Born on 28 August 1860 in Muddenahalli village of the Kolar district in the princely state of Mysore, Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was one of India’s foremost engineers and lived to the ripe old age of 101. The creation and nurturing of several major institutions in Mysore (Karnataka today) are credited to Visvesvaraya. Among these are the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam, Visvesvaraya Iron & Steel Works, Mysore Sandalwood and Soap Company, Mysore University and Hindustan Aeronautics. According to biographer Dilip M Salwi, he was “an able economist, statesman, visionary, writer and humanist.” He received many awards and honours, crowned by the nation’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna award, which he received in 1955.
The youngest of four children born to Srinivasa Sastry and Venkachamma, Visvesvaraya went to school in Chikballapur and Bangalore. Even as a child, he had an engineering bent of mind. When he was barely 13, his father, a Sanskrit scholar and an authority on Hindu dharma, besides being an Ayurvedic doctor, died while returning from a pilgrimage to Kasi, in the north.
Amidst uncertainty whether the dire circumstances of the family would allow him to continue his studies, the boy received help from his maternal uncle H Ramaiah, who “had seen the sparkle in the eyes of the thin and shy Visvesvaraya.” Ramaiah took him to Bangalore and admitted him to the Wesleyan Mission High School in 1875. He later went to Central College where he obtained his bachelor’s degree.
Visvesvaraya won scholarships throughout school and college, but also took up tuitions to support his family after his father’s demise. His mother, brother and sister lived in Chikballapur while he studied at Bangalore, and young Visvesvaraya always found the time to visit them despite his hectic schedule of studies and tuition.
Impressed by Visvesvaraya’s academic brilliance and capacity for hard work, Charles Waters, the principal of his college and mathematics teacher, recommended him for a scholarship to study engineering after the young man stood first in B A Honours. In 1880, Visvesvaraya joined the Poona College of Science to study civil engineering. In the final examination held in 1883, he stood first in the Bombay Presidency and won the James Berkeley Medal. Joining the Public Works Department (PWD) of Bombay as Assistant Engineer, Visvesvaraya came up with a number of ingenious solutions to numerous engineering problems in the course of his work.
One of Visvesvaraya’s significant contributions as an irrigation engineer was to design and patent a system of weir water floodgates called the Automatic Sluice Gates in 1901. These were installed at Lake Fife, the Khadakvasla reservoir in the water works department of Poona and Kirkee cantonment. These gates prevented flooding and loss of water. The success of these gates led to similar measures in the Tigra dam in Gwalior and the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Mysore.
The Krishna Raja Sagar dam across the Kaveri River was the biggest reservoir in India at that time. Visvesvaraya’s consistent performance, his innovative schemes and problemsolving ability facilitated his rapid growth in his career. His British superiors not only posted him to the problem areas of the country to take advantage of his sterling qualities, they also made sure he received promotions, often ‘out of turn’, in recognition of his merit.
They also sent him abroad on a number of tours to learn the state of the art in engineering systems. Visvesvaraya realised that when he became the seniormost Indian in the service, he would not be appointed the Chief Engineer of Bombay Presidency, a post reserved for Britons. The proud and principled officer that he was, he resigned from government service at age 48.
Diwan of Mysore
Visvesvaraya was then appointed Chief Engineer of the Mysore princely state in 1909, and the Diwan of the state in 1912. In these roles, he contributed to the all-round development of the state, with the support of Maharaja Krishna Raja Wodeyar.
Harnessing the river Kaveri to generate electric power was one of the most significant engineering projects promoted by Visvesvaraya. When, after crossing several obstacles, the Krishna Raja Sagar dam was commissioned in 1931, it became the largest hydroelectric power scheme in the country. Next to the dam are the Brindavan Gardens, with their musical fountains, parks flower beds and avenue trees, the result of Visvesvaraya’s vision, watered and nourished by the releases of the dam. “As Visvesvaraya had foreseen, the gigantic scheme changed the landscape of the neighbouring Mandya and Mysore districts. These now became rich and prosperous, yielding rice, sugarcane and cotton.”
Visvesvaraya was instrumental in setting up the Government Engineering College in 1917 in the city of Bangalore, which was later named after him. The University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering is one of the most reputed institutes of higher learning in the state of Karnataka. He also promoted the Mysore University.
Centenary Knighted in 1915, Visvesvaraya retired as Diwan in 1919, but continued to serve state and country as an active consultant engineer for the rest of his life. He was involved in the construction of Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, the establishment of the Chemical Technology Institute in Bombay, and the reorienting of research in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The modification of the drainage system of Karachi, and monitoring the Back Bay Reclamation in Bombay were some of his other contributions. His 1939 report on floods in Orissa led to the conception of the Hirakud Hydroelectric Project. At age 75, he played a key role in starting Hindustan Aeronautic Laboratories in Bangalore, though his original intention was to set up a foreign collaboration to
manufacture motorcars in the state. A byproduct of Visvesvaraya’s efforts was the Premier Automobiles Limited in Maharashtra, which manufactured Fiat cars in India. Visvesvaraya had the unique distinction of participating in his centenary celebrations.
It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, on 28 August 1960. The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a special stamp to honour him and the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum was set up in Bangalore to commemorate the occasion.
Visvesvaraya died on 14 April 1962, and he was cremated at his village, Muddenahalli, where a memorial has been erected at his home. In his own words, he had “achieved all I dreamed for in my youth.”
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Crown of the Indian Empire 1911
Knighthood of the Indian Empire 1915
Bharat Ratna 1955
OTHER AWARDS AND HONOURS
Durga Prasad Gold Medal of the Royal
Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta
Life Membership of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, London
Life Membership of Institution of
Engineers (India)
Fellowship of the Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore
Fellowship of the Institute of Town
Planners
PUBLICATIONS
Planned Economy of India, 1934
Memoirs of My Working Life, 1951