Kannadigas

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ಕನ್ನಡಿಗ (Kannadigas)

ಕನ್ನಡತಿ (Kannadatis)
Total population

About 60 million
Regions with significant populations
Flag of India India
Languages
Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ)
Religions
Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism

Kannadigas (Kannada: ಕನ್ನಡಿಗ |masculine|), or KannaDatis (Kannada: ಕನ್ನಡತಿ |feminine|) are an ethnic group primarily located in the state of Karnataka in India and neighbouring areas like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala ,Goa and Maharashtra. Native speakers of Kannada in other regions might also consider themselves as Kannadigas. Kannadigas are people who speak Kannada ,its variants ,or its various dialects.The variations of dialects is vast and sometimes it becomes difficult to understand different variations with the existing official Kannada language.Tulu,Kodava,Byari are some of variants while Janapadas of Soliga ,Badaga and other tribal sects of Karnataka having rich contribution to Kannada literature- have their own style.

Various districts of kannada have mixed variations of dialects like Dhaarwaad kannada, Sankethi , Havyaka, Are Bhashe ,Mysooru kannada, Mangalooru kannada,Kundagannada etc based on place .People speaking Kodava are Kodava-Kannadigas and Tulu are Tuluva-Kannadigas.Both tulu and kodava are written in Kannada script. A new kind of harsh and undefined mixture of Kannada with Hindi and English is Bengloor Kannada.

It also neighbours Marathi,Konkani,Telugu,Tamil,Malayalam,Urdu speaking population.

Many Kannadigas have emigrated to countries like United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia and United Arab Emirates.


Contents

[edit] Kannada Empires

Sala fighting the tiger, the symbol of Hoysala Empire
Sala fighting the tiger, the symbol of Hoysala Empire

Kannadigas have built powerful empires and kingdoms with Kannada as official language. The empires ruled from Kaveri to Godavari are mentioned in Kavirajamarga.Archeological evidences indicate Kannada inscriptions found in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.The great Karnataka Expansion provides insights to various surnames of northern India. The major empires and kingdoms as per available evidences include

The stallions in warfields also include

[edit] Kannada Art

[edit] Sculpture

Channakeshava Temple at Belur
Channakeshava Temple at Belur

Sculpture has been the epitome of art in Karnataka. Places of interest are

Pioneer sculptors include

Modern day contemporaries include visionary architects

[edit] Music

Purandara Dasa, popularly known as Pioneer of Karnataka music
Purandara Dasa, popularly known as Pioneer of Karnataka music

The oldest form of music Karnataka Shastreeya Sangeetha evolved over ages has been the cultural peak of Kannadiga creativity not to forget some of the finest additions from Telugu,Tamil and Malayalam singers is aesthetic art contributed to world community from Kannadigas. Purandara Dasa is the Sangitha Pithamaha or the pioneer of classical music form of India -The Karnataka Shastreeya Sangeetha. Almost all Kingdoms have seen musical glory throughout. Both Hindustani and Karnataka variations are respected and nurtured in Karnataka.The jugalbandi of the two would be soothing for ears.Bhavageete and Sugama Sangeetha are some innovations.

Contemporary musical thespians are

[edit] Theatre

Rajkumar, the pride of Karnataka
Rajkumar, the pride of Karnataka

Rangabhoomi or the theatre culture is a timeless tradition with Kannadigas.While lots of the literature or gadya are written in praise of the heroic characters of the epics and puranas there are major works depicting the Kings and their power.These are called Nataka-plays having wide ranging stages for performance like Rangamancha -staged in theatres or Beedhinataka -staged on roads or Bayalata which is one of oldest and performed open-theatre.

Hari-kathe which cover entire night is another form where one (or more) person tells a story in an outstanding manner accompanied by music at background.Its a common feature to narrate battles,stories,devotions,pratha or vratha in front of temples on auspicious days.

Some famous Theatrical,Cinematic,Television personalities like Gubbi Veeranna,G V Iyer ,Rajkumar ,V. Shantaram ,Puttanna Kanagal ,Sri Ranga ,B V Karanth ,Girish Karnad ,Shankar Nag ,T N Seetharam have contributed for this richness.

Bengalooru Habba -festival of Bengalooru - a congregation of art performances at different places of the city has been initiated recently and is very successfully celebrated every year. In 2006 government of Karnataka tried to bring the folk lore and art into the city blues of Bangalore by initiating Jaanapada Jatre which was hugely successful and recieved well by art lovers is held on weekends in Lalbagh and other parts of the city.

[edit] Dance Forms

Yakshagana artist
Yakshagana artist
Main article: Dances of karnataka

The heroic ,mystic ,fierce ,spirited reliving of various legends of epics are the major depictions and the theatre of battle scenes of heroism ,loyalty and treachery,colour and pageantry are the main subjects. More adapted with the course of nature and seasons adding colour to the harvesting seasons make dances of Karnataka a unparalleled Jaanapada kale or Common People's art. Some of the folk dances and classical dance forms include

The tribal forms of dance can also be found limitedly in the regions inhabited by Soligas and forests of Kodagu and Western Ghats.

