Common Core
“Reading Cityscapes: Bangalore Histories” (IDC 261 A)
City Tour: A Report
Date: February 03, 2019
Prof. Devaleena Kundu
As part of “Reading Cityscapes: Bangalore Histories (Subject Code: IDC 261 A), the students were taken on heritage walk on February 03, 2019. The class was divided into two groups, for one group the walk being scheduled in the morning and for the other in the evening.
 For those in the morning batch, the walk happened between at 7:30 am  to 9:30 am and the walk covered the  K. R. Market area, that included the Victoria Hospital, Bangalore Fort and Asia’s largest market, the K. R. Market. The guides of the day were Dr. Geetha and Mr. Sooresh Moona from Destination Heritage.
At first all the students were taken to the architectural marvel of the 1900s, i.e. The Victoria Hospital. As a tribute to the then Queen of the British Empire, Queen Victoria, the Regent Queen, Kempa Nanjammani, mother of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar, constructed the hospital. The hospital was designed by Captain Telebone, following the Anglo-Roman architecture. The styles present, represent a unique feature. This gives the viewers a sight of the magnificent work of art during the British era. The roofs are not the usual dome shaped covers but a pointed roof as in a hut, covered with red colour. The body of the hospital is made up of granite stones which are found in abundance in this Deccan Zone, which adds to the aesthetic beauty of the historical building. It was mentioned by our guide that the discovery of an accessory artery to the appendix, which supplies blood to the organ, was done by Dr. T Sheshachalam, the Head of the Department of Surgery.
Following Victoria Hospital, the students were introduced to the Bangalore Fort which was 481 years old. Kempegowda, a feudatory of the Viajayanagar Empire, built and fortified the city in 1537 AD and gave it its name. The city was leased to the Mysore King Chikkadevaraya by the Mughals. According to the historical facts, the dungeon of the fort has witnessed the confinement of Sir David Baird and other Englishmen. Out of the entire fort only this part of the fort is left which includes the dungeons and the Ganesha Temple. Another interesting fact that was delivered to the students during the walk was that if someone visits the roof of the fort, they will be able to witness the structure of the fort, although the visit of the roof top has been stopped by the Archaeological Department. The main gate is made of strong wood with spikes over it to protect itself from the enemies.

After visiting the historical monuments and buildings, the guide led the students’ way to the oldest of market K. R. Market. The market was started after witnessing the sudden growth in the city during Krishnaraja Wadiyar’s rule, the then ruler of the Bangalore province. As per local reports, the first street bulb was lighted in K. R. Market in 1906 AD. Just to see the lamp, people used to travel miles, but subsequently it was provided in other parts of the city. The streets in the market was named after the owner of the street, mainly the owners were gifted these streets by the ruler. The streets are known for booksellers, jewellers and silk merchants. Besides, temples of 100-150 years are also present on the lanes. As was mentioned by the guide, when Kempegowda built this, it was known as Dodappete, hence this market was considered as The Commercial Market. By 9:30 am, the walk was completed, from where all the students dispersed to their respective destination, after gaining a wide knowledge regarding the rich and not much heard history of the silicon city of India, Bangalore.

For the second batch of students, the heritage walk began at around 5pm. The students met up in the vicinity of Victoria Hospital and started off on their walk with a brief introduction on the city’s past that was once again delivered by the resource person, Mr. Suresh Moona, after Dr. Geeta gave a glimpse of the city’s cultural richness.
Mr. Moona took us through the timeline of Bangalore’s history, from Kempegowda’s establishment to Hyder Ali’s conquest, from the British annexure to the Mysore Maharajas. Following this he started the walk, with the first heritage site being the Victoria Hospital itself. As we walked towards the beautiful stone building, with its pillars, porch and brick red roof top, we learnt that this particular hospital was constructed upon the orders of the Queen Reagent Vani Vilasa, the mother of Kempegowda, in 1900. The hospital was built as the queen realised that there was no proper health facility for the citizens of the city. The red rooftop, complete with a spire is built in line with the similar tops of the market square, the dispensary that was built in 1927 and the High Court building.  After admiring the beautifully constructed hospital, we moved on to the Bangalore Fort. We learnt that what is now left of the fort is only less than quarter of the massive fort it used to be. Though we couldn’t go inside the fort, we walked around the outer walls and came to a stop at a marble plaque that punctuated the massive, stone fort walls. The plaque commemorated the spot that was breached by the British under Lord Cornwallis, in the British capture of the fort in 1791, during the 3rd Anglo- Mysore war. The fort, we learnt, housed the famous dungeon, where Tipu Sultan infamously imprisoned British officials. From the fort, we walked to the Vani Vilas College for women.

This famous college, we were told, was built on the orders of the Queen reagent as well and was named after her by the people, as a tribute. The queen believed that women should be educated as well and realising that safety was a concern regarding women’s education, she set up this women’s college that is still functioning. After walking around the college campus we made our way to Tipu Sultan’s armoury. On the way there, we stopped at the KR Market metro station. Our resource person explained to us that during the metro construction, two huge cannons were unearthed. These cannons are believed to be from Tipu Sultan’s era and is evidence that the fort stretched for a huge distance. We then proceeded to the armoury. The armoury, seeped in history, lies forgotten on an ordinary street. One could walk past it, not knowing it even exists. Hidden among concrete matchboxes, the armoury now lies abandoned and decrepit. A huge monolithic structure that arises from below ground level, this armoury held Tipu Sultan’s weaponry until the British annexure. Now it is sadly condemned to the lost pieces of history, shrinking under the weight of time.

After learning about the armoury, we proceeded to the Sri Prasanna Venkataramaswamy temple. The temple is said to be the first Vaishnavite temple in Bangalore. Our resource person told us that a pillar in front of the temple was what started his entire journey of retelling history. The pillar in question was cracked and existed as such from 1791 when a cannon ball is presumed to have caused the crack. The pillar has been replaced after an accident in the recent past brought it down. Standing there in front of the temple in the fading daylight, Bangalore suddenly seemed weary of its long tales.