Know Your City: Kempe Gowda — The founding father of Bengaluru and the places connected to him

The Kempe Gowda Museum

Located in one of the wings of the Mayo Hall closer to the MG Road Metro, the Kempe Gowda Museum is a single-room display with posters in Kannada and English that delve into the history of Kempe Gowda and his dynasty, and the lands that they once ruled.

For instance, one poster helps visitors trace the dynasty from the late Hoysala era to the end of the dynasty, which had eventually been pushed out of Bengaluru to Magadi. Other images trace the surrounding holdings that Kempe Gowda and his dynasty also ruled, such as the fort at Savanadurga. At the centre of the room is a statue of Kempe Gowda (a replica of one found at Shivagange, to date the only confirmed image of Kempe Gowda). A glass-covered map set into the floor displays a map of the city as it was in the latter half of the 19th century. The museum is open to visitors on government working days.

The Temples

Among the structures closely associated with Kempe Gowda in the city are the Gavi Ganghadareshwara Temple and the Basavanagudi Bull Temple. Notably, the sculpture of Nandi at the latter bears an inscription dated to Kempe Gowda’s time by British scholar B L Rice, which claims to mark the point of origin for the Vrishabhavati River. Additions to the famous Someshwara Temple in Ulsoor, which partly dates back to the Chola era, were also made in Kempe Gowda’s time

The Towers

Almost invariably following the mention of Kempe Gowda’s name are the four towers that mark the boundaries of the old domain of Bengaluru. Built at high points in the vicinity of the modern Mehkri Circle, Lalbagh, Gavipuram and Halasuru, the towers allowed the rulers of the city a commanding view of any approaching foes. The most easily accessible of the towers is the one in Lalbagh, situated atop a massive rock formation of peninsular gneiss, dating back around 3 billion years to the Archaean era.

The Fort and the Pete

Ancient inscriptions have pushed the age of the name “Bengaluru” to around 900 A.D – but the story of the modern city, so long before the cantonment and the tech parks – begin with the pete (an old town) and the Bangalore Fort.

The old pete was a planned, fortified town that would have stood at the heart of the Yelahanka chiefdom, its markets drawing traders from around the region. The strategic value of the area being obvious, the town was defended by a mud fort. By the time the city was ruled by the Mysore kingdom, and thus Tipu Sultan, the mud structure was replaced by stone, and saw fierce fighting during his latter wars with the British. Little remains of the fort today between the wars of the time and construction projects that saw the fort as a ready-made source of cut stones