Some socially harmful practices like devadasi had encroached the land which was imitating the courtesan artist performing in King's court of older times, but was demeaning the life the artist in the contemporary society wasn't allowed extensively to grow.Now the government of Karnataka is taking measures to curb it which prevails in parts bordering Maharashtra.


[edit] Kalaa Kshetras(The abode of Art)

  • Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath
  • Chowdiah Memorial Hall
  • Gaayana Samaja
  • Ranga Shankara
  • Nrithya Grama
  • Ravindra Kalakshetra
  • Gubbi Veeranna Rangamandira
  • Janapada Loka
  • Rangayana
  • NINASAM

are some of the favourite places of art lovers in Karnataka and have produced some of the finest artists.

[edit] Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Karnataka

[edit] Kannada Literature

A statue of Kumara Vyasa in Gadag
A statue of Kumara Vyasa in Gadag
Main article: Kannada literature
Main article: Karnataka literature

Kannada literature is filled with literary figures and pioneers all through.

Pampa, Ranna and Ponna are considered as three jewels of Halegannada.

Basavanna, Akka Mahadevi, Harihara, Raghavanka,Kumara Vyasa, Sarvajna, Purandara Dasa, Kanaka Dasa ,Shishunala Shareefa etc were pioneers of Nadugannada.

Kuvempu, Da Ra Bendre, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Shivaram Karanth, V K Gokak, U R Ananthamurthy, Girish Karnad, G S Shivarudrappa, S.L. Bhyrappa, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Gopalakrishna Adiga, T.R. Subbarao, A N Krishna Rao, Govinda Pai, Thriveni, K. S. Nissar Ahmed, K.S. Narasimhaswamy, G P Rajarathnam ,T P Kailasam ,Dodda Rangegowda etc are popular navodaya literary figures. The literature works of Kannada in Navodaya is crowned with 7 Jnanpith awards by Government of India.

Some of the contemporary active institutions of Kannada literature are

[edit] Contemporary Popular Kannadigas

Main article: List of people from Karnataka

[edit] Kannada Kannadiga Karnataka

Main article: Unification of Karnataka
Main article: History of Karnataka

The essence of the term Kannadiga is quite interesting.Being very moderate and soft spoken and known for overwhelming hospitality Karnataka and Kannadigas were taken for a ride by the neighbouring states and centre.

Now there was a identity crisis for the local people of Karnataka as the state reorganisation had given a severe blow to it.Bound by 5 states Kannadigas had to fight for administering their land Belgaum border dispute,Kasargod are some of the contemporary burning issues.Nanjundappa-(Chairman of Committee for Redressal of Regional imbalances) report is still pending to be implemented.

Bangalore became the capital city being the smallest city of the state with least number of Kannadigas in it.

Overall there was less representation at the centre and central government jobs.Over that it had 2-5ths of backward people of the country.(1991 census).Sarojini Mahishi report which mandated jobs for Kannadigas in centre was not important for the centre.

Above all these Kannadigas had to fight for officially speaking their mother tongue in their motherland-Gokak agitation.Also for political mileage politicians of Tamil Nadu have tried to bring all the south Indian languages under one roof called Dravidian which denotes only Tamil making it the ancient language out of which other languages arose!This gained Tamil the classical language status.There is no question that all South Indians share same culture and values but saying Tamil as origin to Kannada is a conspiracy as there are records which are old enough to prove Kannada as old as Tamil.The important thing to note is in the entire literature of Kannada there is no mention of word Dravida! Also a noteworthy point here is calling Dravidians as Shudras mentioned in Manu smrithi. All central government establishments enforce the supremacy of newly developed Hindi while disrespecting local culture . The globalised service oriented MNC's give more weightage to English! All these conspiracy theories have in fact stopped the growth and development of Kannada as it should have taken place and its counted as one of the languages soon to be extinct.If at all Kannada gets classical tag it will be one more political act rather than respecting and exploring roots.Still there are few heartening developments like Nudi ,Baraha etc.

The water thirsty land had to face Kaveri River Water Dispute owing to a pre-independence deal with British now had restrictions to use its own water.By this there are two factors which affect the people.This has brought the land under irrigation to a standstill.The number of crops grown cannot be increased while historically and presently Tamil Nadu enjoys majority of the resources for its burgeoning prescriptive rights. Some of the ongoing crisis in 2007-The current member of Lok Sabha even though belonging to ruling party - Ambareesh resigned discerning the Kaveri Tribunal ruling and the dumb centre.All the Karnataka cabinet members staged a protest in the capital of India opposing the unscientific ruling of Tribunal. Currently the whole state and state government are responding unitedly and unanimously rejected the ruling and are fighting for the justice.

In all these post independent struggles the whole state united peacefully and Kannadiga was the sole unifying factor.

Some of the active Kannada pro organisations include

Kannadigas are known for their revolutionary ideals and goals. In a country labelled as democratic but practices unchecked and supported corruption at all levels-Indian political scandals, the most prominent exemplary figures who opposed the system and faced it with valour include

[edit] See also


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