Bangalore (anglicised from Bengalūru or Bengaluuru) is the capital city of Karnataka, located in South India (in east-west direction: in the center). It has 4.3 million inhabitants, the only city with a population of over 1 million in Karnataka as of 2001, or 5.7 million including its suburbs.
Bangalore is believed to have been founded in 1537 by Kempe Gowda (c.1510 - 1570). During the time of the Puranas, this region was known as 'kalyanapuri' or 'Kalyananagara', the 'City Auspicious'. The Mauryan Emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, renounced his throne to become a JainMonk at Shravanabelogola, a Jain piligrimage center, south west of Bangalore. After the arrival of the British, the city was given the anglicised name of "Bangalore". The place mentioned as 'Benguluru' in the Ganga record is originally a hamlet, even now called as Halebengaluru near Kodigehalli, not far away from Hebbal. It is said that Kempegowda I, when he built the new capital town in about 1537 called it Bangalore as his mother and wife belonged to the hamlet Bangalore, now called Halebengaluru. Another version suggests that the name Bangalore derives from Benda Kalu, which means "Boiled Beans". It is said that a humble old lady served a 10th century ruler, King Veeraballa of Vijayanagara who lost his way in the forest. He liked the food so much he named the place Benda Kaluru, meaning "the city of boiled beans", to commemorate the event.
The reign of Bangalore changed hands several times. It was ruled by the kings of the Bijapur dynasty in 1638, and the Maratha ruler Shahji Bhosle took over in 1638. After 50 years of Maratha rule Bangalore was conquered by the Moghuls in 1686. The city was leased to the Mysore ruler Chikkadevaraya by the Mughuls around 1689 and Chikkadevaraya expanded the Bangalore fort to the south and built the Venkataramana temple in this fort area. This new fort in granite was strengthened by Haider who secured Bangalore as jahgir in 1759. The British under Lord Cornwallis conquered the place in 1799 after defeating Tipu.
Bangalore was hit by a plague epidemic in 1898. The epidemic took a large toll and many of the temples were built during this time. Many of these temples are called 'Maramma' temples after the plague deity. It is believed that this epidemic helped in the development of Bangalore and improvements in sanitation and health facilities helped in modernizing Bangalore. A plague officer was appointed and the city was divided into four wards. Telephone lines were laid to help coordinate anti-plague operations. Regulations for building new houses with proper facilities of sanitation came into effect. A health officer was appointed in 1898 and the Victoria Hospital was inaugurated in 1900 by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy. It is also believed that the advent of raiways was a causal factor for the epidemic.
The plague of 1898 also led to the expansion of Bangalore. Basavanagudi(named after the Basaveshwara Temple or the Bull Temple in the Sunkenahalli village) and Malleshwaram (named after the Kadu Malleshwara Temple in the old Mallapura village) were created during this time. Kalasipalyam(near the old fort) and Gandhinagar were created between 1921-1931. Kumara Park came into existence in 1947 and Jayanagar in 1948.
The former Cantonment, named as Civil and Military Station after 1881 had roads named according to military conventions. Thus, there was Artillery Rd., Brigade Rd., Infantry Rd., Cavalry Rd., etc. The South Parade(presently Mahatma Gandhi Road) was to the south of the Parade Ground. The cantonment area was administered by a Resident and his quarters was called the Residency and hence the Residency Road. In around 1883, three extensions were added to the Municipal area of the Cantonment, namely, Richmond Town, followed by Benson Town and Cleveland Town.
Bangalore, popularly known as the Garden City and city of lakes, is famous for its pleasant climate and cosmopolitan lifestyle. Kannada, the state language of Karnataka, is widely spoken here. Many people are fluent in more than one language. There are also a large number of people with Telugu and Tamil as their mother tongues, together said to almost match the number of those whose mother tongue is Kannada. English is widely understood, and spoken with variable fluency. Thanks to a large number of central government establishments with many employees from northern India, movies and television, Hindi is also widely understood. With the rapid growth of the information technology industry in Bangalore, English is becoming a standard.
Bangalore is called the "Silicon Valley of India" due to the large number of computer and technology companies, as well as the related infrastructure, located there. Many multinational corporations, especially computer hardware and software giants, have operations in Bangalore.
Electronics City, located in the southern outskirts of Bangalore, is an industrial park spread over 330 acres. Bangalore houses more than a hundred industries, including IT industry leaders such as IBM, Dell, Oracle, HP, SAP, Motorola, Satyam, Infosys, Siemens, ITI, Honeywell, Wipro and MindTree.
But the city infrastructure and hygiene standards has been slow in keeping up with business and technology development.
Bangalore is also known as the "Garden City of India", "Pub City of India", and the "Fashion Capital of India". It is home to over 200 pubs. Some notable places to the night life in Bangalore are Pecos, The Club Inferno, Insomnia, iBar, Urban Edge, Club X, Styx (a pub for hard rock fans), fBar (fashion, et al) and Opium.
