Bangalore through the centuries : M. Fazlul Hasan ; revised, enlarged & edited by Naresh V. Narasimhan.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 382-389) and index.

Bangalore Through the Centuries M Fazlul Hasan Revised, enlarged and edited by Naresh V Narasimhan Bangalore Through the Centuries was first published in 1970 and has been one of the earliest milestones in the historiography of Bengaluru. The city’s tumultuous past has been recounted beautifully by Shri M Fazlul Hasan – starting from the city’s founding by Kempe Gowda, its capture by the Bijapur Sultanate and the Mughals, its purchase by Chikka Deva Raja Wodeyar, and the wars between Tipu Sultan and the East India Company, the book traverses through the Cantonment town of the colonial era and the ambitious project of the post independent India up to 1970. Taking us through the power struggles, economic transactions, administrational challenges and wars that governed the city’s history, Shri. M Fazlul Hasan highlights it through stories of people, civil society, and the culture of this charming city, whose emergence as a place of education, innovation and employment has thrust it to international relevance in the 21st century. Bengaluru has always been a city constantly moving in two directions, one racing towards the future, while the other stays rooted in its heritage and past. In this confluence of the past and the future, lies the true identity of Bengaluru; one where it’s inherent old world charm meets its modern cosmopolitan avatar. In order to understand the inherent character, it is important to take a step back to unravel the layers that have made the city the palimpsest that it is today. This book by Shri M Fazlul Hasan, does just that: Reminiscence of the past. Celebration of the present. Preparation for the future.





It is over 50 years since the first edition was published and the book has been out of print for several years now. The few surviving copies are coveted articles even as the demand for it among readers persists. It is to honour the memory of Shri. M Fazlul Hasan’s passion for history, and to bring his work back to the readers of later generations that we are republishing the book. In our attempt to republish, the book has undergone extensive editing in which the utmost effort has been made to trace and cite any reference to primary source material, both text and image, while keeping true to the original book’s language and charm. We have also procured rights to additional images from the British Library and the Victoria Memorial Hall, and additionally digitally enhanced and colour corrected older images from the original book. Book Specifications: Size: 150 x 230 mm Extent: 400 pages (approx) + Endpaper + Paperback with Gatefold Cover ISBN: 978-81-963415-0-3 First Published by Historical Publications, Bangalore in 1970 Published by Metaform Design, Bangalore in 2023 Printed at Sudarsan Graphics, Chennai About Metaform: Metaform has been actively involved in various fields of knowledge production centred on Bengaluru. The city’s history, culture, society and civic concerns have been topics that we, at Metaform have had involved interests in for years. This publication is a milestone in our endeavour to build an accessible, interdisciplinary and meaningfully informative roadmap for the city of Bengaluru.--Publisher description.