Karnataka

Capital: Bangalore
Area: 191,791 square km.
Population: 52,733,958

The state of Karnataka, formerly known as Mysore, is one of the more easy-going Indian states. It's a state of strong contrasts with the modern, industrialised city of Bangalore at one extreme and the expanses of rural farming areas at the other. Karnataka also boasts some of the most interesting historic architecture in India and a varied and tumultuous history.

It was to Sravanabelagola in Karnataka that Chandragupta Maurya, India's first great emperor, retreated after he had renounced worldly ways and embraced Jainism. Later the mighty statue of Gomateshvara was erected at Sravanabelagola and it celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 1981. At Badami, in the north of the state, the Chalukyans built some of the earliest Hindu temples in India, 1500 years ago. All later south Indian temple architecture stems from the Chalukyan designs at Badami and the Pallavas at Kanchipuram and Maha-balipuram in Tamil Nadu. Other important Indian dynasties, such as the Cholas and the Gangas, have also played their part in Karnataka's history, but it was the Hoysalas, who ruled between the 11th and 14th centuries, who left the most vivid evidence of their presence. The beautiful Hoysala temples at Som-nathpur, Belur and Halebid are gems of Indian architecture with intricate and detailed sculptures rivalling anything to be found at Khajuraho or Konorak.

In 1327 Hindu Halebid fell to the Moslem army of Mohammed bin Tughlaq and in the succeeding centuries Karnataka was held by first the followrs of one religion, then the other. Founded in 1336, the Hindu kingdom of Vijaya-nagar, with its capital at Hampi, is one of the least visited and thus most surprising of India's ruined kingdoms. Vijayanagar reached its peak in the early 1500s but in 1565 it fell to the Deccan Sultans and Bijapur became the most important city of the region. Today Bijapur is just a small city surrounded by an imposing wall and packed with an amazing collection of mosques and other reminders of its glorious past.

Finally Hyder Ali took control in 1761 and the seat of power moved back south to Srirangapatna near Mysore. His son, Tipu Sultan, with help from the French, further extended his father's kingdom and put the British in their place on more than one occasion before finally being defeated and killed in 1799.

The British installed a Hindu ruler when they brought the region under their control and a series of enlightened and progressive rulers held power right through to independence. The Maharaja at that time was so popular that he became the first governor of the state.