Bengaluru

Bengaluru (Bangalore) has a layered history that begins long before it became India’s tech capital. The region was part of the Gangas and later the Cholas, before coming under the Hoysalas and then the powerful Vijayanagara Empire. After Vijayanagara’s decline, local chieftains and the Wodeyars of Mysore influenced the area. A key moment came in 1537 when Kempe Gowda I, a feudatory under Vijayanagara, founded a mud fort and planned a market town—often seen as the formal beginning of Bengaluru.

In the 17th century, the city changed hands between the Bijapur Sultanate, the Mughals, and the Wodeyars. Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan later strengthened the city’s military importance. After Tipu’s defeat in 1799, the British established a large cantonment alongside the older “Pettah” town, shaping Bengaluru’s dual character—traditional trading neighborhoods and colonial-era institutions.

In the 20th century, Bengaluru emerged as a center for education, science, and public-sector industries, and after the 1990s it rapidly grew into a global hub for IT, startups, and innovation.