It is strange that the city of Bengaluru which we all accept today as a single city was not a single city at all until recently. Before Bengaluru was welded into a single city under a common corporation in 1949, it existed as a twin city. There were two portions to the city. The civil and the military portions were separate entities with a separate municipality and a separate collector. The job of the collector was to look after the revenue and the law and order problems of the city. He was functioning under the Resident. The Collector was also the Municipal President. The Bangalore city agglomeration had a population of 29,21,751 and the corporation area had a population of 24,76,355 in 1981. The city’s population recorded a growth of over 70% between 1971 and 1981.

The site of the present city had many prehistoric settlements. Neolithic tools have been located at the race course and Jalahalli. Byrasandra was also a prehistoric site. Dr Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao, an eminent archaeologist feels that the attractive site of the bugle rock at Basavangudi could have been a prehistoric habitat. Roman coins have been unearthed at Yeshwantpur and Jalahalli.

The name Bangalore is as old as the ninth century and the name is found in a Kannada inscription found near the Begur temple. A long record of circa 890 AD and the name appears to have a floral origin, derived from the tree Benga (Venga or Pterocarpus marsupium or the Indian Kino).

The explanation that the name was derived from Benda kala ooru, or the village of boiled beans as described by the Hoysala King Ballala when he was hungry during his visit to the place (when he was hunting) becomes irrelevant as the above name was much older that King Ballala of the Hoysala dynasty. Benda kala ooru or the place full of granite rocks is another explanation to a place name but granite is neither Bangalore’s exclusive speciality nor the old form, thousand years, found in the record indicates the place name being anyway connected to Benachu kallu. The place mentioned as Bengaluru in the Ganga record is originally a hamlet, even now called as Hale Bengaluru near Kodigehalli, not far away from Hebbal. It is said that Kempe Gowda I when he built the new capital town in 1537 called it Bangalore as his mother and wife belonged to the hamlet Bangalore, now Hale Bengaluru. In literary works, Bangalore is also called Kalyana Nagare or the ‘City Auspicious’. Though the fort built by Kempe Gowda then has totally vanished, the spots like the Yelahanka Bagalu (Mysore Bank Square) and Halsur Bagalu still exist. Halsur Bagalu or gate, now a police station is named after it. The gate proper even now remains hidden. The old remains of the ramparts and the moats were completely demolished during the nineteenth century. The town was conquered by the Bijapur sultans in 1638 and Shaji Bhonsle secured the town and its surroundings as a Jagir in 1638. The testimony to 50 years of Maratha rule is in the form of an inscription of Ekoji, Shaji’s son near the Kadu Malleshwara temple. Bangalore was conquered by the Mughals in 1686. The mosque at Taramandalpet is a notable vestige of Mughal rule. The city was leased to the Mysore ruler, Chikkadeva Wodeyar by the Mughals in 1689 and Chikkadeva Wodeyar expanded the fort to the south and built the Venkatramana temple in this fort area. This new fort in granite was strengthened by Haider Ali who secured Bangalore as a Jagir in1759. The British conquered the city in 1799 after defeating Tipu Sultan.

The original Bangalore city was clustered around the fort and city market and covered the area until the present Mysore bank square. Today, there is a bus stop at the place where the Dharmabudi tank existed earlier. The old city had areas like Cottonpet, Sunkalpet, Kumbharpet and the Balepet areas. The medieval character of the city’s old settlements typical of any old village is indicated by the names of these areas.

Every community or professional caste had its own street or streets in every village or town of ancient times. Sigebeli is the settlements of Brahmins, reminiscent of old Agrahara or Brahmapuri. Kempapura Agrahara was another settlement of the Brahmins created by Kempe Gowda II towards the Magadi road area beyond the Brahmabudi tank. Parts of Gandhi Nagar area appear to have been reclaimed from the Dharmabudi tank during the early part of the nineteenth century.

The Cantonment area grew as a separate township after the British shifted their troops to the place in 1806 and the first camp was located at the present Air Force Hospital in 1808. The present cantonment also consists of many old villages like Halasur, Blackpally, Doddakunte and Akkithimmanahalli. It was no part of the old Bangalore pettahs. At Domlur on the periphery of the old cantonment, the Chokkanatha temple built by the Cholas still remains. At Blackpally or Shivaji Nagar, there existed a Catholic church which later took some shape of the 18th century and now its is the St Marys Basilica. The cantonment area also saw the construction of some of the beautiful buildings of the European Renaissance style. Both churches and secular buildings which were mostly government offices during the 19th century.

New extensions were added to the town in Chamrajpet and Seshadripuram. Chamrajpet was named after Chamraja Wodeyar in 1892, the latter named after Dewan Seshadri Iyer. The visit of a plague in 1898 caused the creation of two bigger extensions in 1898. These were Basavangudi named after Basaveshwara temple or the Bull Temple in Sukenahalli village and Malleshwaram named after the Kadu Malleshwara temple in old Mallapura village. The area in both the places was full of fields.

The next time you think of Bengaluru as the city of Bengaluru, you would do well to remember its origins. There are several people alive today who remember the two distinct facets to the city; the pettahs and the cantonment. These portions were welded and expanded to make the beautiful city we live in.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / by Siddharth Moorchung & Nikhil Moorchung / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / April 02nd, 2018