Bangalore is the ‘Garden City’ of India. This is the capital of Karnataka which is a state in the southern part of the country. This city is a metropolitan city and is one of the best known cities of India. Bangalore is a metropolitan city and is the fastest growing city in the whole Asia. Also, it is one of the ten fastest growing cities in the world.
Bangalore is believed to have been built by Kempa Gowda. Also, the region was under the rule of the Mysore Empire for some period of time. The Vijayanagara Empire kings had ruled over this part of the country for a long time. There are many tourist destinations such as hill stations and beaches located nearby the region of Bangalore. The well known hill stations of Coorg and Munnar are located quite close to the Karnataka capital. This city is the ‘IT Capital’ of India and is also known as ‘Silicon Valley of India’.
The region of Bangalore was ruled by many South Indian empires and dynasties in the past. The region was eventually taken control of by the Chola Dynasty in the year 1024 AD. In the year 1116, the Cholas were defeated by the Hoysala Empire. The city first took form when the king of Vijayanagara Empire, Kempe Gowda I built a fort of mud and brick in the region.
This would later become the central part of the city. This new place was referred to as ‘gandu bhumi’ which literally means ‘land of heroes’. Inside the town, the fort was subdivided into smaller parts. Each of these parts was called ‘pete’. At that time, the city had only two main streets. One was the Chikkapeté Street which ran east to west and the other was the Doddapeté Street which ran north to south. The intersection of these two streets formed the Doddapeté Square at the heart of the entire city.
The son of this king, Kempé Gowda II, had built four boundaries which formed the city’s boundaries. During the rule of the Vijayanagara Empire, the region was often referred to as “Devarāyanagara” and “Kalyānapura” or “Kalyānapuri” which literally means ‘The Auspicious City’ by the Poets and Saints of the time.
In the year 1638, Adil Shahi Bijapur army accompanied by Shāhji Bhōnslé defeated the then Vijayanagara Empire king, Kempé Gowda III. In 1687, the Mughal general defeated Ekoji I who was the son of Shāhji. The Mughals had leased the region of Bangalore to the Mysore ruler, Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar. After in 1759 Krishnaraja Wodeyar II passed away, the Commander-in-Chief of Mysore’s Army, Hyder Ali declared himself as the real ruler of the region. From him, the region passed into the hands of his son, Tipu Sultan.
