KARNATAKA COAST

coastal lowlands in western Karnataka state, southwestern India, with an area of about 4,000 sq mi (10,000 sq km). It is bounded by the Arabian Sea on the west, the Western Ghats on the east, Konkan on the north, and the Kerala Plains on the south. Stretching from north to south for about 140 mi (225 km), it has a maximum width of about 40 mi in the south. Historically the coast was a contact zone between Indian merchants and European and African traders. It was successively ruled by the Kadambas, Rattas, Calukyas, Yadavas, and Hoysalas, until it passed to the Muslims (c. 16th century)with short interludes of Maratha supremacy. The British annexed the coast in 1789. The coastline is sandy and in places rocky cliffs overhang the sea. Sloping from east to west, it comprises a narrow belt of coastal sand dunes, marshes, and valley plains backed by a higher erosional platform, in turn succeeded by isolated hills that are 300 ft (90 m) to 1,000 ft high farther inland. Coconuts and casuarinas grow on the saline sandy beaches, mangroves live in the marshes and estuaries, and bamboo and scrub are found on the hills. The coast is drained by the Kali Nadi, Gangavali, Bedti, Tadri, Sharavati, and Netravati rivers, which have carved out narrow valleys with steep gradients and generally flow in a westerly direction. Alluvial soils occur in the south; the rest of the coast has infertile red soils that are often gravelly and sandy. The region forms a transitional zone between Maharashtra and Kerala states. The southern, or Mangalore, region has plantations of coconut and casuarina; the northern, or Udipi, region produces rice and pulse (legumes). Industries are mostly located at Mangalore, an important regional centre and major coffee port of India, and at Udipi. The ports of Karwar, Kumta, Honavar, and Malpe have lost their importance with the development of railways in the interior. Mangalore and Karwar have been developed as deepwater ports for the export of mineral ores. History The name Mysore (from the Hindu word for buffalo town) derives from the destruction of the buffalo-demon Mahisasura by the goddess Camunda. The prehistory of Mysore is lost in legends that concern the struggle that took place in southern India between invading Aryan peoples and the original inhabitants; in legendary form this struggle is represented as a conflict between devils and demons on the one hand and gods and goddesses on the other. The subsequent history of the region deals mainly with the princely state of Mysore as it was before 1953, for no dynasty succeeded in ruling the whole region occupied by the Kannada-speaking peoples. After the reign of Asoka, the emperor of Maurya in the mid-3rd century BC, the principal dynasties in the area of Mysore were the Kadambas of Banavasi, the Western Gangas (who were in power from the 3rd to the 11th century AD), the Banas, and other feudatories of the Pallava dynasty, which ruled from about the 4th to the 9th century. The rich lands of the upper Tungabhadra region and the land between that river and the Krishna River were taken from the Kadambas in the 6th century by a central Karnataka dynasty, the Calukyas. Their efforts and those of their competitors of the Rastrakuta dynasty to unite the plateau and exploit the softer lands of the coastal plains enriched Mysore but led to reprisals from the Tamils to the east and south. By the 12th century the Hoysala dynasty had absorbed Gangavadi (as the state of Mysore was then called); but after the Hoysalas had been obliged to submit to the sultan of Delhi, Mysore gradually came under the sway of the state of Vijayanagar, whose capital of the same name stood on the site now partly occupied by the village of Hampi on the Tungabhadra River in contemporary Karnataka. In the latter part of the 16th century the Vijayanagar empire faded, giving place to Mughal power north of the Tungabhadra River and to the rajas of Mysore in the south. In the 17th century the wadiyars (rulers) of Mysore profited from the conflict between the Mughal Empire and the Mar athas in western India, as well as from the internal power struggles that occurred in the Mughal Empire after the death (1707) of Aurangzeb, to expand their rule. In 1610 the wadiyar of Mysore seized Seringapatam; later, Bangalore was also acquired and wadiyar power consolidated. Later, maladministration at home and interference in wars of succession in the plains led to the usurpation of power in 1761 by the military adventurer Haidar 'Ali. His invasions of Malabar and the Karnataka plains extended Mysore's dominion but eventually led, after the resulting Mysore Wars, to the death of his colourful and energetic son Tipu Sultan in 1799 and to the conquest of Mysore by the British, who sponsored the restoration of wadiyar rule. Mysore was governed by a British commissioner from 1831 to 1881, when administration was once again restored to the wadiyars. The last of the wadiyars became governor of the state after the territorial reorganizations of 1953 and 1956. The state was renamed Karnataka in 1973. G.K. Ghori The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica