The Lost Lakes of Bangalore

Abstract

The South Indian city of Bangalore, being highly prone to aridity, has historically relied on a system of lakes and open wells to supply water to its population. Inscriptions from the eighth century CE onwards describe the process of creating lakes to support human settlements, and hint at the motivations of early settlers who built these lakes. Combining these narratives with maps of the late nineteenth century, archival records, and oral histories, we describe the loss of the once-close relationship between Bangalore’s residents and their lakes.