Bangalore as Bengaluru

[Chappani]

Hi Friends,

The Govt of karnataka following footsteps of other Indian states has decided to officially rename the IT capital Bangalore as 'Bengaluru'.
The process of renaming strarted from Trivandrum to Tiruananthapuram, Calcutta to Kolkotta, Bombay to Mumbai, Madras to Chennai and now its Bangalore's turn.

What is the advantage like this renaming of cities??? There is no change of name as for as the local guys are concerned who used to call it with the same name, its only for the people other than the locals.

The European cities which have their native name as well as an English name don't think of renaming the english name with their local one, examples being 'Rome and Roma', 'Munich and Munchen', 'Paris and Parie' etc, why do we are behind such renaming??? does it really help or is just a showoff with not much value...

Please send back your comments on this...

[Idiappam]

That's is a good move! Thindivanam - should now be called - puLiyankAdu --- the old name!

[Chappani]

Dear Idiayappam,

Thindivanam to puLiyankAdu is not the same what I'am talking about. You are talking about renaming the name of a place itself. This means a change in Tamil newspapers, books etc.. like 'Pieking to Beijing'; The name change what I'am talking about is nothing to do for the localities as they always called this city with this new name, its only for others.

[Shakthiprabha.]

Chappani, chennai is being called as chennai even by chennaites now.

They probably feel this is a way of protecting the CULTURE/TRADITION OF THE CONCERNED PLACE :rotfl:

[Azhahan]

Paris (F) is Paris (GB) - Native as well as english. Only the pronounciatian is different :!: (paRI and paRis)

Muenchen (D) - Munich (GB) will be myUncen and myUnik
Koeln - Cologne --> keLN and koLOn (4711 Eau de Cologne --> O de koLoN = Water of Cologne)

The ue, oe and y in german are more or less impossible for foreigners. These sounds don't exist in Tamil. For ex. Tamils speak kELiN.

I also won't like string hoppers when idiappam sounds the best :lol:

[Lambretta]

The Govt of karnataka following footsteps of other Indian states has decided to officially rename the IT capital Bangalore as 'Bengaluru'..................What is the advantage like this renaming of cities???
My qsn. wud be wat is the advantage of renaming the cities to their "traditional" names now, in this era when the cities in question hav already lost their original/traditional outlook to the growing influence of cosmopolitanism??? :roll: :evil:
From wat I've heard, Bangalore has transformed so much in less than a decade, is now more popular for pubs rather than its cultural lifestyle (or gardens) tat it may hav originally been known for........so do they think, by giving it a traditional name (original or otherwise), its going to bring back the lost 'virginity' of tat city's lifestyle??!! Wat difference wud it make now, in the present scenario, whether everyone call it as Bangalore or Bengaluru.....?! :? :roll:
Or if they wanted to change the name, y didn't they try to all these decades since Independence, atleast even in the '60s/70s when the city was known to be relatively more trad'nal than it is now?!
My qsn. is same even in case of renaming Bombay, Madras or Calcutta (altho I heard tat's still by & large untransformed, comp'd w/ the others).......its all a big farce!


why do we are behind such renaming??? does it really help or is just a showoff with not much value...
Afa I can see it doesn't help in ne way afa our renamed cities r concerned......if those politicians who r behind all this think tat this traditional re-christening its going to disguise the cities in qsn. from their present-day reality, they certainly r living in a fools' paradise! The quote in one of Shakespeare's plays "What's in a name......." is aptly suited in this case! :wink:

[Thiru]

They should be really calling it as 'benda kaaluru' which became ben-galuru and then bangalore..

[Scale]

benda kaalaru - means folded collars?? :rotfl:

[Lambretta]

They should be really calling it as 'benda kaaluru' which became ben-galuru and then bangalore..
Um...yea, actually I vaguely rem. our tour guide mentioning a similar name when I'd my first (& so far only) visit to B'lore in 1996, w/ my parents.....:)
Incidentally, 'wonder wat benda-kaaluru means......was it famous for bendakai (vendakkai)?? :D

[Shakthiprabha.]

chk out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore

A popular anecdote, but one contradicted by historical evidence, tells that Hoysala king Veera Ballala, while on a hunting expedition, lost his way in the forest. Tired and hungry, he came across a poor, old woman who served boiled beans. One popular version states, that the grateful king named the place benda kaluru (literally, town of boiled beans), which eventually got corrupted into Bengaluru.

[Shakthiprabha.]

BendagaL-ooru

[Shakthiprabha.]

(This sounds more convincing)

Pottery dating back to 4000 BCE and silver coins of Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius and Claudius have been excavated in and around present-day Bangalore district, but have not revealed much about its then inhabitants.

The inscription stone found near Begur reveals, that the district was part of the Ganga kingdom ruled from Gangavadi until 1004 and was known as 'Benga-val-oru', the City of Guards in Telugu. The Cholas of Tamil Nadu captured the city in 1015 AD and collected taxes through the local chieftans until 1116. The district came under the rule of the Hoysalas until the establishment of the Vijayanagara empire in 1336. Kempe Gowda I (1510 - 1570), whose ancestor had immigrated from Kancheepuram to the neighborhood of Bangalore due to a personal feud with the chief of Kancheepuram established the city of Bangalore under the Vijayanagar empire.

