• Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 108-feet tall statue of the city’s founder ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda, which is the “first and the tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city”, as per the ‘World Book of Records’.

• Called the ‘Statue of Prosperity’, it has been built to commemorate the contribution of Kempegowda towards the growth of Bengaluru.

• The statue weighing 218 tonnes (98 tonnes of bronze and 120 tonnes of steel) has been installed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. It has a sword weighing four tonnes.

• The project, besides the statue, has a heritage theme park in an area covering 23 acres dedicated to the 16th century chieftain, together costing about Rs 84 crore to the government.

• Renowned sculptor and Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Sutar has designed the statue. Sutar had built the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Bengaluru’s ‘Vidhana Soudha’.

• As a precursor to the unveiling, ‘Mruthike’ (sacred mud) was collected from over 22,000 locations across the state, which was mixed symbolically with the mud beneath one of the four towers of the statue.

Who was ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda?

• ‘Nadaprabhu’ Kempegowda, a 16th century chieftain of the Vijayanagara empire, is credited as the founder of Bengaluru.

• Kempegowda, a feudatory ruler under the erstwhile Vijayanagara empire founded Bengaluru in 1537. 

• He is revered, especially by the Vokkaliga community that is dominant in Old Mysuru and other parts of southern Karnataka.

• Kempegowda has been credited for abolishing the practice of cutting the fingers of the left hand of an unmarried woman during a custom known as ‘Bandi Devaru’, an important custom of Morasu Vokkaligas.

• He died in 1569, having ruled for about 56 years.

• State governments have dedicated important landmarks after him – the Kempegowda International Airport, the Kempegowda Bus Stand, and the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda metro station.

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