Bangalore

Bangalore
Metropolis
Bengaluru
Clockwise from top: UB City, Infosys, Glass house at Lal Bagh, Vidhana Soudha, Shiva statue, Bagmane Tech Park ii
Nickname(s): Silicon Valley of India
Bangalore Show map of Karnataka Bangalore Show map of India Location in Karnataka
Coordinates: 12°58′N 77°34′E / 12.967°N 77.567°E / 12.967; 77.567Coordinates: 12°58′N 77°34′E / 12.967°N 77.567°E / 12.967; 77.567
Country	India
State	Karnataka
Region	Bayaluseemé
District	Bangalore Urban
Established	1537
Founded by	Kempegowda I
Government
• Type	Mayor–Council
• Body	BBMP
• Mayor	Padmavathi G[1]
• Commissioner	G Kumar Nayak[2]
Area[3]
• Metropolis	709 km2 (274 sq mi)
Elevation[4]	920 m (3,020 ft)
Population (2011)[5]
• Metropolis	8,443,675
• Rank	3rd
• Density	12,000/km2 (31,000/sq mi)
• Metro[6]	8,728,906
• Rank	5th
Demonym(s)	Bangalorean
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Pincode(s)	560 xxx
Area code(s)	+91-(0)80
Vehicle registration	KA-01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 41, 50, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61
Metro GDP	$45 to $83 billion (PPP)[7][8][9]
Official language	Kannada[10]
Website	www.bbmp.gov.in

Bangalore /bæŋɡəˈlɔːr/, officially known as Bengaluru^[11] ([ˈbeŋɡəɭuːɾu] ( listen)), is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of about 8.42 million and a metropolitan population of about 8.52 million, making it the third most populous city and fifth most populous urban agglomeration in India.^[5] It is located in southern India on the Deccan Plateau. Its elevation is over 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level, the highest of India's major cities.^[12]
A succession of South Indian dynasties, the Western Gangas, the Cholas and the Hoysalas, ruled the present region of Bangalore until in 1537 CE, Kempé Gowdā – a feudal ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire – established a mud fort considered to be the foundation of modern Bangalore. In 1638, the Marāthās conquered and ruled Bangalore for almost 50 years, after which the Mughals captured and sold the city to the Mysore Kingdom of the Wadiyar dynasty. It was captured by the British after victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799), who returned administrative control of the city to the Maharaja of Mysore. The old city developed in the dominions of the Maharaja of Mysore and was made capital of the Princely State of Mysore, which existed as a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj. In 1809, the British shifted their cantonment to Bangalore, outside the old city, and a town grew up around it, which was governed as part of British India. Following India's independence in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore State, and remained capital when the new Indian state of Karnataka was formed in 1956. The two urban settlements of Bangalore – city and cantonment – which had developed as independent entities merged into a single urban centre in 1949. The existing Kannada name, Bengalūru, was declared the official name of the city in 2006.
Bangalore is sometimes referred to as the "Silicon Valley of India" (or "IT capital of India") because of its role as the nation's leading information technology (IT) exporter.^[13][14][15] Indian technological organisations ISRO, Infosys, Wipro and HAL are headquartered in the city. A demographically diverse city, Bangalore is the second fastest-growing major metropolis in India.^[16] It is home to many educational and research institutions in India, such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore) (IIMB), National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bangalore, National Institute of Design, Bangalore (NID R&D Campus), National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). Numerous state-owned aerospace and defence organisations, such as Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics and National Aerospace Laboratories are located in the city. The city also houses the Kannada film industry.

