Time Travel is the series of blog in which we travel back in time to know the History, culture and significance of places.
Today we will travel back in time to Bengaluru and know the interesting facts about the name that this city gets. If you ask the meaning of the name Bengaluru, first thing you will hear is Bendakaluru. What is this story behind Bendakaluru to Bengaluru? Is this a real Story?. Let me tell you three stories from which Bengaluru got its name and will also reveal the real story at the end.
Bendakaluru to Bengaluru
Once Hoysala’s king Ballala went for hunting in the forest (currently known as Kodigehalli) He got separated from his troops and lost his path. While he almost strived to death because of thirst and hunger he found a hut nearby and asked for food and water. Looking at the king’s situation an old lady brought him boiled beans and water. He ate it and was very happy with the service. His sign of gratitude and reward to her was given away by coining the place with the name Bendakaluru (Boiled Beans city), which eventually became Bengaluru.
Bendakaduru to Bengaluru
This is also a kind of folk story. When hiriya Kempegowda decided to build the city he cut down the trees, forest and burnt it to make a flat ground. As he burnt the forest people started to call this place as bendakaduru and it eventually became Bengaluru.
Venkaturu to Bengaluru
This is the story which actually has a proof to tell it as a true story. Back in those days Kings from Vijayanagara Empire were devotees of lord Vishnu. So to please the kings, Kempegowda decided to build Venkata Ramana Swamy temples in few places. To support this story there is one Venkata Ramana temple near Avenue road and also Narasimha temple in Balepete. Because of many Vishnu temples, city is named as venkaturu. As the years passed venkaturu became Bengaluru.
Real story
I have told you 3 stories in which first story has no base or proof to tell that Bendakaluru is the original name of Bengaluru. In second story we can somewhat believe on this because we know that Kempegowda built Bengaluru, so he may have cut down and burnt the forest but still we don’t have any proof to say Bendakaduru is the real name of Bengaluru. In 3rd story we have proof of Venkata Ramana temples but we still lag in proving that venkaturu changed to Bengaluru.
Actual story tells us something more different over these three stories. We have the proof for the name Bengaluru on an inscription which has been found near beguru. This inscription is 11 centuries old which is way before Kempegowda’s idea of constructing a new city. In many historical books talking about Kempegowda also mentions that his mother, wife and daughter in-law are from Bengaluru village. Not only this, there are many proofs which tells us that the city has existed well before it was born. So the search of the birth of the name Bengaluru will not lead to its core but one thing has been confirmed that Bengaluru has not originated from Bendakaluru.
We travel back in time to 9th century just to know the origin of name Bengaluru. May be we couldn’t get what we expected but one belief was ruled out that Bengaluru is not Bendakaluru. We continue our search until we know the origin of this name. It was great time travel with this blog. I hope u had a great time too. See you soon…
