Bengaluraiah Circle

One of the Whatsapp messages from my friend Nagaraj was a photo of a junction. If not for the following message from Anil, I might have missed the specialty of Naag's picture. What's special is the junction's name "Bengaluraiah Circle" which evoked curiosity. The junction is situated on the west of Bengaluru, on Tavarekre-Kengeri road, the nearest village is Gulaganjanahalli.

Here's a closeup of the board stating the name- Bengaluraiah Circle ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಯ್ಯ ವೃತ್ತ. Its an old practice of naming a junction as circle because of the circular island around which traffic flowed. However with increasing traffic, islands were cleared to make extra road making them just junctions but the word circle stuck.

We wondered if Bengaluraiah is a historical character. I ran an online search for the name. Of the few results I inferred that one seldom come across person named Bengaluraiah. Then there is a monastery named Bengaluraiah Matha, located at Banasamudra, off Malavalli-Kanakapura road. Not much information on the monastery except for one or two pictures and a user comment in Google Maps. Within the Matha premises is a mantapa with a larger than life size idol of Nandi (Basava). The place might have a long history but the mantapa and idol are modern, made of bricks and cement concrete. This monastery is located 80 km southwest of Bengaluraiah Circle.

I end up with more questions- what's behind the Bengaluraiah Matha's name? is there any connection between Bengaluraiah Circle and Bengaluraiah Matha. are there historical references to the name Bengaluraiah?

May be Naag can inquire during his next visit to the spot :)

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