Vani Vilasa Sagara
dam in Karnataka, India
Vāni Vilāsa Sāgara (VVS), popularly known as Māri Kanive Dam is a reservoir constructed across Vedavathi river in Hosadurga Taluk, Chitradurga District, in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about 24 km northeast of Hosadurga, 20 km west of Hiriyur, 55 km south of Chitradurga, and 180 km northwest of Bengaluru.
Vani Vilasa Sagara is the oldest and continuously operating dam in the state, completed its construction in August 1907. The dam irrigates a large area of the Deccan region of Central Karnataka, which is otherwise largely a dry land. It irrigates more than 100 km2 of land in Hiriyur taluk through right and left bank canals. Vani Vilasa Sagara dam is also the source of domestic water for Hiriyur, Hosadurga, Chitradurga and Challakere taluks.
History
In 1803, Scottish botanist Francis Buchanan observed that Mari Kanive had potential as a reservoir site during his visit to the region. The location takes its name from the nearby Kanive Maramma temple.
Sir Mark Cubbon proposed constructing a dam across the valley at Mari Kanive in the early 19th century, but serious planning and implementation didn't begin until around 1897.
Dewan K. Seshadri Iyer initiated the Mari Kanive irrigation project under the authority of Queen Kempananjammanni Devi Vani Vilasa Sannidhana.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7914888. Authority coordinates are 13.891, 76.477. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907, 1803 and 1897.
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This entry incorporates text from “Vani Vilasa Sagara” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.