Place · Neo-Dravidian legislature building · India
Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru
Also known as Bengaluru, Karnataka legislature, Karnataka legislature (1956), Vidhana Soudha
The 1956 Vidhana Soudha legislative building at Bengaluru, Karnataka — the 46-metre-tall Neo-Dravidian legislative building commissioned by Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah (ruled 1952-1956) as the Karnataka State Assembly building. The 500,000-square-foot granite building was built in 1951-1956 at a cost of ₹1.75 crore. The building is one of the largest state legislative buildings in India and the only major modern building in India in the Neo-Dravidian architectural style — combining South Indian temple gopuram proportions with modern reinforced concrete construction. The central dome is 18 metres in diameter. The 1956 inauguration by Jawaharlal Nehru made Vidhana Soudha the architectural statement of Kannada identity in post-Independence Karnataka. The 1996 adjacent Vikasa Soudha replicated the Neo-Dravidian style for additional government offices. The 2024 Kannada Rajyotsava celebrations (1 November) draw crowds to Vidhana Soudha.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 12.979, 77.591
Connections (1)
- Bengaluru civicBangalore Fort, Bengaluru
The Vidhana Soudha, finished in 1956 in granite and a deliberately invented Neo-Dravidian manner, rose a short distance from the Bangalore Fort that Kempegowda built in mud in 1537 and Hyder Ali rebuilt in stone — the fort the British stormed in 1791. The civic centre of the city moved from one to the other over four centuries, and the legislature's building was designed to argue that independent India could build in an Indian idiom.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Vidhana Soudha”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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