The king’s gambit and the Bengaluru Purchase

The king’s gambit and the Bengaluru Purchase

The king’s gambit and the Bengaluru Purchase  ByHT Correspondent Jan 10, 2025 08:18 AM IST Share Via Copy Link It was the founder of Bengaluru, Kempegowda I, who built the temple, some 3 km south of his walled city.

On 14th January, Makara Sankranthi, as the sun turns northwards, signalling the imminent end of deliciously chilly Bangalore mornings, the devout (and the curious) will gather at the stunning 16th century temple to Shiva-of-the-cave – Gavi Gangadhareshwara – near Chamarajpet, to watch the thrilling sight of the sun’s rays lighting up the shivling in the rocky sanctum. A few will perhaps recall that it was the founder of Bengaluru, Kempegowda I, who built the temple, some 3 km south of his walled city.

Nadaprabhu Kempegowda played no part, however, in raising the temple to Vishnu-of-the-fort, Kote Venkataramanaswamy that lies just outside the walled city (PTI)

Kempegowda played no part, however, in raising the temple to Vishnu-of-the-fort, Kote Venkataramanaswamy that lies just outside the walled city. That was done over a century later by a king who enhanced the power, influence, and territories of the Mysore Wadiyars, and built an alternative power centre in south India after the fall of Vijayanagara. This Wadiyar, who counted among his contemporaries Maratha ruler Shivaji and Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, was Devaraja II, or Chikka Devaraja.

Chikka Devaraja came to the throne in 1673, during a tumultuous time in the Deccan. His predecessor, Devaraja I, had declared Mysore’s independence from Vijayanagara in 1653, and expanded the kingdom considerably. Bengaluru, where Shivaji had spent some happy years as a boy, then lay outside Mysore’s borders, part of the territories of Shivaji’s estranged half-brother, Venkoji, who ruled from Thanjavur.

In 1674, Shivaji was crowned king of the Maratha empire, and began an aggressive campaign in south India, particularly around Bijapur. By 1677, backed by the sultan of Golconda, who had ditched his alliance to Bijapur to join him, Shivaji had Vellore and Gingee, and was dangerously close both to Mysore and Venkoji’s territories. When his attempt to reconcile with Venkoji failed, Shivaji attacked and defeated his brother, only conceding some towns to his much-loved sister-in-law Dipa Bai when she intervened. Among those towns was Bengaluru.

Shivaji died in 1680, leaving the Deccan open to Aurangzeb, whose attempts for dominance of the region the Maratha had thwarted for years. In 1684, Aurangzeb took personal command of the Deccan campaign, determined to crush the Marathas. By 1688, Bijapur and Golconda were his; in 1689, he captured and executed Shivaji’s heir, Sambhaji.

While the Deccan convulsed, what of Chikka Devaraja? In 1682, the Maratha army under Sambhaji attacked Mysore, but was sent packing by Devaraja at Banavara in Hassan. In 1687, with the Mughals pressing ever closer, Venkoji wisely decided to sell off his faraway province of Bengaluru, and began negotiations with Chikka Devaraja. The back and forth on the real estate deal went on so long that it caught the attention of the Marathas at Gingee and Aurangzeb himself.

“These powers,” writes Col Mark Wilks, in his 1810 book, Historical Sketches of the South of India, “entertaining a high opinion of the importance of Bangalore, sent each a detachment from those distant and opposite stations to anticipate the Raja of Mysoor, and endeavour to seize Bangalore for themselves…”

Even as the grand sum of three lakh pagodas was finally agreed upon as the price of Bengaluru, Kasim Khan, the governor of Sira, arrived at Bengaluru fort and ran up the Mughal flag on its ramparts. At this point, Bengaluru technically still belonged to Venkoji, but since Devaraja now thought of it as his, both armies marched on Bengaluru. Once they got there – plot twist! – Chikka Devaraja began fighting on the side of Kasim Khan, hoping to impress Aurangzeb and get Bengaluru from him. Venkoji retreated, and Kasim Khan, who had bigger fish to fry, relieved Chikka Devaraja of three lakh pagodas and went his merry way.

And that was how our Bengaluru became part of the Raja of Mysoor’s kingdom, and prospered.