Karnataka Information Department "Namaskara"

The Lovely Land

Situated in the southern part of India, the province of Karnataka spreads over the Deccan Plateau. At 300B.C., it had formed the southern tip of Mauryan empire. Its boundaries enlarged or receded swaying to the drum beats of history & today it accounts for a sixteenth area of India & has a population of about 45 million. Its language is Kannada & its people are known as kannadigas. The three distinct regions are a narrow coastal area along Arabian Sea; high hills, the Western Ghats; & sprawling plains towards the east.
The name of the land Karnataka has come from 'Kari-nadu' meaning the land of black soil say the scholars, & some others hold that 'Karunadu' also means beautiful country; either way the land is celebrated as beautiful throughout its ancient literature.

The water-soaked western strip across the Arabian sea is humid & warm in summer, water-soaked in monsoon, profuse with coconut grooves & paddy fields criss crossed by strips of silvery streams & sparkling stretches of sand.

The hilly uplands of Malnad, One of the wettest regions of the world, where the bamboo flourishes wild & areca, teak, rosewood & matti are grown. It is also the home of the stately gaur & langur. In its southern reaches frequent kheddas are held to capture roaming groups of elephants. Also the swift deer & the deadly tiger, whose eyes burning bright in forest night roam animatedly in the forests.

The east of the ghats is strikingly bare. This elevated stretch is supposed to be the oldest land on the earth where ancient rocks of earth are seen jutting in & out odd shapes. Rivers like Cauvrey, Sharavathi & Ghataprabha pass through upgraded valleys & resulting in water-falls & occasional rapids. The torrental fall of these rivers have been harnessed to generate hydro-electric power in an area where black coal is scarce.

The Capital par excellence

The Capital par excellence Bangalore today has become an Industrial Metropolis. It is also called India's science city. Sophisticated industries in the public sector employ thousands and thousands of workers. It is also called the Electronics city because most of the country's basic electronic industries are based here. It is the fastest growing city in Asia.

Aircraft-building, telecommunication, aeronautics, machine manufacture, etc., have taken giant strides here. Bangalore was known for its salubrious climate which however is now being debated because of the accelerated progress of modern industry. It was called an air-conditioned city and a pensioner's paradise but with these advances it is to be seen how long it could retain these epithets.

Karnataka is beautiful not only in the eyes of her sons and daughters. She captivates any one who sets eyes on her. It was the great Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta who traversed all the way from Magadha to distant Sravanabelagola (Karnataka) to lay his remains in this land before entering the Kingdom of God. To sum up in the incomparable words of Shakespeare - "age cannot wither her charm, nor custom stale her infinite variety".

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