Ancient City Modern Hues

Ancient City Modern Hues
What’s in a name? Plenty, it seems, if the impassioned debate surrounding the renaming of Bangalore as Bengaluru is anything to go by. Soumya Sitaraman looks back on a time when the city was, indeed, called Bengaluru.
Deccan herald


Bangalore, or Bengaluru, a city that evokes memories of overcast skies spilling muted light on flaming blossoms of the Gulmohar arched over beautiful streets. This is a city where stately raintrees make green filigree patterns against the sky above. Bangalore means an escape from the oppressive heat and humidity of surrounding cities, a sleepy, small Army town with its prominent cantonment area, Army barracks, parade grounds and a large famous promenade, MG road.

This beautiful place with its cool weather inspires a languid pace, where one can literally stop to smell the phenomenal roses that flourish in the front gardens of many a gray-cut stone bungalow.

The ancient history

A 9th-century inscription dating back to the Ganga rule (350 A.D. to the end of the 10th century) found in a temple in the village of Begur mentions Bengaluru as a small hamlet. Research indicates that the location of the Bengaluru mentioned in the Ganga records coincides with modern Halebengaluru near Kodigehalli, not far from the area now popularly nown as Hebbal. The Gangas controlled the present districts of Kolar, Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and Tumkur.

Later, about 1015, the Chola Empire extended its northern borders and its kingdom included the area now occupied by Bangalore City. Chola kings left their distinct mark in this area with their signature temples. Two temples, now more than a hundred years old, still stand within the limits of Bangalore, in the areas of Domlur and Ulsoor, respectively. The Chokkanathaswamy temple in Domlur is the oldest in the city. Domlur was referred to as Tombalur in Chola inscriptions. The Chola territory at the time covered North Bangalore. The area they named Illaipakka Nadu is none other than the present-day Yelahanka. In Ulsoor, the Chola kings built the Someshwara temple.

Domlur and Ulsoor continue to bear their ancient names from a distant past. The construction, survival and continued patronage of these temples for over a thousand years indicate a strong and uninterrupted presence of an active population in this area.

After the Cholas, the Vijayanagara kingdom overran this area and exerted its influence over the land and its people. A popular story is attributed to Veera Ballala II (Ballala the Brave). At one time, he found himself tired and deep in a forest where he was given a simple meal of boiled beans by an old pesant woman. Sated and grateful, he is said to have nicknamed the area Bele benda kalu ooru or ‘area of boiled lentil beans’. If this did happen, he may have made the tongue-in-cheek remark referring to the name Bengaluru, then already over a hundred years old. It is, however, probably just a popular fabricated story as the sources that narrate it cannot seem to agree on whether he was a Hoysala or Vijayanagara king and further, bele is actually a lentil, benda kai in Kannada is okra, ladiesfinger, and not beans.

The landscape of the region, when surveyed in the 1500s, consisted of expansive tracts of cultivated and uncultivated land. The plains in this area were and continue to be distinctly marked with innumerable keres, natural and man made tanks that are temporal low-lying water catchments. These keres filled with during rains and recharged the ground water table for the farmers until the next season.

The Kempegowda era

The Kempegowdas, one of the prominent feudal lords of the Vijayanagar kingdom, were the then surveyors of the area. They controlled the Bangalore-Magadi area. By several accounts, they were originally from Yelahanka with roots relating them to the Nadaprabhus. Kempegowda I (1510-1570) built his new capital here around 1537. He called his capital Bengaluru to honor the birth place of his mother and wife, the hamlet of Hale Bengaluru (Old Bengaluru).

Kempegowda built a mud fort with the help of Vijayanagara King Achutaraya. The exterior perimeter had eight gates or points of entry and exit. One of the gates was in Ulsoor. In a large area protected by the fort, Kempegowda encouraged habitation and an urban area soon developed with a growing population, active trade and bustling markets. The area was subdivided or sectioned based on trade guilds, among other considerations. Some that continue to thrive are Chickpet (little locality), Doddapet (large locality), Taragupet (grain market locality), and later, Cottonpet (cotton market area). These areas thrive today as wholesale markets in modern Bangalore City.

Kempegowda’s successor and son, Kempegowda II, defined the perimeters of the expanding urban area under his control by erecting four mandapams strategically placed to the north, south, east and west of a pre-determined point to demarcate the limits he set for Bangalore. According to archeologists, each mandapa was a small granite four-pillared structure with a raised tiered roof. Kempegowda II is credited with the expansion and continued patronage of the Ulsoor Someshwara temple built by the Cholas. Kempegowda II, a patron ruler and devout Hindu, refurbished the Gavigangadhara temple and is credited with building the great Bull temple at Basavanagudi. As part of his civic drive, he built many tanks to hold rainwater within the limits and on the perimeter of the town. Of these, the most famous is the Sampangi tank. Another is the Karanji tank in the area now called Basavanagudi.

The headquartes of the Kempegowdas was at Bangaluru until the Vijayanagara Empire fell. The weakened empire fell prey to more dominant rulers in adjacent areas. A large part of Bangalore was conquered by Mohammed Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur. This marked the beginning of a time of political upheaval and social change. The Adil Shahi Sultans held on to the territory until 1638, when they were overrun by the Marathas. Shahji Bhonsle ruled the area for 50 years until he lost it to Aurangzeb’s army in a fateful battle in 1686. The city was captured and leased to the Wodeyar rulers of Mysore, Chikkadevaraya.

