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Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most populous urban agglomeration in India, as well as the largest city in South India, and the 27th largest city in the world. Located on the Deccan Plateau, at a height of over above sea level, Bangalore has a pleasant climate throughout the year, with its parks and green spaces earning it the reputation as the "Garden City" of India. Its elevation is the highest among the major cities of India. An aerospace, heavy engineering and electronics hub since the 1960s, Bangalore is widely regarded as the "Silicon Valley of India" because of its role as the nation's leading information technology (IT) exporter.—
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— In the Ease of Living Index 2020 (published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs), it was ranked the most livable Indian city with a population of over a million. It also ranks among the highest Indian cities in terms of global livability rankings as well.

The city's history dates back to around 890 CE, as found in a stone inscription found at the Nageshwara Temple in Begur, Bangalore. In 1537 CE, Kempé Gowdā – a feudal ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire – established a mud fort, considered the foundation of modern Bangalore and its oldest areas, or ''petes'', which still exist. After the fall of the Vijayanagar empire, Kempe Gowda declared independence; in 1638, a large Adil Shahi Bijapur army defeated Kempe Gowda III, and Bangalore was came under Shahaji Bhonsle as a jagir Which later became his capital .The Mughals later captured Bangalore and sold it to Chikkadevaraja Wodeyar (1673–1704), the then ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. When Haider Ali seized control of the Kingdom of Mysore, the administration of Bangalore passed into his hands.

The city was captured by the British East India Company after victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1799), who returned administrative control of the city to the Maharaja of Mysore. The old city developed under the dominions of the Maharaja of Mysore and was made capital of the Princely State of Mysore, which existed as a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj. In 1809, the British shifted their cantonment to Bangalore, outside the old city, and a town grew up around it, governed as part of British India. Following India's independence in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore State, and remained the capital when the new Indian state of Karnataka was formed in 1956. The two urban settlements of Bangalore – city and cantonment – which had developed as independent entities merged into a single urban centre in 1949. The existing Kannada name, ''Bengalūru'', was declared the city's official name in 2006.

Bangalore is the second fastest-growing major metropolis in India. Recent estimates of the metro economy of its urban area have ranked Bangalore either the fourth or fifth most productive metro area of India.—
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— It is home to many educational and research institutions. Numerous state-owned aerospace and defence organisations are located in the city. The city also houses the Kannada film industry and is a hub of sporting events.

Etymology

''Bangalore'' is an anglicised version of the city's Kannada name ''Bengalūru'' ( kn, ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, link=no, ). It was the name of a village near Kodigehalli in Bangalore city today and was used by Kempegowda to christen the city as Bangalore at the time of its foundation. The earliest reference to the name "Bengalūru" was found in a ninth-century Western Ganga dynasty stone inscription on a ''vīra gallu'' ( kn, ವೀರಗಲ್ಲು, link=no; , a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). According to an inscription found in Begur, "Bengalūrū" was the place of a battle in 890  CE.

An apocryphal story states that the twelfth-century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place "Benda-Kaal-uru" (literally, "town of boiled beans"), which eventually evolved into "Bengalūru". Suryanath Kamath has put forward an explanation of a possible floral origin of the name as derived from ''benga'', the Kannada term for ''Pterocarpus marsupium'' (also known as the Indian Kino Tree), a species of dry and moist deciduous trees that grows abundantly in the region.

On 11 December 2005, the Government of Karnataka accepted a proposal by Jnanpith Award winner U. R. Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to ''Bengalūru''.
On 27 September 2006, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) passed a resolution to implement the name change. The government of Karnataka accepted the proposal and it was decided to officially implement the name change from 1 November 2006. The Union government approved this request, along with name changes for 11 other Karnataka cities, in October 2014. Hence, Bangalore was renamed to "Bengaluru" on 1 November 2014.

History

Early and medieval history

A discovery of Stone Age artefacts during the 2001 Census of India at Jalahalli, Sidhapura and Jadigenahalli, all of which are located on Bangalore's outskirts today, suggest human settlement around 4000 BCE. Around 1,000 BCE (during the Iron Age), burial grounds were established at Koramangala and Chikkajala on the outskirts of Bangalore. Coins of the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius found at Yeswanthpur and HAL Airport indicate that the region was involved in trans-oceanic trade with the Romans and other civilisations in 27 BCE.

