KARNATIC or Carnatic, a term applied by modern geographers to the low country below the ghats on the Coromandel or eastern coast of the Peninsula of India, also known as the Dravida or Tamil country. But the Karnatika, Kannadi, or Canarese language is spoken in the centre of the Peninsula. It is bordered by the Tamil and the Telugu on the east, is spoken throughout the plateau of Mysore and in the S.W. districts of Hyderabad, in the Dekhan as far north as the village of Murkunda, lying 30 miles west of Beder. Also, it is largely spoken in the ancient Telugu country on the Malabar coast, now long designated as Canara, a name which it acquired from having been subjected for centuries to the rule of Canarese princes. But in Canara, the Malealam, the Konkani, and the Telugu are also spoken, though less extensively than the Cauarese. The Canarese character differs slightly from the Telugu, from which it has been borrowed, but the cha racters used for Tamil, Malealam, and Telugu are quite distinct from each other. The ancient Canarese character, however, entirely differs from that of the modern Telugu, and the Canarese language differs even more widely from the Telugu than it does from the Tamil. There is an ancient
dialect of the Canarese language current, as well as modern, the latter differing from the former by the use of different inflexional terminations. The ancient Canarese dialect, however, has no connection with the Sanskrit character to which that name has been given, in which, viz. the Hala Kannada, many very ancient inscriptions in the Mahratta country as well as in Mysore are found. The people who speak the Canarese language may number seven millions. This includes the Coorg people and the Hyderabad country, where Canar ese, Malirati, Gondi, and Telugu are spoken, the Urdu or Hindustani language being merely known to the Muhammadan there, and to the Hindus and Kayasths from Northern India, the resident population using it as a lingua franca. Of the books in the Karnatika language, mention may be made of the Kavya Sarya, KARN., Gems from the Works of ancient Canarese Poets, by Aggalah, a poet of the 12th century ; Rudra Bliatta wrote the Jagannatha-Vijaya ; the Bharata Sara is by Chandra Sekhara Kavi ; the Abhinava Bharata Sara Sangraha was composed by Bijja lanka Raya of Kalyana pura in the 12th century.