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 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 expected outcome of this project will be in the form of a well-researched, informative book.
