Understand
This coastal strip of Karnataka lies between the Sahyadri mountain range Western Ghats and the Arabian sea. It was named Canara also Kanara by European traders. There are many theories among historians as to how the name Canara came about, but the commonly accepted one is that it was a corruption of Kannada, which in turn came from the Kannada dynasty that was ruling the place when the Portuguese stopped by. The British took over the region in 1799, split the region into North Canara and South Canara, and made the former a part of the Bombay Presidency while the latter was made part of the Madras Presidency. After independence in 1947, the two districts were reorganized into the Mysore state which later became Karnataka. They now got the indegenous names of Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada. Uttara and Dakshina mean North and South respectively in Kannada In 1997, Udupi district was hived off from Dakshina Kannada.
In common with Kerala, this region has a mythology about its origin. Parasurama, an avatar of Vishnu, flung his axe into the sea, asking it to recede. There is some controversy over why exactly he flung said axe, the version accepted in this region says that he wanted land that was not created by Brahma for his penance.
