Carnatic region

The Carnatic coast /kɑːrˈnætᵻk/ is the region of South India lying between the Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast, in the modern Indian states of Tamil Nadu, south eastern Karnataka, north eastern Kerala and southern Andhra Pradesh.

There are several theories as to the derivation of the term. It may derive from the Sanskrit language karņāţakam from karņa = "ear" + aţati = "he pleases" = "that which pleases the ear", thus "Karnāṭaka saṃgīta" = "Karnataka music", which was coined by Sarangadeva.

According to Bishop Robert Caldwell, in his Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, the term is derived from kar, black, and nadu, country, i.e. the black country, which refers to the black soil prevalent on the plateau of the Southern Deccan.

Hattangadi Narayan Rao suggests a derivation from karu, elevated, + nadu, land, "an elevated land", also descriptive of the region's geography.

The English "Carnatic" has been classicalised in spelling.

The region is located in Southern India, between the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats and the Coromandel Coast, in the Presidency of Madras. Properly the name is, in fact, applicable only to the country of the Kanarese extending between the Eastern and Western Ghats, over an irregular area narrowing northwards, from Palghat in the south to Gulbarga, Bidar in the north, and including Mysore. The extension of the name to the country south of the Karnataka was probably due to the Muslim conquerors who in the 16th century overthrew the kingdom of Vijayanagar, and who extended the name, which they found used of the country north of the Ghats to that south of them. After this period the plain country of the south came to be as called Karnataka Payanghat, or lowlands, as distinguished from Karnataka Balaghat, or highlands. The misapplication of the name Carnatic was carried by the British a step further than by the Mahommedans, it being confined by them to the country below the Ghats, Mysore not being included. Officially, however, this name is no longer applied, the Carnatic having become a mere geographical term. Administratively, the name Carnatic (or rather Karnataka) is now applied only to the Bombay portion of the original Karnataka, viz, the districts of Belgaum, Dharwar and Bijapur, part of Gulbarga district, North Karnataka, and the native states of the Southern Maharashtra agency and Kolhapur.

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