Kannadigas

Kannadigas
Kannaḍigaru
ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು
	Children and woman dressed in traditional attire
Total population
	c. 44 million
Regions with significant populations
India	44 million
Languages
	Kannada
Religion
	Majority:; Hinduism; Minority:; Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity;
Related ethnic groups
	Dravidians; Tuluvas; Konkanis; Kodavas; Telugu; Tamils; Malayalis;

The Kannadigas or Kannaḍigaru^[a] (Kannada: ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು^[b]), often referred to as Kannada people, are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group who natively speak Kannada and trace their ancestry to the South Indian state of Karnataka in India and its surrounding regions.^[5] The Kannada language belongs to the Dravidian family of languages.^[6] Kannada stands among 30 of the most widely spoken languages of the world as of 2001.^[7]

Evidence for human habitation in Karnataka exists from at least the 2nd millennium BCE, and the region is said to have had contact with the Indus Valley civilization. In the 3rd–4th century BCE the land was ruled by the Mauryas and Jainism had dominant presence. It is said that Mauryan emperor Chandragupta Maurya himself, after abdicating the throne to his son Bindusara, retired to the Shravanabelagola region with his Jain guru.^[8]^[9]

After the Mauryas, parts of Karnataka were variously ruled by dynasties who were either ethnically Kannadiga or from the outside. One of its most well-known empires, the Vijayanagara Empire, was founded by Kannada chieftains who were great patrons of Kannada art and literature. The Kadambas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Hoysalas were some of the other major Kannada kingdoms and dynasties ruling the region.

The Kannada language has written inscriptions dating back as far as 450 CE. Kannada literature is mostly composed of treatises on various topics and poems on religious works. Kannada architecture is dominated by stone-carved sculptured palaces, temples and traditional wooden folk houses known as thotti mane and chowki mane.^[10] Many of religious architectures built during ancient and medieval period are today UNESCO World Heritage sites.^[11]

^ Statement 1 : Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2021
^ Kannadigas at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
^ Statement 1 : Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011
^ "Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015.
^
- Braj B. Kachru; S. N. Sridhar; Yamuna Kachru, eds. (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 528. ISBN 978-0521781411. Initial studies of language maintenance and/or language shift involved speakers of Kannada (referred to as Kannadigas), and expanded the scope of the study to include speakers of Gujarati (referred to as Gujaratis), and Malayalam (referred to as Malayalis). (K. K. Sridhar 1988, 1993, 1997: K. K. Sridhar and S.N. Sridhar 2000).
- N. R. Shetty; L. M. Patnaik; N. H. Prasad; N. Nalini, eds. (2017). Emerging Research in Computing, Information, Communication and Applications: ERCICA 2016. Springer. p. 294. ISBN 978-9811047411. Kannada is the thirty-third most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by the Kannada people or Kannadigas (Kannaigaru), mainly in the state of Karnataka and by Kannadiga people settled in other states in India and in the world.
- Barbara A. West (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 361. ISBN 978-1438119137. Kannadigas are native speakers of the Dravidian Kannada language.
^ "Encyclopedia of World Cultures - Canarese, Kannadiga". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
^ "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
^ Kulke & Rothermund 2004, p. 64.
^ Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004), A History of India (4th ed.), London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-15481-9
^ Traditional and Vernacular Architecture: Proceedings of the Seminar, 6-12 January 2001, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Madras Craft Foundation. 2003.
^ Chugh, Lalit (2016). Karnataka's Rich Heritage: Art and Architecture: From Prehistoric Times to the Hoysala Period. Notion Press. ISBN 978-93-5206-824-1.

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[Census_2021-1] Statement 1 : Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2021

[2] Kannadigas at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)

[Census_2011-3] Statement 1 : Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2011

[census2011-4] "Population by religion community – 2011". Census of India, 2011. The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015.

[7] 
Braj B. Kachru; S. N. Sridhar; Yamuna Kachru, eds. (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 528. ISBN 978-0521781411. Initial studies of language maintenance and/or language shift involved speakers of Kannada (referred to as Kannadigas), and expanded the scope of the study to include speakers of Gujarati (referred to as Gujaratis), and Malayalam (referred to as Malayalis). (K. K. Sridhar 1988, 1993, 1997: K. K. Sridhar and S.N. Sridhar 2000).

N. R. Shetty; L. M. Patnaik; N. H. Prasad; N. Nalini, eds. (2017). Emerging Research in Computing, Information, Communication and Applications: ERCICA 2016. Springer. p. 294. ISBN 978-9811047411. Kannada is the thirty-third most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by the Kannada people or Kannadigas (Kannaigaru), mainly in the state of Karnataka and by Kannadiga people settled in other states in India and in the world.

Barbara A. West (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 361. ISBN 978-1438119137. Kannadigas are native speakers of the Dravidian Kannada language.

[6] Braj B. Kachru; S. N. Sridhar; Yamuna Kachru, eds. (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 528. ISBN 978-0521781411. Initial studies of language maintenance and/or language shift involved speakers of Kannada (referred to as Kannadigas), and expanded the scope of the study to include speakers of Gujarati (referred to as Gujaratis), and Malayalam (referred to as Malayalis). (K. K. Sridhar 1988, 1993, 1997: K. K. Sridhar and S.N. Sridhar 2000).

[7] N. R. Shetty; L. M. Patnaik; N. H. Prasad; N. Nalini, eds. (2017). Emerging Research in Computing, Information, Communication and Applications: ERCICA 2016. Springer. p. 294. ISBN 978-9811047411. Kannada is the thirty-third most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by the Kannada people or Kannadigas (Kannaigaru), mainly in the state of Karnataka and by Kannadiga people settled in other states in India and in the world.

[8] Barbara A. West (2010). Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing. p. 361. ISBN 978-1438119137. Kannadigas are native speakers of the Dravidian Kannada language.

[Encyclo-8] "Encyclopedia of World Cultures - Canarese, Kannadiga". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 17 September 2013.

[censusindia.gov.in-9] "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India". censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 16 March 2020.

[FOOTNOTEKulkeRothermund200464-10] Kulke & Rothermund 2004, p. 64.

[11] Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004), A History of India (4th ed.), London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-15481-9

[12] Traditional and Vernacular Architecture: Proceedings of the Seminar, 6-12 January 2001, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Madras Craft Foundation. 2003.

[13] Chugh, Lalit (2016). Karnataka's Rich Heritage: Art and Architecture: From Prehistoric Times to the Hoysala Period. Notion Press. ISBN 978-93-5206-824-1.

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Total population
Children and woman dressed in traditional attire
c. 44 million^[1]^[2]
Regions with significant populations
India	44 million^[3]
Languages
Kannada
Religion
Majority: Hinduism Minority: Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity ^[4]
Related ethnic groups
Dravidians Tuluvas Konkanis Kodavas Telugu Tamils Malayalis