Kan: ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು beṅgaḷūru
‘Venga Tree Town’ City/Capital/District, Karnataka (Kar)
Kan: bēṅga, ‘Malabar/Indian kino tree’ [Pterocarpus marsupium, Tam: vēṅkai]; and ūr/ūru, ‘town’, ‘village’.
For as long as I can remember I have been told that Bangalore means ‘City of Beans’. It has a myth and an etymology to back it up, I was assured.
The only problem is that this derivation is almost certainly wrong. Myths are usually unreliable, and are usually constructed afterwards to explain an already existing place name. Contrived etymologies are suspicious and it always the simplest ones that work best.
The myth recounts the story of a hungry Hoysala king, Veera Ballala-I (some say he was no. II) who got lost while out hunting. Desperate to find food he came across an old woman who prepared him a meal of ‘boiled beans’.
To show his appreciation he named the village Bengaluru [Kan: bend- ‘be prepared by boiling’; kār̤, kāḷ, ‘pebble’, ‘grain’, ‘pea’, ‘bean’; and ūr/ūru, ‘town’, ‘village’].
Both kings (I and II) were 12thC, but historians say the town dates back to at least the 9thC.
The alternative alternative derivation is ‘Venga Tree Town’. The Malabar kino or Indian kino is a tropical deciduous tree with yellow flowers; it grows up to 30m tall. It is native to India and is found in forests in the Western Ghats ( Karnataka and Kerala). It is used as an antibiotic and to treat inflammation and diabetes.
Also: (1) Biliya Kallina Ooru [from Kan: biḷi, ‘white’; kāḷ, ‘pebble’, ‘stone’; ūr/ūru, ‘town’, or a city of white quartz stones. (2) Venkatanatha or Venkateshwara of Tirupati was an important deity in south India, especially in Bengaluru.
Under British rule Bangalore was known as the “Garden City of India” and was famous for its pleasant climate. Winston Churchill, not excactly famous for his love of India and its climate, remarked:
The climate of Bangalore, at more than 3,000 ft above sea level, is excellent. The sun even at midday is temperate and the mornings and evenings are fresh and cool [My Early Life: 1874-1904].
Bengaluru is the Karnataka state capital and the third largest city in India by population.
It is also India’s I.T. capital or ‘Asia’s Silicon Valley’ generating $45bn of I.T. exports (38% of India’s total), quite a lot more than a ‘hill of beans’.
