Nadaprabhu Kempegowda

A brief note on Nadaprabhu Kempegowda-

• He is a 16th century chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, is credited as the founder of Bengaluru. .
• Born into the then Avati Ranabhairegowda family, which was renowned for its bravery, Kempegowda made a name for himself as a ‘Paleygara’, which enabled him to get the permit from the Vijayanagara emperor Shri Achyutadevaraya to build a fort in Bengaluru. 
• The emperor also gave him the charge of 12 surrounding villages to raise revenue for this effort.
• 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.
• The problem of drinking water that currently plagues Bengaluru city makes us remember Nadaprabhu’s efforts to secure a permanent supply of drinking water to the Bengaluru Pete. This is reflected in the number of lakes that he built.
• He is also known to have developed around 1,000 lakes in the city to cater to drinking and agricultural needs. 
• Some of the lakes that were built by him are the Ulsoor Lake, Hebbal Lake, Lalbagh Lake and Yediyur Lake and more.
• He also ensured that trees suitable to the climate of Bengaluru were planted across the region. In fact, the man behind ‘Lalbagh’ is none other than Kempegowda.
• He not only built the fort of Bengaluru but also developed numerous forts surrounding the city in order to perform his role as the Paleyagara as well as provide stable administration to the region.
• Some of the other forts he erected or developed are the Magadi Fort, Savandurga Fort, Nelapattana, Seven Walled Fort of Hutridurga, Huliyurdurga Fort, Bhairavanadurga Fort of Kudur, Shivaganga Fort and Ramdurg Fort in Ramanagara.
• Some of the temples built by him are gramadevate of Bengaluru, Annamma Devi, the Dodda Basavanagudi Temple, the Draupadi Dharmaraya Temple along with many others in Shivanagange.
• He was from the dominant agricultural Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka.
• In an effort to ensure all-round economic progress of Bengaluru, he developed extensive settlements along with multiple occupation-specific petes — Akkipete, Taragupete, Balepete, Chikkapete, Aaralepete and more.
• 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 was brought from Delhi.  .
• It was in September 2019 that then Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had announced plans to install a bronze statue of Kempegowda at the city’s international airport at the cost of Rs 100 crore.