Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa released a postal envelope bearing the portrait of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru city, on his birth anniversary and restarted the construction work of the Kempegowda Study Centre at Jnanabharati

Kempe Gowda

• Kempe Gowda was a chieftain under the Vijayanagara kings and ruled over most parts of Karnataka in the 16th century.
• He was born in 1513 in a village near Yelahanka.Kempe Gowda was a just and humane ruler and is widely accepted as the founder of Bangalore.
• He visualized a city with military cantonment, water tanks, temples etc. that provide employment to tradesmen.
• Subsequently, he approached the Vijayanagara kings for the approval and laid the foundations for Bangalore City in 1532.
• Kempe Gowda’s planned city had eight access gates and wide roads.
• He ensured that collection of revenue is just and equitable in the city.
• Planned urban development of the Bengaluru city is a testimony to the capability of Kempe Gowda that even today despite unprecedented challenges of population, traffic and environmental pollution, Bengaluru remains as a Garden City.
• In the 1550s, Kempe Gowda struck coins known as Pagodas.
• This act of his incurred the displeasure of the Vijayanagara kings and he was imprisoned for five years.
• After an illustrious reign of three decades, Kempe Gowda died in 1570.