer Haidar 'Ali. His invasions of Malabar and the Karnataka plains extended Mysore's dominion but eventually led, after the resulting Mysore Wars, to the death of his son Tippu Sultan in 1799 and to the conquest of Mysore by the British, who sponsored the restoration of wadiyar rule. Mysore was governed by a British commissioner from 1831 to 1881, when administration was once again restored to the wadiyars.
Karnataka possesses a rich cultural heritage, compounded by the contributions of successive dynasties, which have fostered various religions and philosophy, which, in turn, have influenced literature, architecture, folklore, music, painting, and minor arts.
The town of Sravana Belgola, 56 miles from Mysore, contains notable examples of Mauryan architecture, as well as a giant stone figure, believed to be 1,000 years old, of Bahubali, the Jaina saint. Huge monolithic Jaina statues are peculiar to the Kannada culture. The influence of the Chalukya and the Pallava dynasties is still apparent in temple architecture dating from the 7th century AD.
Agriculture is the occupation of 80 percent of the population. The coastal plain is intensively cultivated, with rice grown as a food crop and sugarcane as a cash crop. The second and third major food crops after rice are jowar and ragi. Other cash crops are cashews, cardamom, betel nut, and grapes. Coffee and tea plantations occupy the cool slopes of the Western Ghats. In the eastern region, irrigation makes possible the cultivation of sugarcane, rubber, and fruits bananas and oranges.
The black soil of the northwest supports cotton, oilseeds, and peanuts.
The forests of the Malnad region in the west produce teak, sandalwood, bamboo, and products as tanning dyes, gums, and lac. Other trees include eucalyptus and rosewood. Oil processed from sandalwood at Mysore is a leading state export.
In places, the Precambrian rocks of Karnataka, which are at least 570 million years old, are highly mineralized. Karnataka is the largest producer of chromite, it is also one of only two states in India, the other being Tamil Nadu producing magnesite. High-grade iron ore reserves are largely located in Chikmagalur and Chitradurga districts.
Mica, copper ore, bauxite, garnet, and emery are obtained in small quantities. All India's gold derives from the region of the Kolar Gold Fields. The principal gold mines, now nationalized, are up to 9,000 feet deep.
The mineral resources of the state provide the basis for the iron and steel industry at Bhadravati and heavy engineering works at Bangalore. Other industries in the state include cotton milling, sugar processing, and the manufacture of textiles, food products, electrical machinery, fertilizers, cement, and paper. Both Mysore city and Bangalore have old established silk industries producing most of India's mulberry silk. Karnataka has sufficient hydroelectric power to supply surplus energy to neighbouring states. The Sharavati project near Jog Falls is the largest of several hydroelectric plants that provide power to Karnataka's industries.
The obstacle formed by the Western Ghats has prevented the building of railroads linking the ports to the plateau in the interior. Bangalore, in the southeast, is the main focus of rail transportation. The port of Mangalore, in the southwest, is connected with Bombay through the state of Kerala by tracks running parallel to the coast.
The import and export trade relies primarily on road transport, but many roads in the western part of the state become impassable during the rainy season. National highways run from Bangalore east to Madras, north to Hyderabad, northwest to Bombay, and west through Hassan to the coast of Mangalore. Airports are located at Bangalore, Belgaum, and Mangalore.
Ethnologically, the population of Karnataka is predominantly Dravidian. The Dravidians were the original inhabitants of India and are related to the peoples of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Madagascar. Over the centuries, however, much intermixture with other races has occurred. In the north of the state, Indic traits, mixed with Dravidian, occur. Some Anglo-Indians, representing a mixture of European and Dravidian, are occasionally encountered, particularly in Bangalore.
Kannada, spoken by more than 70 percent of the population, is the official state language. Hindustani (a mixture of Hindi and Urdu) is often used in trade and business. Toward the borders of the state, other languages, such as Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Konkani, are also spoken. Konkani is associated particularly with the city of Mangalore. The major religion is Hinduism, but Jainism and Buddhism--once widespread--still survive.
Small percentages of the population follow Islam and Christianity. Although about three-quarters of the population is rural, the trend toward urbanization is becoming more marked as industrialization increases. The major cities are Bangalore, the capital, and Mysore. Other important towns are Hubli Dharwad, Mangalore, Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bellary, Davangere, Bijapur, Shimoga, and Bhadravati.
The coastal lowlands in western Karnataka state, southwestern India, with an area of about 4,000 sq miles is bounded by the Arabian Sea on the west, the Western Ghats on the east, Konkan on the north, and the Kerala Plains on the south. Stretching from north to south for about 140 miles, it has a maximum width of about 40 miles in the south. Historically the coast was a contact zone between Indian merchants and European and African traders. It was successively ruled by the Kadambas, Rattas, Chalukyas, Yadavas, and Hoysalas, until it passed to the Muslims with short interludes of Maratha supremacy. The British annexed the coast in 1789. The coastline is sandy and in places rocky cliffs overhang the sea. Sloping from east to west, it comprises a narrow belt of coastal sand dunes, marshes, and valley plains backed by a higher erosional platform, in turn succeeded by isolated hills that are 300 ft to 1,000 ft high farther inland.
Coconuts and casuarinas grow on the saline sandy beaches, mangroves live in the marshes and estuaries, and bamboo and scrub are found on the hills. The coast is drained by the Kali Nadi, Gangavali, Bedti, Tadri, Sharavati, and Netravati rivers, which have carved out narrow valleys with steep gradients and generally flow in a westerly direction. Alluvial soils occur in the south; the rest of the coast has infertile red soils that are often gravelly and sandy. The region forms a transitional zone between Maharashtra and Kerala states. The southern, or Mangalore, region has plantations of coconut and casuarina; the northern, or Udipi, region produces rice and pulse (legumes). Industries are mostly located at Mangalore, an important regional centre and major coffee port of India, and at Udipi. The ports of Karwar, Kumta, Honavar, and Malpe have lost their importance with the development of railways in the interior. Mangalore and Karwar have been developed as deepwater port for the export of mineral ores.
