Bangalore or Bengaluru - Whats in a name?

Bengaluru is nearly 500 years old and has grown from a small time settlement when Kempe Gowda, the architect of Bengaluru, built a mud fort in 1537 and his son marked the city boundaries by erecting four watch towers. Today Bengaluru has grown well beyond those four towers into a sprawling metropolis of more than 6 million people and is referred to as the Silicon Valley of India - accounting for a lions share of India's software exports.During the British rule, Bangalore became a centre of colonial rule in South India. The establishment of the Bangalore Cantonment brought in large numbers of migrants from other parts of the country.

Bengaluru's temperate climate, high quality educational, scientific and technology institutions coupled with a thriving IT and Bio-Technology and manufacturing industry makes Bengaluru one of the most sought after global destinations.

An apocryphal, though popular, anecdote recounts that the 11th-century Hoysala king Veera Ballala II, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor old woman who served him boiled beans. The grateful king named the place "benda-kaal-uru" (Kannada: ಬೆಂದಕಾಳೂರು) (literally, "town of boiled beans"), which eventually evolved into "Bengalūru".

On 11 December 2005, the Government of Karnataka announced that it had accepted a proposal by Jnanpith Award winner U. R. Ananthamurthy to rename Bangalore to Bengaluru.On 27 September 2006, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) passed a resolution to implement the proposed name change,which was accepted by the Government of Karnataka and it was decided to officially implement the name change from 1 November 2006.

The name Bengaluru, is catching up fast, with several major corporate houses and television channels adopting the new name eg.BIAL - Bengaluru International Airport.

http://bangalore.Sneham.in gives you a handy bookmark for the city - for your lifestyle and needs.