India for that matter was never a single country naturally. It is a loose conglomeration that was united by the British. Matter of fact I spent the first 26 years of my life in North Karnataka. The Achars and the murthys of south karnataka and the lingappas and bassammas of north karnataka are as different as chalk and cheese. The hindi we spoke in gulbarga wasnt anything like the one spoken in delhi or bombay or even hyderabad. In fact the hindi spoken in wadi or shahabad was rather different from that spoken in gulbarga or jewargi or sedam. People in Gulbarga call people from shahabad and wadi and raichur madrasis while those from solapur call those from gulbarga madrasis and so on. North Karnataka isnt really a sanskrit haven. It is as much a city of Khwaja Bande Nawaz as it is of Sharanabasaveshwara (who himself was no great fan of sanskrit). CV mentions Hakka, Bukka and Vijayanagara often. It is not known if he has considered places like Hampi part of north karnataka. They are not. I have lived in Tamil nadu for several years and own a house there inspite of dravidians. Coming to north India I have lived the rest of my life there.They are no saints either.
