Belgaum
India · Asia
About Belgaum
Belgaum, officially known as Belagavi (also Belgaon), is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located near its northern western border in the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Belagavi division and Belagavi district. The Government of Karnataka has proposed making Belgaum the second capital of Karnataka alongside Bangalore, hence a second state administrative building Suvarna Vidhana Soudha was inaugurated on 11 October 2012.
Belgaum has been selected in first phase out of 20 cities, as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under India's flagship Smart Cities Mission.
Belgaum was founded in late 12th century AD by the Ratta dynasty, who shifted from nearby Saundatti. A Ratta official named Bichiraja built Kamal Basadi, a Jain temple, dedicated to Neminatha in 1204, which came to be called Kamalabasti. Pillars found inside Belgaum fort have Kannada inscriptions in Nagari scripts, one from 1199 by Ratta King Kartaveerya IV. The city's original name was Venugram, a Sanskrit word which means "village of bamboo". Alternatively...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.