Karnataka

Finger-millet balls, the strength food of rural Karnataka. Shree Anna on a plate.

‘Hot lentil rice’: rice and toor dal cooked with vegetables, tamarind and a freshly roasted spice powder, finished with ghee.

A crisp dosa spread with a red garlic-and-chilli chutney and filled with a soft potato palya, served with coconut chutney.

Soft steamed cakes of semolina and curd tempered with mustard, cashews and curry leaves, a Bengaluru breakfast that needs no fermenting.

Rice-flour flatbread mixed with onion, dill, coconut and green chillies, patted out by hand on a griddle.

Thin, crisp flatbreads of jowar (sorghum) flour patted out by hand, the daily bread of north Karnataka.

Small brinjals stuffed with a roasted peanut, sesame, coconut and spice paste and cooked in oil, the classic partner of jolada rotti.

Soft, lacy ‘water dosas’ made from a thin batter of soaked rice, with no fermenting, from the Tulu coast.

Spicy Mangalorean chicken curry in coconut milk poured over crisp, dry rice wafers, a famous dish of the Tulu coast.

Mackerel cooked in a sour and fiery paste of tamarind and red chillies, a staple fish dish of Mangaluru homes.

Dark, tangy pork curry of Kodagu, flavoured with roasted spices and kachampuli, the black vinegar of the Malabar tamarind.

Steamed balls of broken rice, soft inside, eaten with pandi curry or chicken curry in Kodagu.

Night-long dance-drama of coastal and Malnad Karnataka that tells stories from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas with song, dance, dialogue and grand costumes.

A powerful drum dance of Karnataka in which men beat large drums slung from their shoulders while leaping and turning in formation.

A vigorous devotional dance of Karnataka based on the legend of Veerabhadra, performed with a sword and shield during Shaiva festivals.

A devotional dance of southern Karnataka in which devotees of Male Mahadeshwara swing and clash brass cymbals in rhythmic patterns while singing his praises.

A night-time ritual performance of the Tulu-speaking coast in which a trained performer, in make-up and costume, embodies a local guardian spirit (daiva).

A harvest dance of Karnataka, best known among the Halakki Vokkaliga community of Uttara Kannada, performed after the crops are gathered.

The New Year of Tulu Nadu (coastal Karnataka and Kasaragod in Kerala), on Mesha Sankranti in mid-April. Like Vishu, it begins with an auspicious arrangement of grain, fruits and vegetables (Bisu kani).

Karnataka's state festival, ten days of celebrations in Mysuru ending on Vijayadashami with the Jamboo Savari, the procession of Goddess Chamundeshwari on a golden howdah carried by an elephant.

A Shakti Peetha at Chamundi hills, Mysuru, where Sati's hair is said to have fallen. The Goddess is worshipped here as Chamundeshwari.

The southern matha founded by Adi Shankaracharya on the Tunga river, with the Sharadamba temple.

Home of the 57-foot monolithic statue of Gommateshwara (Bahubali), anointed in the Mahamastakabhisheka about every twelve years.

Ruins of Vijayanagara, the capital of a great South Indian empire, spread among giant boulders along the Tungabhadra river.

A cluster of Chalukya temples on the Malaprabha river where northern (Nagara) and southern (Dravida) temple styles stand side by side.

Star-shaped temples of the Hoysala dynasty, covered in finely carved soapstone figures, inscribed together as the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas.

The palace of the Wadiyar rulers of Mysore, famous for its Indo-Saracenic architecture and for being lit by thousands of bulbs during Dasara.

A major Jain pilgrimage town with the monolithic statue of Gommateshwara (Bahubali) standing on Vindhyagiri hill.

The 17th-century mausoleum of Sultan Mohammed Adil Shah in Vijayapura, crowned by one of the largest domes in the world.

Rock-cut cave temples carved into red sandstone cliffs above Agastya lake at Badami, the old Chalukya capital of Vatapi.

One of India’s highest plunge waterfalls, where the Sharavathi river drops down a sheer cliff in four streams.

A tiger reserve of dry deciduous forest at the foot of the Nilgiris, home to tigers, elephants, gaur and many birds.

A hill district of coffee estates, misty forests and waterfalls in the Western Ghats, and home of the Kodava people.

Ruins of Vijayanagara, capital of a great South Indian empire.

Chalukya temples blending northern and southern styles.

Temples of Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura.