What is the meaning of Canara or Kanara ?

Kinara → Kanara/Canara → Kannada

Kinara / Kinarah / Kinare (किनारा)

Origin: Persian

Kinara is an Urdu word, it means “shore, river bank, edge, margin, limit” in English.

It is not the complete south west coast of India, It is majorly the present coastal part of Karnataka.

History: When the Mangalore region was captured by the Tippu Sultan, Parsi / Urdu being his mother tongue he named this region as “Kinara” because of the sea shore. Later when the British took it back they called the whole stretch between Malabar and Konkan region as “Canara”. Then as their rule of ruling divide and conquer they divided the “Canara” to “North Canara” and “South Canara” making under the rule of Bombay and Madras presidency respectively.

After the independence the North Canara and South Canara happened to fall under Mysore State, the name “Canara” was then changed to “Kannada”.

Konkani is a language and in Karnataka it has been contact with Tulu and Kannada,showing Dravidian influence on its syntax. This differs from Goan konkani.

Coming back to how konkani originated in Mangalore, because of Goa inquisition act they migrated to coastal regions of Karnataka.

>> Akarsh Shetty