Karanam or Karana is a community mostly prevalent in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.They are similar to Kayasthas of North India.
In Orissa, this class is referred to as Karana, and in Andhra Pradesh they are also called Sristikaranam, Sistukaranam, Sistakaranam, Sristikaranalu, Sistukaranalu, Sistakaranalu or Karanalu.
The Karanam community of Andhra pradesh migrated from Cuttack and Puri District of Orissa to look after various royal management of different dynasties of Kalinga-Utkala (ancient Orissa) empire and after the northern portion of present day Andhra Pradesh was occupied by Vijaya Nagaram King from Orissa's Gajapati Empire, these Karana Community settled in different part of the mighty kingdom of Vijayanagara and were appointed in various official work fields like accounts, court, Government duties or tax, solving the internal problems in villages, collecting the information, statistics, look after the village of Karanam and other duties. Gradually the Karanam community adopted Telugu language. Still Karnalu, a mixed form of the languages of Telugu & Oriya prevalent in the Karanam community of Andhra Pradesh. In the border district of Orissa (Koraput, Rayagada, Nowrangpur, Ganjam, Paralakhemundi) and Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam, Vizianagram, Srikakulam). Patnaik/Pattnayak,Mohanty,Kanungo are the most common surname.
A small-scale 2002 study found that the Shista Karanam were polymorphic for 4 blood phenotypes, and that this group had the highest incidence of the AB phenotype amongst other residents of Andhra Pradesh.[1]