Karnataka (Kannada)

The southern Deccan plateau, whose empires repeatedly ruled far beyond it and whose modern capital did the same in software. Kannada has inscriptions from the fifth century and a literary tradition nearly as old, and the region's early dynasties were among India's most consequential: the Chalukyas of Badami, whose rock-cut temples at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal are where much of later Indian temple architecture was worked out, and the Rashtrakutas, who built Ellora's Kailasa temple by carving a single mountain downwards and who contested the north with Gujarat and Bengal for two centuries. The Hoysalas followed with the astonishing soapstone carving of Belur and Halebidu. Vijayanagara's capital at Hampi, on the Tungabhadra in this region, was among the largest cities in the world in the fifteenth century, and its ruins still cover twenty-five square kilometres. The Bahmani and later Bijapur sultanates held the north. Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan fought four wars against the British and was the most formidable Indian opponent they faced, deploying rockets that the British copied. After Tipu's death at Seringapatam in 1799 Mysore became a princely state with an unusually reformist administration. Karnataka was formed in 1956. Bengaluru, chosen for public-sector aviation and electronics after independence, became India's technology capital in the 1990s. The Cauvery water dispute with Tamil Nadu has run for over a century. Mysuru's palace remains the region's best-known building. The Western Ghats along the state's edge are a global biodiversity hotspot. Coffee grown at Chikmagalur was India's first. Kannada writers have won more Jnanpith awards than those of any other Indian language.

• Existed: 850 CE – present
• Type: Entity