“To learn photography, you need a landscape that is
diversified with a compendium of the times gone by and the touch of sparkling
freshness” said Anil and Abhi. The first thing and the only thing that came to
my mind was– Namma Bengaluru. My fascination
for writing and my love for my city are now complemented with a DSLR in hand.
As I try to get hold of the options in my camera, I’ll also present to you the
places around Bangalore which has a story to be told. For now, I’m a tourist in
my own city!
It is 6 in the morning. While every other city road is still
getting up to its realms, K R market is already bustling with vehicles. There
is a traffic jam here! I’m sure many of you are now wondering how I managed to
walk the aisle even for a minute. “Ewwwww! Photo in K R Market?” said my wife.
“Are you nuts?” said my mother. Yes, true. How unfortunate it is that we live
in the despondent present. But my dear friend, everything has a past. Even K R
Market!
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| K R Market, circa 1950s |
Legends say that before it was named after Krishna Rajendra
Wodeyar IV (also known as Nalvadi KrishnaRaja Wodeyar) as K R Market, the area was
called Pete (means Emporium; a mart; a
place of sale; as per Kittel’s Kannada-English dictionary). The pete area is said to have been established
around late 1530s by Kempegowda-1 after foreseeing the need for a common place
for traders to sell their commodities, mainly flowers and vegetables. *1
And the commodities were bought from as far as the towns of Salem and Erode. As
time progressed, the large pete area got drifted into smaller chunks called
Bale-pete (Bangle market), Chikka pete (for textiles), Cubbon pete, Ganigara pete
(for oil), akki-pete (for grains) and so many others.
 |
| Bangalore fort 1860s |
The rush is so much that with much difficulty, I gain entry
into the market. All the vendors are sipping their morning cup of tea amidst
the diligent business. For a software engineer like me, it is surprising that
in this bigbasket.com era, there are so many people buying things at the wee
hours of a weekend. But Swamy, one of the fruit vendors tells me that they make
very good business during this time. I cannot stop thinking if bigbasket guys
buy stuff from here. Another green vegetable wholesaler Tayamma says that she
sells all her commodities within 830 and gets back home. Looking at the number
of buyers thronging in and the trade activities spilling over onto the streets
of the K R Market, I’m pretty convinced about the freshness of the fruits and
vegetables.
 |
| A vendor busy selling flowers inside Flower Market |
There is also a flower market which sparkles with the
insignia of colors. 67 year old flower vendor, Rajanna; who comes here to sell
his home grown flowers all the way from Sira, a village which is 120km from
Bangalore, tells me that he comes to K R Market thrice a week. In a day, he
sells around a quintal of flowers and during festivals it goes up to 20-30
quintals a day, which include a wide variety of Mallige(Jasmine), Suryakanti
(Sunflower), Roja (Rose), Sugandharaja (Tuberose) and Sevantige (Chrysanths).
Another vendor Shaama takes pride when he says “There’ll be at least one type
of flower purchased from us in every marriage that happens in Bangalore.
 |
| Rajanna, another flower vendor |
Not just the market, the surrounding area has a lot of
monuments that talk about the glorified existence of namma Bengaluru. Just a
couple of 100 yards from the Market building, is the Kote (Fort), which was
built by Kempegowda during mid-1500s and later modernized by Hyder Ali around
1760s. It is also said that this pete area was a war-zone during the third
Anglo-Mysore war (1791 AD) when lord Cornwallis attacked it during midnight. As
a proof, recently, Workers dug up a cannon weighing more than a ton belonging
to Tippu Sultan era during Metro rail work in the K R Market area *4.
 |
| Tippu's Palace - Front view |
Kote Venkataramana Swamy temple which was built in 1689 AD *5,
is one of the oldest lord venkateshwara temple of Karnataka. During the same time, Tippu Sultan also built
a palace, which is called Tippu Palace, is still erect. There is a mosque
adjacent to the market building called Jamia Masjid which was built circa 1940s
majorly with white marble. Post 1950, the commercial activity of K. R Market’s
surroundings thrived; thanks to its proximity with the residential areas of old
Bangalore, viz. Chamarajapete and Basavanagudi.
There were also a lot of theaters around this area, some of which are functioning
even to this day and some are closed down.
 |
| Jamia Masjid, adjacent to Market building |
The new market which was designed by Sri Lakshminarasappa on
the model of Sir Stuart Hogg Market of Calcutta was opened on
October 11, 1921. *2. It
has been close to a dozen of decades since this building is functioning. But it
is visible that very less has been done to keep it in good shape. It is in
ruins with water seeping from the top during rains. The walls are shattered, platforms are uneven.
They deserve better facilities and as always, the government has turned its
blind eye after an armada of promises during the elections.
 |
| HMT tower clock, K R Market building entrance, from inside |
I, Anil and Rahul meander enough around K R Market and come
out to have a kadak chai. As we deliberate about its sustenance; the employment
that it has offered to so many people; about its past, present and future, my
image of it has changed.
For sure, K R Market does not have the loftiness of the best
malls or the awe of most the eminent supermarkets in the city, but with this visit,
I’ve realized that it is full of coveted things for the common man without
which everyday life ceases to move on. Next time I pass it, I hope to forget
the mires around and I’ll feel proud of the place which still has the ashes of
the times gone by. At this moment, a quote is kindling in my mind that Plato
once said about Greece!
This City is what it is because our citizens are
what they are!
References:
*1 – Bangalore - The informal economy of the Historic Pete,
Journal of the arts and heritage, UNESCO
*2 – History of Bangalore. K.R Market (Karnataka History)
*3 – Image – K R Market, circa 1950s. British Library
*5 - The New Cambridge History of India, volume VI
Photo credits: Anil and Rahul, and of course me!
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