[Lambretta]

Oops....sorry Prabha, the link isn't working (for me)......shows sum error....... :?
Neways.....beans, huh?! Well, looks like I was close (atleast I guessed it was the name of a vegetable! :wink: :lol: )......!

[Lambretta]

The inscription stone found near Begur reveals, that the district was part of the Ganga kingdom ruled from Gangavadi until 1004 and was known as 'Benga-val-oru', the City of Guards in Telugu.
Huh?! Benga = guards in Telugu??!! :shock: :? Never heard of it......afa I know Benga in Telugu means a sort of emotional/sentimental attachment/yearning.......unless this 'Benga' was in very ancient Telugu (which had Sanskrit etc. mixed in it)......most words in languages of today were very different to wat they were in ancient times.....I read tat even in Tamil for eg. horse was originally known as PAri......!

[Shakthiprabha.]

:lol: @ lambretta.

yup pari is horse (not originally. even now ppl use it)

[Thiru]

The story i've heard is the boiled beans... not sure about the 4000bc story

[Alan]

I think its just a headache for the public- changing names. Bangalore is so much more easier to pronounce than Bangara luru!

[Shekhar]

There is nothing new or wrong in changing name of a city. The point is that it is such wasteful exercise without any concrete benefit. Names of many cities internationally have been changed. (Afterall politicians are politcians anywhere in the world).

To think that this change of name was suggested by U R Ananthamurhty, a Jnanapeetha awardee is really sad. Well, who says great people have no right to be childish!!

I wish the government concentrate on improving the abominable road and traffic conditions of Bangalore than indulging in such gimmics.

[Lambretta]

:lol: @ lambretta.

yup pari is horse (not originally. even now ppl use it)
Really?? Not ne-one I know/rem. so far........ :? :D

[aravindhan]

I read tat even in Tamil for eg. horse was originally known as PAri......!
The use of "pari" for horse comes from a Dravidian root meaning "to run swiftly" (think of the word "pariyal" in modern Tamil). One finds derivatives of this root even in far-flung languages like Malto where the word "parce" means "to flee". For obvious reasons, it came to be applied to horses in Tamil during the Cankam period and is still in use today (also in Malayalam, if memory serves right).

"kutirai" is a very old Dravidian word which originally referred to an equid of some sort, it is not clear exactly which since the word seems to predate the use of horses in India. The native word for horse in nearly every known Dravidian language is derived from this root ("kuture" in Tulu, "gurrol" in Parji, "guram" in Gondi, and so on).

[aravindhan]

[tscii:abba7e7936]
The European cities which have their native name as well as an English name don't think of renaming the english name with their local one, examples being 'Rome and Roma', 'Munich and Munchen', 'Paris and Parie' etc, why do we are behind such renaming???

The reason Germans do not care too much about München being called Munich in English (or, for that matter, Deutschland being called Germany) is that English does not have any official status in Germany, and the English name is therefore just something foreigners use. In India, on the other hand, English is the working language of the central government and most state governments, so the English name has an official status.

A more appropriate comparison would be to look at what European countries like Poland did when they became independent. You'll find that they quickly changed the names of all cities from German to Polish. Danzig became Gdansk, Stettin became Szczecin, Auschwitz became Oswiecim, and so on. So it's not like what India is doing is any different.

Many of us fear for our native languages. Many tribal languages are already extinct, and it is not inconceivable that the bigger languages will start to disappear next. Restoring the vernacular placenames is a symbolic assertion of the importance of the local language, and it is therefore an important step.

Of course, the name changes by themselves are not enough and ought to go hand in hand with changing attitudes to our mother tongues, but there are a number of signs that indicate that that may also be starting to happen.

It is obviously a problem when the government starts to use all its resources on changing names rather than governing, but governments who do that tend not to govern anyway, regardless of whether or not they change the names of cities. The resources being spent on changing the name from "Bangalore" to "Bengaluru" are not exactly being diverted from infrastructure-building, you know...[/tscii:abba7e7936]

[Shakthiprabha.]

:lol: @ lambretta.

yup pari is horse (not originally. even now ppl use it)
Really?? Not ne-one I know/rem. so far........ :? :D

they do. Esp writers and tamizh literary gangs.

[Azhahan]

I don't know exactly but anyway: Sankt Petersburg became Stalingrad and now renamed St. petersburg again.

Chemnitz became Karlmarxstadt under the communist regime and is renamed Chemnitz again after the German reunification.

Mr. Aravindan, you seem to have a good german-polish hitory knowledge. For an Indian it is very rare. Great!
Germany came from Germania.

[Lambretta]

they do. Esp writers and tamizh literary gangs.
Ohh.....no wonder I'm not familiar w/ its use! 'cos I'm totally illeterate w/ literary tamizh! :wink: :P

[Thiru]

well if places like poovirundhavalli becomes poondhamalli or poonamallee , I guess bangalore to bengaluru is not a big change..

[gaddeswarup]

The following artcle:
http://www.bangalorebest.com/discoverbangalore/sightseeing/TimeLine/originname.asp
says that the name Bengaluru was already used by around 950 AD. There is Timeline on the right which mentions abour Roman coins.
swarup