Karnataka has been ruled successively by the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslin dynasties. Jainism too established its roots here. It is said that India`s first emperor Chandragupta Maurya converted to Jainism in the 4th century. He renounced his throne and fasted to death at Sravanabelagola and now one of the famous pilgrimage centers of Jainism. During the first millennium AD, the whole of Karnataka was dominated by power struggles between the various kingdoms that controlled Western Deccan. From the 6th to 8th century, Karnataka was under the domination of the Chalukyas.

In the Medival era, the Muslim invasions from the North forced the fractured states of the south into close alliance with the Vijanagars who emerged as the landlords. Their lavish capital Vijanagar extended from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea and south to Cape Comorin. The Muslim`s superior military strength triumphed in 1565 at the Battle of Talikota, when the Bahmanis seized Vijanagar plundering its palaces and temples.

After which a succession of Muslim sultans held influence over the north and in the south, the Wadiyar rajas of Mysore fought of the Marathas. In 1761, the Muslim campaigner Halider Ali with f rench support seized the throne. His son Tipu Sultan turned Mysore into a major force in the south before he was killed by the British in 1799 at the battle of Srirangapatanam. Following Tipu Sultan`s defeat, the British restored the Wadayar family to the throne.

In 1830 the British appointed a Commission to rule in their place. After fifty years the throne was once again returned to the Wadayars, who remained as governors until Karnataka was created by the merging of the states of Mysore and the Madras Precidencies in 1956. After Independence the political scene was dominated by the Congress, which was routed in the nineties. After which the state was ruled successively by the Janata Dal, BJP and Congress Governments.