Tradition

Karnataka

Overview

Karnataka is a state on the southwestern coast of India. It was formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, and renamed Karnataka in 1973. The state is bordered by the Lakshadweep Sea to the west, Goa to the northwest, Maharashtra to the north, Telangana to the northeast, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, and Kerala to the southwest. With 61,130,704 inhabitants recorded in the 2011 census, Karnataka is the eighth-largest Indian state by population; administratively, it is divided into 31 districts. With over 15 million residents, the state capital, Bengaluru, is the largest city in Karnataka.

The economy of Karnataka is among the most productive in the country with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹25.01 trillion (US$260 billion) and a per capita GSDP of ₹332,926 (US$3,500) for the financial year 2023–24. The state experienced a GSDP growth of 10.2% for the same fiscal year. After Bengaluru Urban, Dakshina Kannada, Hubli–Dharwad, and Belagavi districts contribute the highest revenue to the state respectively. The capital of the state, Bengaluru, is known as the Silicon Valley of India, for its immense contributions to the country's information technology sector. A total of 1,973 companies in the state were found to have been involved in the IT sector as of 2007.

Karnataka is the only southern state to have land borders with all of the other four southern Indian sister states. The state covers an area of 191,791 km2 (74,051 mi2), or 5.83 per cent of the total geographical area of India. It is the sixth-largest Indian state by area. Kannada, one of the classical languages of India, is the most widely spoken and official language of the state. Other minority languages spoken include Urdu, Konkani, Marathi, Tulu, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kodava and Beary. Karnataka also contains some of the only villages in India where Sanskrit is primarily spoken.

Though several etymologies have been suggested for the name Karnataka, the generally accepted one is that Karnataka is derived from the Kannada words karu and nādu, meaning "elevated land". Karu Nadu may also be read as karu, meaning "black" and nadu, meaning "region", as a reference to the black cotton soil found in the Bayalu Seeme region of the state. The British used the word Carnatic, sometimes Karnatak, to describe both sides of peninsular India, south of the Krishna. With an antiquity that dates to the Paleolithic, Karnataka has been home to some of the most powerful empires of ancient and medieval India. The philosophers and musical bards patronised by these empires launched socio-religious and literary movements which have endured to the present day. Karnataka has contributed significantly to both forms of Indian classical music, the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

These Indians wear a garment made of rushes cut from the river, beaten flat, platted like a mat, and worn as a corselet. Other Indians, living to the east of these, are nomads, and eat raw flesh; they are called Padæans. When any one of this community is sick, if it be a man, the men who are his nearest connections put him to death, alleging that if he wasted by disease his flesh would be spoiled; and no matter if…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
States what Karnataka is.
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The cities and towns of this country are the greatest of all in the Middle Kingdom. The inhabitants are rich and prosperous, and vie with one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness. Every year on the eighth day of the second month they celebrate a procession of images. They make a four-wheeled car, and on it erect a structure of five stories by means of bamboos tied together.
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Karnataka; the term itself is not named.
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Hence states are a recent development. The facts are, indeed, fatally against attribution of any long history to states provided we use a hard and fast conceptual definition of states. But our definition is founded on the exercise of a function, not on any inherent essence or structural nature. Hence it is more or less a verbal matter just what countries and peoples are called states. What is of importance is that…
John Dewey, The public and its problems
States what Karnataka is.
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Karnataka

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