The region of modern-day Bangalore was part of several successive South Indian kingdoms. Between the fourth and tenth centuries, the region was ruled by the Western Ganga dynasty of Karnataka, the first dynasty to set up effective control over the region. According to Edgar Thurston, there were twenty-eight kings who ruled Gangavadi from the start of the Christian era until its conquest by the Cholas. The Western Gangas ruled the region initially as a sovereign power (350–550 CE), and later as feudatories of the Chalukyas of Badami, followed by the Rashtrakutas until the tenth century. The Begur Nageshwara Temple was commissioned around 860, during the reign of the Western Ganga King Ereganga Nitimarga I, and extended by his successor Nitimarga II. Around 1004, during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I, the Cholas defeated the Western Gangas under the command of the crown prince Rajendra Chola I, and captured Bangalore. During this period, the Bangalore region witnessed the migration of many groups—warriors, administrators, traders, artisans, pastorals, cultivators, and religious personnel from Tamil Nadu and other Kannada-speaking regions. The Chokkanathaswamy temple at Domlur, the Aigandapura complex near Hesaraghatta, Mukthi Natheshwara Temple at Binnamangala, Choleshwara Temple at Begur, Someshwara Temple at Ulsoor, date from the Chola era.

In 1117, the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana defeated the Cholas in the Battle of Talakad in south Karnataka, and extended its rule over the region. Vishnuvardhana expelled the Cholas from all parts of the Mysore state. By the end of the 13th century, Bangalore became a source of contention between two warring cousins, the Hoysala ruler Veera Ballala III of Halebidu and Ramanatha, who administered from the Hoysala held territory in Tamil Nadu. Veera Ballala III had appointed a civic head at Hudi (now within Bangalore Municipal Corporation limits), thus promoting the village to the status of a town. After Veera Ballala III's death in 1343, the next empire to rule the region was the Vijayanagara Empire, which itself saw the rise of four dynasties, the Sangamas (1336–1485), the Saluvas (1485–1491), the Tuluvas (1491–1565), and the Aravidu (1565–1646). During the reign of the Vijayanagara Empire, Achyuta Deva Raya of the Tuluva dynasty raised the Shivasamudra Dam across the Arkavati river at Hesaraghatta, whose reservoir is the present city's supply of regular piped water.

Foundation and early modern history

Modern Bangalore was begun in 1537 by a chief of the Vijayanagara Empire, Kempe Gowda I, who aligned with the Vijayanagara empire to campaign against Gangaraja (whom he defeated and expelled to Kanchi), and who built a mud-brick fort for the people at the site that would become the central part of modern Bangalore. Kempe Gowda was restricted by rules made by Achuta Deva Raya, who feared the potential power of Kempe Gowda and did not allow a formidable stone fort. Kempe Gowda referred to the new town as his "gandubhūmi" or "Land of Heroes". Within the fort, the town was divided into smaller divisions, each called a ''pete'' (). The town had two main streets—Chikkapeté Street and Doddapeté Street. Their intersection formed the Doddapeté Square—the heart of Bangalore. Kempe Gowda I's successor, Kempe Gowda II, built four towers that marked Bangalore's boundary. During the Vijayanagara rule, many saints and poets referred to Bangalore as "Devarāyanagara" and "Kalyānapura" or "Kalyānapuri" ("Auspicious City").

After the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire in 1565 in the Battle of Talikota, Bangalore's rule changed hands several times. Kempe Gowda declared independence, then in 1638, a large Adil Shahi Bijapur army led by Ranadulla Khan and accompanied by his second in command Shāhji Bhōnslē defeated Kempe Gowda III, and Bangalore was given to Shāhji as a ''jagir'' (feudal estate). around 1639 Shahaji Bhonsle given order to reconstruction of destroyed City and building new lakes to solve water shortage of region. Mughal