Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (also spelled Vishweshwaraiah) (September 15, 1861 - April 12, 1962), popularly known as MV, was an eminent Indian engineer. He was born to Srinivasa Sastry and Venkachamma in Muddenahalli village, 40 miles from Bangalore, India. MV went to primary school in Chikballapur and high school in Bangalore. His ancestors actually belonged to Mokshagundam village, Giddalur of Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. They had migrated to Mysore some three centuries ago. He earned his B.A. at Madras University in 1881 and later civil engineering from College of Science, Pune.

His father was a Sanskrit scholar and an authority on Hindu Dharma Sastras (science), besides being an Ayurvedic practitioner. His father died in Kurnool when he (MV) was only 15.

After joining Public Works Department (PWD) of Bombay, he received an invitation to join the Indian Irrigation Commission. He then introduced an extremely intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan area.

He also designed and patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates. These were installed at the Khadakvasla reservoir at Poona, for the first time, in 1903. The use of these gates was to raise the flood supply level of storage in the reservoir to the highest level likely to be attained by its flood, without causing any damage to the dam. Based on the success of these gates, the same was adopted in the Tigra dam in Gwalior and the Krishnarajasagar (KRS) dam in Mysore. The KRS dam across the Cauvery was the biggest reservoir in India at that time.

MV was a celebrity when he designed flood protection system to save Hyderabad city from floods. After taking a voluntary retirement in 1908, he took over as the Dewan of Mysore princely state, thus contributiong to the all-round development of the state, with the support of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodeyar. He was instrumental in setting up the 'Govt engg college' in 1917 in the city of Bangalore, which was later named after him. UVCE (University Visweshvaraya college of engineering), to this day, remains one of the most reputed institutes of higher learning in the state of Karnataka. He also endeavoured to promote the Mysore University.

He was knighted while he was the Dewan. He was given the nation's highest honour Bharat Ratna in 1955. The technical university, Vishweshwaraiah Technological University, Belgaum, to which all the state engineering colleges of the Karnataka state are affiliated, has been named after him.

As part of his birth centenary celebrations, the Visvesvarayya Industrial And Technological Museum was set up in Bangalore.