Bengaluru Habba: Karnataka To Celebrate Kampegowda Jayanthi For 3 Days Starting Next Year

The Karnataka government is going to organise a three-day cultural festival to mark Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempegowda's birth anniversary. Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan said that the festival will be celebrated as 'Bengaluru Habba'. The announcement was made on Sunday during an event to celebrate the 512th birth anniversary of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda.

At the Kempegowda International Airport, a 108-foot statue of Kempegowda, for which the chief minister laid the foundation stone last year, was to be erected by now. But due to COVID, it has been delayed. The bronze statue is now being crafted in Noida (Ram Sutar workplace), and it will be erected by February of next year.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said that,“Kempegowda was a visionary and a progressive thinker. His plans for building Bengaluru about 500 years ago stand testimony to the insights he had on urban development and administration." The Karnataka government has designated 46 locations as Kempegowda heritage sites, which will be developed first to create a tourism circuit.

Nadaprabhu Hiriya Kempe Gowda, often known as Kempe Gowda, was a Vijayanagara Empire chieftain. Kempe Gowda fortified Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, in 1537. In the Kannada Country, he erected many Kannada inscriptions.

Kempe Gowda was one of the most successful and well-educated rulers of his time. He was the successor of Kempananje Gowda. Hiriya Kempe Gowda was born in Yelahanka and was the son of Kempananje Gowda, who had ruled Yelahanka Nadu for more than 70 years.

Kempegowda's birth anniversary celebrations have been organized by Karnataka state government every year across the state from 27 June 2017, and is seen as Kempegowda day or 'Kempegowda Jayanthi'. An award is established and named after the ruler, called Kempegowda Award, which is presented annually at a ceremony held by BBMP.