Etymology

The name "Bangalore" represents an anglicised version of the Kannada language name, "Bengalūru" ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು [ˈbeŋɡəɭuːru] ( listen). It is the name of a village near kodegehalli and was copied by Kempegowda to the city of Bangalore. Bangalore was built on a venue earlier called as Shivanasamudram in the 16th century. The earliest reference to the name "Bengalūru" was found in a ninth-century Western Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a "vīra gallu" (ವೀರಗಲ್ಲು) (literally, "hero stone", a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). In this inscription found in Begur, "Bengalūrū" is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890 CE. It states that the place was part of the Ganga Kingdom until 1004 and was known as "Bengaval-uru", the "City of Guards" in Halegannada (Old Kannada).^[17][18]
An apocryphal story recounts that the 12th 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".^[17][19][20] Suryanath Kamath has put forward an explanation of a possible floral origin of the name, being 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 grew abundantly in the region.^[21]
On 11 December 2005, the Government of Karnataka announced that it had accepted a proposal by Jnanpith Award winner U. R. Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to Bengalūru.^[22] On 27 September 2006, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change.^[23] The government of Karnataka accepted the proposal, and it was decided to officially implement the name change from 1 November 2006.^[24][25] The Union government have approved (along with other 12 cities) this request in October 2014 and Bangalore was renamed to "Bengaluru" on 1 November 2014.^[26][27]

History

Main article: History of Bangalore

Early and medieval history

The Begur Nageshwara Temple was built in Bangalore around c. 860, during the reign of the Western Ganga Dynasty.

Someshwara Temple dates from the Hoysala era

A discovery of Stone Age artefacts during the 2001 census of India at Jalahalli, Sidhapura and Jadigenahalli, all of which are located on Bangalore's outskirts today, suggest probable human settlement around 4,000 BCE.^[28] Around 1,000 BCE (Iron Age), burial grounds were established at Koramangala and Chikkajala on the outskirts of Bangalore. Coins of the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius found at Yeswanthpur and HAL indicate that Bangalore was involved in trans-oceanic trade with ancient civilisations in 27 BCE.^[29]
The region of modern-day Bangalore was part of several successive South Indian kingdoms. Between the fourth and the tenth centuries, the Bangalore region was ruled by the Western Ganga Dynasty of Karnataka, the first dynasty to set up effective control over the region.^[30] According to Edgar Thurston^[31] there were twenty eight kings who ruled Gangavadi from the start of the Christian era till its conquest by the Cholas. These kings belonged to two distinct dynasties: the earlier line of the Solar race which had a succession of seven kings of the Ratti or Reddi tribe, and the later line of the Ganga race. The Western Gangas ruled the region initially as a sovereign power (350–550), and later as feudatories of the Chalukyas of Badami, followed by the Rashtrakutas till the tenth century.^[21] The Begur Nageshwara Temple was commissioned around 860, during the reign of the Western Ganga King Ereganga Nitimarga I and extended by his successor Nitimarga II.^[32][33] Around 1004, 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 Bangalore.^[32][34] During this period, the Bangalore region witnessed the migration of many groups — warriors, administrators, traders, artisans, pastorals, cultivators, and religious personnel from Tamil Nadu and other Kannada speaking regions.^[30] The Chokkanathaswamy temple at Domlur, the Aigandapura complex near Hesaraghatta, Mukthi Natheshwara Temple at Binnamangala, Choleshwara Temple at Begur, Someshwara Temple at Madiwala, date from the Chola era.^[32]
In 1117, the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana defeated the Cholas in the Battle of Talakad in south Karnataka, and extended its rule over the region.^[32] Vishnuvardhana expelled the Cholas from all parts of Mysore state.^[35] By the end of the 13th century, Bangalore became a source of contention between two warring cousins, the Hoysala ruler Veera Ballala III of Halebidu and Ramanatha, who administered from the Hoysala held territory in Tamil Nadu.^[32] Veera Ballala III had appointed a civic head at Hudi (now within Bangalore Municipal Corporation limits), thus promoting the village to the status of a town. After Veera Ballala III's death in 1343, the next empire to rule the region was the Vijayanagara Empire, which itself saw the rise of four dynasties, the Sangamas (1336–1485), the Saluvas (1485–1491), the Tuluvas (1491–1565), and the Aravidu (1565–1646).^[36] During the reign of the Vijayanagara Empire, Achyuta Deva Raya of the Tuluva Dynasty raised the Shivasamudra Dam across the Arkavati river at Hesaraghatta, whose reservoir is the present city's supply of regular piped water