Kannadigas

The Kannadigas or Kannadigaru (Kannada: ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು), often referred to as Kannada people, are a Dravidian ethnic group primarily native to the southern Indian state of Karnataka and its surrounding regions. They natively speak Kannada, which belongs to the Dravidian language family. Kannada stands among 30 of the most widely spoken languages of the world as of 2001. After the Mauryas, parts of Karnataka were variously ruled by dynasties who were from the outside. One theory posits that the Vijayanagara Empire, one of the region's most renowned, was founded by Kannadigas who served as commanders in the Hoysala Empire's army stationed in the Tungabhadra 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. Many of religious architectures built during ancient and medieval period are today UNESCO World Heritage sites.