The name Bangalore is an anglicised version of the city's name in the Kannada language, Bengaluru. The earliest reference to the name Bengaluru was found in a 9th-century Ganga Dynasty stone inscription on a veera kallu (literally, "hero stone", a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior). In this inscription found in Begur, Bengaluru is referred to as a place in which a battle was fought in 890 AD. It states that the place was part of the Ganga kingdom and was known as Bengaval-uru, the "City of Guards" in old Kannada. An article, published in The Hindu, states:

An inscription, dating back to 890 CE, shows Bangalore is over 1,000 years old. But it stands neglected at the Parvathi Nageshwara Temple in Begur near the city...(w)ritten in hale Kannada (old Kannada) of the 9th Century, the epigraph refers to a Bengaluru war in 890 CE in which Buttanachetty, a servant of Nagatta, died. Though this has been recorded by historian R. Narasimhachar in his Epigraphia of Carnatica (Vol. 10 supplementary), no efforts have been made to preserve it.

A popular anecdote (although one contradicted by historical evidence) recounts that the 11th-century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place benda kaal-ooru (literally, "town of boiled beans"), which was eventually colloquialised to Bengaluru. There are also theories that the name has a floral origin and is derived from the tree Benga or Ven-kai, also known as the Indian Kino Tree (Pterocarpus marsupium). The city as it is known today was christened by Kempe Gowda I.



Bangalore or Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located on the Mysore Plateau in south-western Karnataka, Bangalore has an estimated metropolitan population of 6.1 million (2006), making it India's third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area. Though historical references to the city predate 900 CE, a written history of continuous settlement exists only from 1537, when Kempe Gowda I, whom many regard as the architect of modern Bangalore, built a mud fort in the city and established it as a province of the Vijayanagara Empire.

During the British Raj, Bangalore developed as a center for colonial rule in South India. The establishment of the Bangalore Cantonment brought in large numbers of migrant Tamil, Telugu and North Indian workers for developing and maintaining the infrastructure of the cantonment.

After India gained independence in 1947, Bangalore evolved into a manufacturing hub for public sector heavy industries—particularly aerospace, space and defence. The establishment and success of business software services firms in Bangalore after the liberalisation of India's economy has led to the growth of India's information technology industry. Bangalore is referred to as the Silicon Valley of India and accounts for 35 percent of India's software exports. Home to prestigious colleges and research institutions, the city has the second-highest literacy rate among the metropolitan cities in the nation. However, as a large and growing metropolis in the developing world, Bangalore continues to struggle with problems such as air pollution, traffic congestion, and crime.

On December 11, 2005, the government of Karnataka announced that it had accepted the proposal by Jnanpith Award winner U. R. Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to its Kannada name, Bengaluru. On September 27, 2006, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change, pending approvals from the government of Karnataka and citizens of the city. On October 7th 2006, Government of Karnataka accepted this resolution and decided to officially implement the name change on November 1st 2006. However, the name change still has to be approved by the central government, a process that is expected to take a few months.