Kadambas and the Making of Karnataka
This is a Joint Research Initiative of Sri Sathya Sai University for Human Excellence, Kalburgi and The Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR). This project is part of the ongoing collaboration with the University, based on an MoU signed with the University on 26 July 2024 on the occasion of Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai’s birthday. The addendum to include this and other projects was signed this year on 26 July 2025. The proposed study emerges from the need to critically revisit and reconstruct the early historical landscape of Karnataka with a sharper focus on the Kadamba dynasty and its cultural, political, and epigraphic milieu. While the Kadambas are often credited with laying the foundations of an independent Kannada-speaking polity, much of their historiography remains fragmented, under-theorised, or embedded in uncritical dynastic narratives.
The Opening Symposium held in February 2026 marked the first step in this landmark academic initiative, which seeks to critically reassess the historical significance of the Kadamba polity in shaping Karnataka's early political, cultural, and intellectual landscape. The project consciously moves beyond conventional political narratives and foregrounds interdisciplinary approaches spanning archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, environmental history, linguistics, and historiography. By situating the Kadambas within wider Deccan processes, from Sātavāhana and Chutu antecedents to Early Cālukya transitions, the deliberations seek to reconstruct patterns of early state formation and trace the emergence of regional identity in Karnataka.
The symposium was graced by the presence and guidance of Chancellor Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai. The keynote address was delivered by noted historian Dr. Laxmeesha Hegde Sonda. Academic sessions were chaired by eminent scholars Prof. R. M. Sadaksharaiah, Dr. Smita Surebankar, and Dr Lakshmi Arya Thathachar. Research papers were presented by Prof. R. M. Sadaksharaiah, Prof. Basavaraja Kodagunti, Dr. Smita Surebankar, Dr Arjun Rao, Dr Gautam Jantakal, Harsha M., Mansij Pal, and Arindam Chaturvedi.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
