Nadaprabhu Kempegowda

Subject :History

Section :Personality

Context:

A bronze statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, credited to be the founder of Bengaluru, will be unveiled soon at the premises of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), situated on the outskirts of the city.
Also, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has announced that a Kempegowda statue will be installed inside the Vidhana Soudha premises within a year.

Who was Nadaprabhu Kempegowda?

Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, a 16th century chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, is credited as the founder of Bengaluru.
It is said that he conceived the idea of a new city while hunting with his minister, and later marked its territory by erecting towers in four corners of the proposed city.
Kempegowda is also known to have developed around 1,000 lakes in the city to cater to drinking and agricultural needs.
He was from the dominant agricultural Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka.
His name is everywhere in the city – the Kempegowda International Airport, the Kempegowda Bus Stand, and even the main metro station in the city is called NadaprabhuKempegowda metro station.
An arterial road in the old city is called the K G Road or the Kempegowda Road.
Kempegowda is an iconic figure among Karnataka’s second most dominant Vokkaliga community after Lingayats.
The old Mysore region in south Karnataka consists of areas that were part of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore — Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Tumkur, Hassan, Chikmagalur, Kolar, Bengaluru and excludes coastal areas and Kodagu.

Airport statue of Kempegowda

The 108-ft bronze statue is being constructed in a 23-acre heritage park on the airport premises.
It has a 4,000 kg sword which arrived at the Bengaluru airport from Delhi last month. The sword was brought in a special truck from Delhi.
The statue of Kempegowda is in its final stages of completion and it is the tallest statue of Kempegowda.