Kannada , or Kanarese, is a language spoken in India predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas (Kannadigaru) and number roughly 38 million,is one of the 40 most spoken languages in the world. It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka. The Kannada language is written using the Kannada script, which evolved from the 5th century Kadamba script. Kannada is attested epigraphically from about one and a half millennia.  With an unbroken literary history of over a thousand years, the excellence of Kannada literature continues into the present day.