BANGALORE, the administrative capital and most important town of the chief commissionership of Mysore, also a large military cantonment, situated in 12° 58' N. lat., and 77° 38' E. long. In 1872 the total population of the Bangalore municipality amounted to 191,300; municipal income in 1872-73, £19,090; expenditure, £17,496; average rate of taxation, 2s. per head of the population. For the protection of the town, a municipal police, consisting of 22 officers and 124 men, was maintained in 1872-73, at a total cost of £2756. Bangalore commands the province of Mysore from a military point of view. The elevation of the district on which it stands renders it healthy for English troops; and a large European and Native force is quartered at the military cantonment,—the Native force in 1872-73 consisting of six regiments of cavalry, numbering 2095 officers and men, and four regiments of infantry, numbering 2149 officers and men. The principal institution of the town is the Bangalore High School or Central College for the province, attended by between four and five hundred pupils. The average annual charge of educating each pupil in 1872-73 was £3, 4s. 6d, of which £2, 3s. 9d. was contributed by the state. Mr Thornton thus writes regarding the history of the town :—...
The foundation of the present fort was laid by a descendant of Kemp≡-Goud, a husbandman of the neighbouring country, who, probably in the 16th century, had left his native village to avoid the tyranny of the wadeyar of that place, and settled on a spot a few miles to the north of Bangalore. To the peaceful occupation of a farmer he added that of a warrior, and his first exploit was the conquest of this place, where, and at Savendrug, his family subsequently erected fortresses. Bangalore, with other possessions, was, however, wrested from them by Bijapur. Somewhat later we find it enumerated among the j<igirs of Shahji, father of Sivaji, the founder of the Marhatta sway; and at an early period of his career in the service of the Bijapur state, that adventurer seemed to have fixed his residence there. It appears to have passed into the possession of Venkoji, one of the sons of Shâhjf; but he having occupied Tanjor, deemed Bangalore too distant, especially under the circumstances of the times, to be safe. He accordingly, in 1687, entered into a bargain for its sale to Chik Deo, Râjâ of Mysore, for three lacs of rupees; but before it could be completed, Kasim Khan, commander of the forces of Aurangzeb, marched upon the place, and entered it almost without resistance. This event, however, had no other result than to transfer the stipulated price from one vendor to another; for that general, not coveting the possession, immediately delivered it over to Chik Deo on payment of the three lacs. In 1758, Nanjiraj, the powerful minister of the Râjâ, caused Bangalore to be granted, as a jdgir or fief, to Haidar Ali, afterwards usurper of Mysore, who greatly enlarged and strengthened the fort, which, in 1760, on his expulsion from Seringapatam, served as his refuge from destruction. In 1791 it was stormed by a British army commanded by Lord Cornwallis.
The subsequent history of Bangalore belongs to the general events of Mysore, the province of which it forms the political capital. Bangalore is now one of the handsomest English stations in India, with noble public buildings, spacious and artistically laid out gardens, broad smooth roads, well-supervised bazaars, and a good water supply. The markets display almost every sort of English and Indian fruit or vegetable. Bangalore forms the residence of the chief commissioner of Mysore and the principal officers of his administration, and is well worthy of its place as the political and military capital of the province.
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