Monday, October 30, 2006

Many miles to go from Bangalore to Bengalooru

Many miles to go from Bangalore to Bengalooru
Deccan Herald

Only an announcement on IT City’s new name — Bengalooru — is expected to be made on November 1 at the mega event to be held at Chinnaswamy Stadium to mark the golden jubilee of the State’s unification. However, the city of 6.5 million will have to wait for some more time before ushering in its new name in Kannada.

According to officials in the Kannada and Culture Department, the name change process is not simple. It includes seeking clearance from the Centre and a gazette notification after inviting objections from the public.

“Though the State government has the prerogative to change the name, it will first have to be placed before the Union Home Ministry for approval. The Geological Survey of India will also have to be notified so that it can make changes in all its records”, according to Kannada and Culture Secretary I M Vittal Murthy.


Moreover, the State Cabinet is yet to pass a resolution on the new name. Bangalore can officially junk its Raj nomenclature to become Bengalooru only after a final gazette notification is issued.

On December 11, 2005, the State government announced that it had accepted the proposal by Jnanpeeth awardee U R Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to its Kannada name Bengalooru.

On September 27, 2006 the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change, pending approvals from the government. On October 7, 2006, the Government accepted this resolution and decided to implement the name officially on November 1, 2006. However, the wait, it seems, is not yet over.

Meanwhile, the decision of the government to rechristen Bangalore has spotlighted the city’s origins.

According to the popular version, the city came to be first known as “Bendakalooru” (boiled beans) in the native language (Kannada) six centuries ago when king Ballala of the Hoysala dynasty coined it after he was served boiled beans by an old woman while on a hunting expedition in its vicinity.

With the advent of the British Raj in the 18th century, the city came to be known as Bangalore after its officials and troops settled in the cantonment area and anglicised the local name for their convenience.

However, noted historian Suryanath Kamath rubbishes the boiled bean version as “mere stories”.

According to him, an inscription found near the Parvathi Nageshwara Temple in Begur, dating back to 890 AD, shows Bangalore is over 1,000 years old.

2 Comments:

At Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 1:07:00 AM GMT+5:30, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey , I've got a great idea ! Why not rename Bangalore as "Toledo". Then all the Americans who can't stand offshore support will feel better with the call center city !

 
At Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at 9:27:00 AM GMT+5:30, Blogger Bambaiya said...

Whats in a name? Well Everything is in a name

 

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