Karnataka, Travel to Karnataka India, Karnataka Tourism

The people of Karnataka are locally known as Kannadigas and are known for their hospitality and friendly and cultured attitude towards visitors. The people are very peace loving and live a very simple life.

Majority of the population in Karnataka are Hindus. The Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis are also there in the state. The Jains are also there in the large majority in Karnataka and have become prominent in the business sector.

The festivals have a very religious significance in the life of the people of Karnataka. Some of the festivals which are celebrated in Karnataka are the Dussehra Festival, Pattadakkal Dance Festival, Makar Sankranti, Hoysala Mahotsava, Ganesh Chaturthi, Hampi Festival and Yugadi. The Dussehra is the main festival of Karnataka.

Sixteenth-century visitors to the royal courts of present-day Karnataka returned to Europe with stupendous tales of wealth -- cities overflowing with jewels, and streets littered with diamonds. Over the centuries, the lush green state that occupies a vast chunk of India's southwestern seaboard and much of the Deccan plateau saw numerous kingdoms rise and fall, powerful dynasties that left legacies of impressive palaces and monumental cities that now lie scattered throughout the interior, some of them well off the beaten track, but worth the effort and time it takes to seek them out.

The post-independence state of Karnataka, unified in 1950 on the basis of common language, is predominantly made up of the once-princely state of Mysore and the Berar territories of the Nizam of Hyderabad's kingdom. Once one of the richest cities in India, Hyderabad is now the vibrant capital of neighboring Andhra Pradesh, and a possible excursion from Bangalore, state capital of Karnataka.

Bangalore, in many ways the country's most "Western" city, is today famous for its energetic nightlife and highly evolved computer and technology industries. Although it offers little by way of sightseeing attractions, it's a great place to relax; you can shop by day and explore the bars and clubs at night before taking an overnight train to explore the ghost city of Hampi. This great medieval Hindu capital of the south is said to have once rivaled Rome in size and wealth. The ruins of the 14th-century Vijayanagar kingdom are set in a boulder-strewn landscape that proves fascinating in its own right -- deservedly Karnataka's most famous attraction.