The oldest and widest of the Society's streams of enquiry. It spans the political and social history of Karnataka and India, the schools of Indian philosophy, and the region's long traditions of art, architecture, sculpture and the performing arts — from the temples of the Chalukyas and the city of Vijayanagara to the living crafts of today.
The Society's School of Indian Palaeography, begun in 1960, trains scholars to read the inscriptions and manuscripts on which this history rests.