Anyone who has been in Bengaluru even a few weeks has likely heard the story of the old woman who lived in a hut in a forest, and who served boiled beans (bendhe kaalu) to a tired 12th century Hoysala king who had been out hunting and had lost his way. The grateful king is supposed to have named the place bendhe-kaal-uru (City of Boiled Beans), which morphed and grew into the current massive urban sprawl of Bengalūru (ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು). It’s a cute story but an apocryphal one!
Because the name Bengaluru has been around long before the name Hoysala was a gleam in anyone’s eye. And we know this because there is an inscription on a “vīra gallu" (ವೀರಗಲ್ಲು) (literally, "hero-stone", a rock edict extolling the virtues of a warrior) dating back to 890 CE or so that mentions a battle of Bengaluru.
This historical object lies in the premises of the Panchalingeshvara temple in Begur.
The transliteration of the chalked version of the hero-stone (PC: Udaya Kumar PL), highlighting the inscription, reads as follows, with each line corresponding to a line on the stone:
Shrimat Nagatta rana manevag atin Pervonasetti Bengaluru kaale gadol Naga ttarana magan Buttana pati sattham
Here’s a simplified translation:
Shrimat Nagattara's 'house-son' Pervona-setti (and) Nagattara's son Buttana-pati died in the battle of Bengaluru
The hero-stone records that Pervona Setti, the ‘house-son’ (possibly either an adopted son or an attendant) of a chieftain named Nagattara, and Buttana-pati, a son of Nagattara, died in the battle of Bengaluru.
In 1915, archaeologist R Narasimhachar, who was the first to stumble upon this gem, found this hero-stone embedded in the floor in front of the Kamateshvara shrine. This extraordinary finding was reported the same year in an academic publication. The black-and-white pictures shown above have been taken from this publication.
Of the two pictures above, one highlights the the initial state of the hero-stone. The other picture is that of the stone after it’s move to a stop-gap safe space within the temple complex. There are three other inscription stones in that location, which are also all about 1100 years old.
After active intervention by INTACH Bangalore, the Bengaluru Inscription at Begur (the first recorded instance of the city’s name) has been formally installed at long last.
This priceless historical artifact that was once abandoned in an obscure location until recently has now been elevated on a pedestal, with scholarly signage and protection from the elements. And people still say Bangalore has no past!
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