From Tipu to British

Aurangazed probably needed money for his advancing armies and hence sold the property to the Wodeyars for Rs 3 lakhs in 1690. Chikka Devaraya Wodeyar (1673-1704 AD) invested in his new acquisition by rebuilding the fort in granite. He also developed the city towards the south and built the Venkataramana temple. He is credited with developing amenities like storehouses and encouraging education in agraharams.

His successors, Kanteerava Narasaraja Wodeyar (1704-1714 AD), and Dodda Krishnaraja Wodeyar (1732-1734 AD), maintained their inheritance. Their successor, Krishnaraja Wodeyar II (1734-1766), turned out to be weak. A siege at Devanhalli in 1749 brought a mercenary soldier to the attention of Nanjiraj, a minister at the court of the Maharaja of Mysore. The man, Haider Ali, the great grandson of a wandering Islamic fakir, had served with an exemplary and distinguishing ability. This earned him an independent command from the Maharaja. Haider cleverly made himself indespensable over the next 12 years, enslaving the Maharaja to his will. He took over the reigns of Bangalore in 1759 after the Wodeyar gifted him the area. He reinforced the forts and exerted control over the entire region, including Mysore. Haider trained his son Tipu to follow in his steps. They were both patriotic and Tipu was one of the Indian kings who resisted British occupation.

After Tipu Sultan lost to the British, the invaders began to exert their influence on the landscape. Lal Bagh was no more the Sultan’s garden. However, in the spirit of the project, the British retained Lal Bagh and decided to use it to serve as a “depository of useful plants” and a “botanical garden” so that naturalists interested in plant identification, classification, propagation and transplantation could learn from this living library.

At 3,113 feet (949 m) above sea level, the beautiful dry and cool climate of Bangalore attracted many to maintain a summer home here. Its small-town ambience and the gardens earned it the title of ‘garden city’. Bangalore was not always a garden city. It was once a vast stretch of fields that turned unto an urban area thanks to the initiatives of Kempagowda and Haider Ali. Planners give the city its botanical trump card, several well-developed gardens and parks, of which Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park are the largest and most famous.

Another green lung was created for the old city that was soon developing a modern dimension. In 1864 Sir Richard Sankey, the then Chief Engineer of Mysore set aside and planned a large park of a few hundred acres within the city. He named it after Sir Mark Cubbon, Bangalore’s longest-serving commissioner. Within the limits of this park, he set a library.

In 1791, Lord Cornwallis defeated Tipu. After the arrival of the British, Bengaluru became the very English sounding ‘Bangalore’. Lord Cornwallis once again strengthened the fort. In 1809, he established a cantonment that served as a base for the British regional administration. The Wodeyars continued to own property within the city and in 1887 they built a castle in Bangalore fashioned after the European castles of the time. The plague of 1898 hastened the modernisation of Bangalore. Infrastructure for telephone lines was laid to help coordinate plague-relief efforts.

A modern city

Civic authorities, suddenly alert to the danger of vermin, passed new regulations for construction of houses and the maintainance of city-wide sanitation to be supervised by a health officer. The Victoria Hospital was constructed and made operational after its inauguration in 1900 by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy. The old hospitals continue to exist and operate, side by side with the modern high-tech new hospitals that have mushroomed all over the city.

The year 1906 was a benchmark year. Bangalore became the the first city in Asia to have electricity generated and drawn from the hydroelectic plant situated in Shivanasamudra. In a few months, the project will mark a century of existance.

In 1954, the Vidhana Soudha or the State Secretariat was built. This beautiful building has been recently expanded along original lines and the palm-tree-lined street in front of it improved.

Today, Bangalore is called the ‘Silicon Valley of India’. Growing rapidly to keep pace with the IT business Bangalore has actively wooed, the city has spread well beyond the original boundaries of the cityscape urbanised by its ancestral planners. A cosmopolitan city with a heafty influx of pleople from the neighboring states and now, expatriates from the United States and elsewhere, Bangalore continues to fervently protect and advocate the use of the native tongue, Kannada, the official language of Karnataka.

Tipu’s Lal Bagh

Haider Ali reserved about 250 acres for a garden along the lines of Mughal gardens in vogue at the time around one of the mandapas erected by Kempegowda to define the limits of this fort-city. He brought exotic plants from foreign countries. Tipu added to the collection of rare plants, using his political connections to bring plants from France, Persia and Afghanistan. Roses did particularly well in the landscaped gardens and are said to have flowered profusely. Tipu was believed to have exclaimed “lal bagh” when he beheld a field of red roses, giving the garden its name.

Historic milestone

The area that is now Bangalore has seen trade and habitation for over 2000 years. Archeological digs have unearthed Stone Age implements and Roman coins. Many of these ancient sites remain largely unexplored beneath the mushrooming modernity that belies the antiquity of land use. According to some Puranic geographers, this is the region referred to as Kalyanapuri or Kalyananagara. A milestone from the Mauryan Empire, circa 850 AD, mentions a place called Bengalooru. Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta chose to become a Jain and renounced his throne at the awe-inspiring Jain pilgrimage center Shravanabelagola, 157 km from modern Bangalore. According to epigraphic evidence, Chavundaraya, the Minister of the Ganga King Rachamalla Sathyavakya, installed the giant granite statue of Sri Gomateshwara, a Jain Thirthankara, in 988 A.D.