How Bengaluru is preserving its stone inscriptions

A citizen-led initiative aims to preserve, and digitally document, Bengaluru's stone inscriptions in the face of rampant urbanisation

As history buffs began to make frequent visits to Ganigarahalli, a village in Bengaluru, residents started to believe that these visitors were “treasure hunters”. There was treasure indeed, but not in the sense the villagers had imagined. The visitors were trying to decipher the inscriptions on a stone slab that had been lying in the village for decades. 

Abandoned and weather-worn, this stone, which the residents believed had instructions that pointed to treasure, was itself the prize. The writing on it is hard to read: it’s from the era of the Chola kings, one of the longest-ruling dynasties in southern India. 

“Many