While the national flag is hoisted to a 21-gun salute across the country today to remember the independence struggle through songs, plays and dances, Bengalureans have had the unique tradition of enjoying the annual flower show at Lal Bagh. After Dr BR Ambedkar, Kittur Rani Chennamma, Sangolli Rayanna in recent years, this year the spotlight is on the Western Ganga dynasty, whose name may not spark instant recognition in the minds of most Indians but whose touch on Bengaluru goes back centuries before Kempegowda laid his first stone in the 1500s.
Most information about the Gangas comes from monuments and inscriptions they left behind. One which continues to stand tall in the city today is the Panchalingeshwara Temple in Begur, built in the 9th century and known as the Nageshwara temple. “A Ganga commander named Nagatara, an influential man in this area, is recorded to have built an extension to it which is in the Chalukya style of architecture, particularly the plinth. The Ganga temples of the time were small and neat, and this one remains intact from the kalasha to the foundation. It hasn’t been destroyed and rebuilt. It’s also stayed safe from invasions because while Begur was an administrative centre during the Ganga period. It became an interior region under the Hoysalas onwards,” explains Devarakonda Reddy, President of the Karnataka Itihasa Academy.
Its rulers were even the first Kannada-speaking ones to rule the region, notes Talakadu Chikkarangegowda. Referring to the inscriptions in Begur, Gowda, who holds an MA D.litt in history with the Gangas being his research focus, adds, “There’s a reference to a ‘bengu-luru when talking about a fallen soldier in a war between the Gangas and Nolambas. This place was under the ‘Bempur panneradu’ region consisting of 12 hoblis, including Kudlu, Ibbalur, Yellukunte and more.” Nearby, in Chikkabalapura, Ganga presence goes back even longer, to 459 AD through an inscription found Mallahalli village.
These inscriptions reveal a lot about the Gangas administrative capabilities, particularly their skills in water management, notes host of History of Bangalore podcast and author of upcoming book of the same name, Ramjee Chandran, sharing, “An inscription speaks of the installation of sluice gates near Bellandur Lake and shows Nagatara acting as the chieftain engaged in building and managing tanks. The Ganga practice of tank irrigation and regulated water management was their way of adapting to the environment. Bengaluru sits on a rocky outcrop, a thousand metres high and nowhere near a water source such as a major river but by the ninth century, the plateau used rainwater harvesting and connected tanks.”
Another artifact, called the Hebbal-Kittaya inscription, a ‘veeragallu’ or ‘hero stone’ erected when someone died heroically in battle, was narrowly rescued from being lost to road construction and now stands in a dedicated pavilion off Bellary Road. Rapid development has been a hurdle for historians trying to study the dynasty’s presence in and around the city but experts also point to a gap in English scholarship being produced.