Chapters: Ch 1 · Ch 2 · Ch 3 · Ch 4 · Ch 5
History & Inscriptions
Kar_Bharadwaj Tweet: Holalkere Kannada Inscription Post-Talikota War A tweet documenting a Kannada inscription from Holalkere that provides local historical evidence from the period following the 1565 Battle of Talikota — when the Vijayanagara Empire’s defeat by the Deccan Sultanates began a major political transition in Karnataka. Inscriptions from this transitional period provide ground-level evidence that official dynastic histories do not capture. https://twitter.com/Kar_Bharadwaj
Kar_Bharadwaj Tweet: Sandige Making in Chavundaraya’s Lokopakaram (~1000 Years Ago) A tweet highlighting a sandige recipe in Chavundaraya’s 10th-century Kannada encyclopaedia Lokopakāram — one of the oldest surviving Kannada prose texts. The existence of detailed food recipes in a millennium-old Kannada text demonstrates both the sophistication of early Kannada prose and the continuity of Karnataka’s culinary traditions.
Karthik’s Quora: History of ‘Karnataka’ as Identity A Quora answer tracing the historical emergence of “Karnataka” as a linguistic and regional identity — from early inscriptional uses through medieval literary traditions to the modern state. The history of the term illuminates how linguistic identity is constructed, contested, and institutionalized over centuries.
Incredible Inscription Stones of Bengaluru (Google My Maps) A crowdsourced mapping resource documenting hero stones, sati stones, and epigraphic monuments across Bengaluru — an invaluable citizen archaeology project that records monuments in rapidly urbanizing areas before they are destroyed or buried.
J P Nagar to Hebbal: Preserving Bengaluru’s History (thebetterindia.com) An article on grassroots preservation efforts for Bengaluru’s historical monuments, including inscription stones that are the primary source for understanding the pre-colonial Kannada-speaking history of what is now one of the world’s largest tech cities. https://www.thebetterindia.com/
Kannada Learning Resources
How to Learn Kannada (alllanguageresources.com) A resource guide for learning Kannada as a second language — covering available textbooks, online courses, YouTube channels, apps (Duolingo Kannada, Ling, Drops), and community resources for learners at different stages. The guide situates Kannada in its family (Dravidian, closely related to Telugu, somewhat to Tamil) and realistic difficulty assessment for English speakers. https://alllanguageresources.com/
ಓರುಗ Tweet: Havayk vs Uttara Karnataka Dialect Humor A humorous tweet comparing Havyaka Brahmin dialect Kannada with Uttara Karnataka (North Karnataka) dialect Kannada — capturing the significant regional variation in vocabulary, phonology, and intonation across the Kannada-speaking region, and how dialect differences are navigated with humor within the community.
Ugadi Etymology Note — Kannada Uses ‘yugādi’, Marathi Uses ‘guḍhi pāḍvā’ (Kan Facts Tweet) A tweet noting that the New Year festival ugādi (from Sanskrit yugādi = beginning of a yuga) is called guḍhi pāḍvā in Marathi — where pāḍvā is a Marathi tadbhava form of Kannada origin, and guḍhi refers to a ceremonial pole. The observation illustrates how the same festival’s name encodes different regional cultural emphases, and how Marathi borrowed and mahāprāṇized Kannada words.