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capital city of Karnataka state in India
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Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (its official name until 1 November 2014), is the capital and largest city of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. As per the 2011 census, the city had a population of 8.4 million, making it the third most populous city in India and the most populous in South India. The Bengaluru metropolitan area had a population of around 8.5 million, making it the fifth most populous urban agglomeration in the country. It is located towards the southern end of the Deccan Plateau, at an altitude of 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level. The city is known as India's "Garden City", due to its parks and greenery.
Archaeological artefacts indicate that the human settlement in the region happened as early as 4000 BCE. The first mention of the name "Bengaluru" is from an old Kannada stone inscription from 890 CE found at the Nageshwara Temple in Begur. The region was ruled by the Western Ganga dynasty since 350 CE, and became part of the Chola Empire in the early eleventh century CE. In the late Middle Ages, it formed a part of the Hoysala kingdom and then the Vijayanagara Empire. In 1537 CE, Kempe Gowda I, a feudal ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire, established a mud fort which is considered the foundation of the modern city of Bengaluru with the earlier established areas (petes) still in existence. After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, Kempe Gowda declared independence, and the city was expanded by his successors. In 1638 CE, an Adil Shahi army defeated Kempe Gowda III, and the city became a jagir (feudal estate) of Shahaji. The Mughals later captured the city and sold it to Chikka Devaraja Wodeyar, the Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. After the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II in 1759 CE, Hyder Ali seized control of the kingdom and with it, the administration of Bengaluru, which passed subsequently to his son, Tipu Sultan.
The city was captured by the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars, and became part of the princely state of Mysore. The administrative control of the city was returned to Krishnaraja Wodeyar III, then Maharaja of Mysore, and the old city re-developed under the dominion of the Mysore kingdom. In 1809 CE, the British formed a military garrison in the city and established the cantonment outside the old city. In the late 19th century CE, the city was composed of two distinct urban settlements, the old Pete and the new Cantonment. Following India's independence in 1947, Bengaluru became the capital of Mysore State, and remained the capital when the state was enlarged and unified in 1956 and subsequently renamed as Karnataka in 1973. The two urban settlements which had developed as independent entities, merged under a single urban administration in 1949.
Bengaluru is one of the fastest-growing metropolises in India. As of 2024, the metropolitan area had an estimated GDP of $590.4 billion, and is one of the most productive metro areas of India. The city is a major centre for information technology (IT), and is consistently ranked amongst the world's fastest growing technology hubs. As the largest hub and exporter of IT services in the country, it is regarded as the "Silicon Valley of India". Manufacturing is a major contributor to the economy with the city home to several state-owned units. The city also hosts several prominent institutes of higher education and of national importance.
The earliest known reference to the name "Bengaluru" was on a ninth-century hero stone or vīra gallu found in Begur. The Old Kannada inscription belonging to the Western Ganga dynasty mentions the place in a battle in 890 CE. However, Kempe Gowda I used the name of a village near Kodigehalli, to name the city as Bengaluru during its foundation in 1537 CE. Bangalore is an anglicised version of the city's Kannada name. The city was also referred to as "Kalyānapura" or "Kalyānapuri" ("Auspicious City") and "Dēvarāyapattana" during the later Vijayanagara Empire period in 16th century CE.
An apocryphal story states that the twelfth-century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place "Benda-Kaal-uru" (literally, "town of boiled beans"), which eventually evolved into "Bengalūru". Suryanath Kamath has hypothesised that the name was derived from benga, the Kannada term for Pterocarpus marsupium (also known as the Indian Kino Tree), a species of dry and moist deciduous trees that grows abundantly in the region. Other theories include that the city was called as "Venkaturu" because of the Venkataramana temples built by Kempe Gowda, and "Benacha kalluru" because of the abundance of quartz stones ("benachu kallu" in Kannada) in the region.
On 11 December 2005, the Government of Karnataka accepted a proposal by U. R. Ananthamurthy to officially rename the city from Bangalore to Bengaluru. On 27 September 2006, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike passed a resolution to implement the name change, and the government of Karnataka officially implemented the name change from 1 November 2014 after the Union government approved the request.
Stone Age artefacts discovered at Jālahalli, Sidhapura and Jadigenahalli on Bengaluru's outskirts indicate human settlement around 4000 BCE. Iron Age tools and burial mounds from around 800 BCE, have been found in Koramangala and Chikkajāla. Coins of the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Caligula found at Yeswanthpur and HAL indicate the involvement of the region in trans-oceanic trade with the Romans and other civilisations in the first century CE.
The region of modern-day Bengaluru was part of several successive South Indian kingdoms. Between the fourth and tenth centuries CE, the region was ruled by the Western Ganga dynasty, the first dynasty to set up effective control over the region. According to Edgar Thurston, twenty-eight kings ruled Gangavadi from the start of the Common Era until its conquest by the Cholas in the early eleventh century CE. The Western Gangas ruled as a sovereign power from 350 to 550 CE, and as feudatories of the Chalukyas of Badami, and later the Rashtrakutas until the tenth century. The Begur Nageshwara Temple was commissioned around 860 CE, during the reign of the Western Ganga King Ereganga Nitimarga I, and extended by his successor Nitimarga II. Around 1004 CE, during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I, the Cholas defeated the Western Gangas under the command of the crown prince Rajendra Chola I, and captured the region. During this period, the region witnessed the migration of many groups—warriors, administrators, traders, artisans, pastorals, cultivators, and religious personnel from the Southern Tamil speaking regions and other Kannada-speaking parts of the region. The Cholas built many temples in the region including the Chokkanathaswamy temple, Mukthi Natheshwara Temple, Choleshwara Temple, and Someshwara Temple.
In 1117, the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana defeated the Cholas in the Battle of Talakad in south Karnataka, and extended his rule over the region. In the later part of the 13th century CE, Bengaluru was a source of contention between two warring cousins, the Hoysala ruler Veera Ballala III of Halebidu and Ramanatha, who administered the Hoysala held territory in the southern Tamil speaking regions. Veera Ballala appointed a civic head at Hudi (suburb of the city) to administer the region, and promoted the village to the status of a town. After Veera Ballala's death in 1343, the region came under Vijayanagara empire, which saw the rule of four consecutive dynasties – Sangamas (1336–1485), Saluvas (1485–1491), Tuluvas (1491–1565), and Aravidu (1565–1646). In the early 16th century CE, Achyuta Deva Raya built a dam across the Arkavati river near Hesaraghatta, whose reservoir was used to supply water to the region.
The city proper was established in 1537 CE by Kempe Gowda I, a local governor and chieftain aligned with the Vijayanagara Empire under emperor Achyuta Deva Raya. He led a campaign against Gangaraja, whom he defeated and expelled to Kanchi, and built a mud-brick fort at the site, which later became the central part of the modern city of Bengaluru. Kempe Gowda referred to the new town as his "Gandubhūmi" ("Land of Heroes"). Within the fort, the town was divided into smaller divisions, each called a pētē (Kannada pronunciation: [peːteː]). The town had two main streets Chickpet and Doddapete, which intersected to form the Doddapete Square in the heart of the town. Kempe Gowda also built the temple at Basavanagudi, and expanded other temples. He also constructed various tanks such as Kempambudhi, Dharmambudhi, and Sampangi for water storage. Vijayanagara literature refers to the city by various names such as "Devarāyanagara" and "Kalyānapura" or "Kalyānapuri" ("auspicious city").
After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire in 1565 CE in the Battle of Talikota, Kempe Gowda declared independence. His successor, Kempe Gowda II, built four towers to mark the boundary of the town. In 1638 CE, a Adil Shahi army led by Ranadulla Khan and Shahaji Bhonsle (father of Shivaji) defeated Kempe Gowda III, and the region became a jagir (feudal estate) of Shahaji. In 1639 CE, Shahaji ordered the reconstruction of the town and built large fortifications, and new reservoirs to solve the water shortage in the region. In 1687 CE, Mughal general Kasim Khan, under orders from Aurangzeb, defeated Ekoji I, the son of Shahaji, and leased the town to Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar (1673–1704 CE), the then ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. After the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II in 1759 CE, Hyder Ali, Commander-in-Chief of the Mysore Army, proclaimed himself the ruler of the Mysore kingdom. He built the Delhi and Mysore gates at the northern and southern ends of the city in 1760 CE. The kingdom later passed to Hyder Ali's son Tipu Sultan, and the Lal Bagh garden was established around 1760 CE. During the period, the city developed into a commercial and military centre of strategic importance.
The Bengaluru fort was captured by British forces under Charles Cornwallis on 21 March 1791 during the Third Anglo-Mysore War and became the centre for British resistance against Tipu. Following Tipu's death in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799 CE), the Bengaluru Pete was incorporated into the Princely State of Mysore, whose administrative control remained with the Maharaja of Mysore. The city was further developed by the Maharaja of Mysore. The Residency of Mysore State, established in Mysore in 1799 was shifted to Bengaluru in 1804. It was abolished in 1843 before being revived in 1881 and served till the Indian independence in 1947. The British found the city as an appropriate place to station its garrison and therefore it was moved in 1809 from Seringapatam to Ulsoor, about 6 km (4 mi) northeast of the original Pete. A town grew up around the surroundings by absorbing several villages in the area, and came to be known as Bengaluru cantonment. The new centre had its own municipal and administrative apparatus, though technically it was a British enclave within the territory of the princely state of Mysore. Further developments such as the introduction of telegraph connections to other major Indian cities in 1853 and a rail connection to Madras in 1864, contributed to the economic growth of the city.
In the late 19th century CE, Bengaluru was essentially composed of two cities, with the Pete, whose residents were predominantly Kannadigas and the Cantonment created by the British, whose residents were predominantly Tamils and English people. Throughout the 19th century, the Cantonment, which was known as the Civil and Military Station of Bangalore, gradually expanded and acquired a distinct cultural and political salience. It had a large military presence and a cosmopolitan civilian population that came from outside the state of Mysore. The British developed the infrastructure of the city, widened roads, and established new settlements. The city was divided into eight wards in 1862, and was expanding. The first exclusive residential area was established in Chamarajpet in 1892, and a new wholesale market was established in Tharagupet in 1895. The city was hit by a plague epidemic in 1898 that claimed nearly 3,500 lives. The crisis caused by the outbreak led to the improvement in sanitation facilities, and establishment of new communication lines to co-ordinate anti-plague operations. Regulations for building new houses with proper sanitation facilities came into effect, a health officer was appointed, and the city was divided into four wards for better co-ordination. New extensions in Malleshwaram and Basavanagudi were developed in the north and south of the Pete.
In 1906, Bengaluru became one of the first cities in India to have electricity. In 1912, the Bangalore torpedo, an explosive weapon used in World War I and World War II, was devised in Bengaluru by British army officer Captain McClintock of the Madras Sappers and Miners. Bengaluru's reputation as the "Garden City of India" began in 1927 with the silver jubilee celebrations of the rule of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. Several projects such as the construction of parks, public buildings and hospitals were instituted to improve the city. Bengaluru played an important role during the Indian independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi visited the city in 1927 and 1934 and addressed public meetings here. In 1926, the labour unrest in Binny Mills due to demand by textile workers for payment of bonus resulted in a baton charge and police firing, resulting in the death of four workers, and several injuries. In July 1928, there were notable communal disturbances in Bengaluru, like when a Ganesh idol was removed from a school compound in the Sultanpet area of Bengaluru. In 1940, the first flight between Bengaluru and Mumbai took off, which placed the city on India's urban map.
After India's independence in August 1947, Bengaluru remained in the newly carved Mysore State of which the Maharaja of Mysore was the Rajapramukh (appointed governor). The "City Improvement Trust" was formed in 1945, and in 1949, the "City" and the "Cantonment" merged to form the Bengaluru City Corporation. The Government of Karnataka later constituted the Bangalore Development Authority in 1976 to coordinate the activities of these two bodies. Public sector employment and education provided opportunities for Kannadigas from the rest of the state to migrate to the city. Bengaluru experienced rapid growth in the decades 1941–51 and 1971–81, which saw the arrival of many immigrants from northern Karnataka. By 1961, Bengaluru had become the sixth-largest city in India, with a population of 1,207,000. In the following decades, Bengaluru's manufacturing base continued to expand with the establishment of various public and private companies.|
Text from the Wikipedia article “Bengaluru”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.