The northern region of Karnataka State, India, includes the districts of Bagalkot, Bellary, Belagavi, Bidar, Bijapur, Dharwad, Gadag, Gulbarga, Haveri, Koppal, Raichur, Vijayanagar, Vijayapura and Yadgir.
Northern Karnataka, shares a strategic proximity to Goa, Maharashtra and erstwhile Hyderabad province. It has a history of complex negotiations and influences- from that of the Portuguese, to Aurangzeb, to the Marathas under Shivaji, and the British. Intellectually too North Karnataka has been a site of traditional and cultural thinking- from spiritual movements such as Veerashaiva, to religious changes such as the Lingayat movement, to political upheavals through the Vijayanagar Empire to literary and intellectual transformations such as the New Literature conceived by Bendre and others.
The inspiration for the project grew during travels in and around Dharwad viewed as the cultural and literary capital of Karnataka. It is literally the ‘dwar’ or entrance into the history and geography of the Karnataka.
Geographically located in the south western part of South India, Karnataka has a rich and glorious history. In ancient times Karnataka was known as Karunadu which means elevated land or high plateau. It has innumerable inscriptions, memorial stones and monuments of rich historical and cultural heritage.
Karnataka has been under the influence of various rulers and dynasties over a period of time starting at the earliest under the rule of the Mauryas and Nanda empire during the 4th and 3rd century BC. Rock edicts found in Karnataka (two each at Nittur and Udagolam in Bellary district; one at Maski in Raichur district; one each at koppal district, four in Chitradurga district and four major edicts in Gulbarga districts) stand in testimony to the extent of the Mauryan Empire. The Mauryan rule was followed by the Satavahana dynasty which ruled over extensive parts of Northern Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Some scholars argue that this dynasty hailed from Karnataka, as Dharwad and Bellary districts were earlier called Satavahanihara (or the Satavahana region). Prakrit was their administrative language while both Kannada and Telugu language evolved during their rule.
