Kannada University (Kannada Vishwavidyalaya) is a state public university located at Hampi in the Vijayanagara district of Karnataka, India. Established by the Government of Karnataka, the university is dedicated to advanced study, research and documentation in Kannada language, literature, culture, history, art and the social sciences relating to Karnataka.
| Name | Kannada University |
|---|---|
| Native name | ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾಲಯ |
| Type | State public university |
| Location | Hampi, Vijayanagara district, Karnataka, India |
| Medium of instruction | Kannada |
| Focus | Kannada language, literature, culture and Karnataka studies |
The university was conceived as a specialised institution to promote scholarship in and through the Kannada language. Unlike conventional multi-faculty universities, it was designed primarily as a research and postgraduate institution, with departments organised into thematic faculties covering the humanities, social sciences, fine arts, and development studies oriented towards Karnataka.
Its campus is situated at Kamalapur, near the World Heritage monuments of Hampi, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. The location was chosen for its historical and cultural resonance with Kannada civilisation.
The university is organised into faculties and schools (often called nikayas) that group together related departments. Broad areas of teaching and research include:
The university primarily offers postgraduate, MPhil and PhD programmes, and undertakes publication of scholarly works, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and translations in Kannada.
Kannada University runs an active publication programme, bringing out monographs, reference works and edited volumes in Kannada across disciplines. It has contributed to the documentation of Karnataka's folk traditions, oral literatures, inscriptions and regional histories, and has supported translations of significant works into and from Kannada.
The institution is one of a small number of universities in India established with a single regional language as the principal medium of higher learning and research. It plays a notable role in supporting Kannada-medium scholarship, training researchers in Karnataka studies, and acting as a cultural and academic counterpart to the heritage landscape of Hampi.