The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘City was networked even in middle ages’

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘City was networked even in middle ages’

Staff Reporter

ICHR official delivers BBMP Endowment Lecture

BANGALORE: If Bangalore has emerged as an important destination for information technology now, it probably occupied a strategic location in trade in the middle ages. Emergence of trade after the advent of Portuguese that saw many towns growing also helped the region around Bangalore to grow.

Delving on the growth of Bangalore as a strategic junction in the trade routes, Assistant Director of Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) S.K. Aruni said: “New settlements were formed at strategic locations along the trade routes of which Bangalore was one.” He was delivering the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Endowment Lecture on the “Character of Bangalore and its town planning during Kempe Gowda’s period: A new finding” at the Mythic Society here on Wednesday.

Using sketches, maps, photographs and paintings, Dr. Aruni said that several similarities could be identified in terms of architecture, forts and temples found in the region ruled by Kempe Gowda. “While forts of his (Kempe Gowda) period revealed similarities, several improvements and changes were made during its reuse at later stage,” he added.

Drawing comparison on the temple architecture, he said several temples spread in the region had characteristics such as figures on the panel just above the platform. “These figures are unique and found in temples at Devanahalli, Magadi, Bangalore, Shivaganga, Ramanagaram and Yelahanka, the region that was ruled by Kempe Gowda. Sequence from ‘Girija Kalyana’ and the Ramayana are found in the panels in most of these temples,” he added.

On the growth of Bangalore, Dr. Aruni said: “Though many new buildings have come up masking the monuments, the outline of the old areas has remained almost the same. The trading areas of Chickpet, Balepet have become crowded now, but the contour is almost similar.”

Dr. Aruni displayed maps that were prepared by the British just before the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1791, the revenue maps prepared during the last two decades of 19th century and the present aerial view of the area made available by Google Earth.

President of Karnataka Ithihasa Academy Suryanath Kamath was present.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka