Hiriya Kempe Gowda is the son of Kempananje Gowda, who had ruled Yelhankanadu for more than seventyyears.
Kempe Gowda, who is reputed to have shown leadership skills during his childhood, was educated at Gurukula in Aivarukandapura (Aigondapura), a village near Hesaraghatta, for nine years.
It is said that Kempe Gowda got the vision of building a great modern city during a hunting expedition near Shivanasamudra (near Hesaraghatta) near Bengaluru.
He envisioned the city to have a fort, a cantonment, tanks (water reservoirs), temples and people of all trades and professions to live in it.
He conquers Sivaganga principality, thiorty miles from Bengaluru on the present Bengaluru-Pune highway.
Next he annexes Domlur, which is on the present road from Bengaluru to the old Bengaluru Airport.
Within this vast forest area, with the necessary Imperial permission of the Vijayanagar Emperor, Achyutharaya (Dasarahalli record dated 1532) he builds Bengaluru fort and the town in 1537 and moves his capital from Yelahanka to the new Bengaluru Pete on a ridge in the southern Mysore Plateau at an elevation of 3,113 feet (949 meters).
Bangalore is today the capital of Karnataka state.
