Department
of Tribal Studies
Introduction Photo Gallery Dept. Faculty
Giri
Seeme : The
Tribal Village
Giriseeme
: The Tribal Village
No other University in Karnataka
has a Department of Tribal Studies and so the structure of our Department is
quite unique. Dr Chandrasekhar Kambar, the first Vice-Chancellor of Kannada
University and a well-known Folk- lorist in Kannada, , envisaged that the
physical outlook of the Department should be quite different from other
Departments. So he projected a mini-campus rightly called Giriseeme. The
mini campus/village contains 11 houses modelled on the houses of tribes in the
coastal and Malenadu regions. The walls of these houses have drawings/artwork of
tribal communities both inside as well as outside. "Chavadi", the place of the tribal court and the
sacred place of the tribes, is an important building in this mini-campus. This
building is used as a seminar-hall today. The carpet area of the department is
1420 Sq m. out of 100 acres including 2 tanks. In the vast area of the campus,
we have grown sacred trees and plants. The Giriseeme has become an important
tourist attraction in Vidyaranya, the Kannada University campus. Dr H C
Boralingaiah who has been working about tribes has kept constant touch with
various tribes of Karnataka for the past twenty years and he has been the force
behind the construction of this campus. Many newspapers in the state have
published special articles on this campus and many national level dignitaries
have given lectures in "Chavadi" and have appreciated the atmosphere
of Giriseeme. The previous Vice-Chancellors,
Dr M M Kalburgi, Prof H J Lakkappa Gowda and Dr K V Narayana also has taken keen
initiative in expanding and renovating Giriseeme.