Know Your City: The Mysore Bank, a historical bank lives on as a landmark in Bengaluru

The bank later became the State Bank of Mysore in 1954 (an associate bank of the State Bank of India) before it was merged with SBI in 2017 after 104 years of banking service.

When the Mysore Bank opened in Bengaluru, in the year 1913, it was located a short distance away in the Chamrajpet area of the Old City. (Express photo)

A quaint, old, stone building that stands serenely in the back of the compound of what is now a busy branch of the State Bank of India is the only sign of the existence of a Mysore Bank at the circle. While Mysore Bank existed as a laid-back, slow-paced outfit in the building, a fully modernised bank now operates within the walls of the structure.

When the Mysore Bank opened in Bengaluru, in the year 1913, it was located a short distance away in the Chamrajpet area of the Old City. The building which still stands to represent the Mysore Bank was constructed in 1923 at what was initially the location of a lunatic asylum.

The large main hall of the Mysore Bank building which was a dark cavernous hall with a line of arches in the 1990s is now a brightly lit hall with modern cubicles, counters, and computers of the State Bank of India. The building at one time had a small museum called Nenapu or Memories which documented the history of the bank.

The Mysore Bank was “established thanks to the patronage of the then Maharaja of Mysore, Krishnarajendra Wodeyar IV, and was the brainchild of his remarkable Dewan or Prime Minister Sir M. Visvesvaraya,” says Meera Iyer, the convenor of the Bengaluru chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, in her book Discovering Bangalore.

The Mysore Bank Circle was one of the main protest sites in Bengaluru from the time of the freedom struggle to the early 2000s. (Express photo)

“As with many other things, Visvesvaraya was forward thinking when he pushed for the establishment of the bank. Mysore state was on the cusp of industrialization and there were very few modern financial institutions to provide credit to businesses. In June 1912, Visvesvaraya called for a state-aided bank to fill this gap. The Maharaja agreed and Mysore Bank was born,” says Iyer in her book.

The Mysore Bank Circle was one of the main protest sites in Bengaluru from the time of the freedom struggle to the early 2000s. After the circle became a traffic nightmare, public protests are no longer a regular feature at the Mysore Bank Circle. Freedom Park—the site of the former central prison of Bengaluru and located barely a kilometre away from the Mysore Bank Circle—has now become the main protest site in Bengaluru.