Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya(Telugu: మోక్షగుండం విశ్వేశ్వరయ్య) (Kannada: ಮೋಕ್ಷಗುಂಡಂ ವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರಯ್ಯ , KCIE, popularly known as Sir MV; 15 September 1861 – 14 April 1962) was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918. He was a recipient of the Indian Republic's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955. He was knighted as a Commander of the British Indian Empire by King George V for his myriad contributions to the public good. Every year, 15 September is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his memory. He is held in high regard pre-eminent engineer of India. He was the chief designer of the flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad, as well as the chief engineer responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mysore.

Early years[link]

Visvesvaraya was born in 1860, in the Kingdom of Mysore, to a Telugu Brahmin family of Mokshagundam Srinivasa Sastry and Venkatalakshmamma in present day Muddenahalli village, 40 miles from Bangalore, India. Visvesvaraya lost his father at the age of 15. He enrolled for primary school in Chikballapur, and attended high school in Bangalore. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Madras University in 1881 and later studied civil engineering at the prestigious College of Engineering, Pune, popularly known as COEP.^[1]

Career as an engineer[link]

Upon graduating as an engineer, Visvesvaraya took up a job with the Public Works Department (PWD) of Mumbai and was later invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission. He implemented an extremely intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan area. He also designed and patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates that were first installed in 1903 at the Khadakvasla Reservoir near Pune. These gates were employed to raise the flood supply level of storage in the reservoir to the highest level likely to be attained by a flood without causing any damage to the dam. Based on the success of these gates, the same system was installed at the Tigra Dam in Gwalior and the Krishnaraja Sagara (KRS) Dam in Mandya/ Mysore,Karnataka. In 1906-07, Government of India sent him to Eden,(Africa) to study water supply and drainage system and the project prepared by him was implemented in Eden successfully.

Visvesvaraya achieved celebrity status when he designed a flood protection system for the city of Hyderabad. He was instrumental in developing a system to protect Visakhapatnam port from sea erosion.^[2]

Visvesvaraya supervised the construction of the KRS Dam across the Cauvery River from concept to inauguration. This dam created the biggest reservoir in Asia when it was built.^[3] He was rightly called the "Father of modern Mysore state" (now Karnataka): During his period of service with the Government of Mysore state, he was responsible for the founding of, (under the Patronage of Mysore Government), the Mysore Soap Factory, the Parasitoide Laboratory, the Mysore Iron & Steel Works (now known as Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited) in Bhadravathi, the Sri Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic Institute, the Bangalore Agricultural University, the State Bank of Mysore, The Century Club, Mysore Chambers of Commerce and numerous other industrial ventures. He encouraged private investment in industry during his tenure as Diwan of Mysore. He was instrumental in charting out the plan for road construction between Tirumala and Tirupati. He was known for sincerity, time management and dedication to a cause.

Diwan of Mysore[link]

After opting for voluntary retirement in 1908, he took a foreign tour to study industrialised nations and after, for a short period he worked for the Nizam of Hyderabad. He suggested flood relief measures for Hyderabad town, which was under constant threat of floods by Moosi river. Later, during November 1909, Visvesvaraya was appointed as Chief Engineer of Mysore State. Further, during the year, 1912, he was appointed as Diwan (First Minister) of the princely state of Mysore. He was Diwan for 7 years.

With the support of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, Maharaja of Mysore, Visvesvaraya made an arguably unprecedented contribution as Diwan to the all-round development of the state. Not only the achievements listed above, but many other industries and public works owe their inception or active nurturing to him. He was instrumental in the founding of the Government Engineering College at Bangalore in 1917, one of the first engineering institutes in India. This institution was later named the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering after its founder. It remains one of the very most reputed institutes of engineering in Karnataka. He also commissioned several new railway lines in Mysore states.

Awards and honours[link]

The Bharat Ratna medal

Visvesvaraya was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911.^[4] In 1915, while he was the Diwan of Mysore, Visvesvaraya was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) by the British for his myriad contributions to the public good.^[5] After India attained independence, he was given the nation's highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955.^[6]

The Knight Commander of The Indian Empire medal

He was honoured with honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers (based in London) and a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science (based in Bangalore). He was awarded several honorary doctoral degrees like D.Sc., LL.D., D.Litt. from eight universities in India. He was president of the 1923 Session of the Indian Science Congress. Sir M.V. was awarded honorary Membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken 50 years.^[7] He was the most popular person from Karnataka, in a newspaper survey conducted by Praja Vani

Memorial at Muddenahalli[link]

The Visvesvaraya National Memorial Trust manages a memorial of Visvesvaraya in his birthplace of Muddenahalli. The memorial exhibits his awards, titles and personal belongings of his, including his living room, spectacles, cups, his copy of the Webster's dictionary, and a block with which his visiting cards were printed. Models of the Krishna Raja Sagar dam, which Visvesvaraya designed and supervised the construction of, are also exhibited. The memorial is located adjacent to his house, which was refurbished and regarded as a temple by the locals.^[8][9]

Recognition[link]

Visvesvaraya has received recognition in various fields, most notably the education sector and the engineering sector. Visvesvaraya Technological University, the University to which most engineering colleges in Karnataka are affiliated to, has been named in his honour, as well as prominent colleges like University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, Bangalore, Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore and Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. College of Engineering, Pune, his alma mater, has erected a statue in his honor.^[10] The Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum, a museum in Bangalore is named in his honor. IIT-Bangalore is being built at Muddenahalli, the birth place of Sir.MV as an honour to this great Engineer. The college is expected to be operational soon.

Works[link]

• Visvesvaraya, M (1920), Reconstructing India, P. S. King & son, ltd, OCLC 2430680, http://books.google.com/books?id=J0I_AAAAIAAJ 
• Visvesvaraya, M (1936), Planned economy for India, Bangalore: Bangalore Press, OCLC 19373044, http://books.google.com/books?id=Akc_AAAAIAAJ 
• Visvesvaraya, M (1951), Memories of my working life, Bangalore, OCLC 6459729, http://books.google.com/books?id=PkY_AAAAIAAJ 
• Visvesvaraya, M (1932), Unemployment in India; its causes and cure, Bangalore: The Bangalore Press, OCLC 14348788, http://books.google.com/books?id=FkYRAQAAIAAJ 
• Visvesvaraya, M (1917), Speeches, Bangalore: Government Press, OCLC 6258388, http://books.google.com/books?id=5q4CAAAAMAAJ 
• A Brief Memoir of my complete working life, Government Press, Bangalore, 1959

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Indian Biographical Dictionary (1915)/Visvesvaraya, Sir Mokshagundam

• A list of books on Sir MV, complied by the Institute of Engineers (India)
• Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya – A Visionary Engineer par Excellence
• A biography of Sir MV
• Another biography relating several interesting anecdotes
• On Sir MV's role as founder of the State Bank of Mysore
• Why every Kannadiga should be proud of Sir MV Visvesvaraya
• Visvesvaraya, an engineer of modernity

v t e Bharat Ratna laureates Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954) C. Rajagopalachari (1954) C. V. Raman (1954) Bhagwan Das (1955) Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958) Bidhan Chandra Roy (1961) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961) Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1962) Dr. Zakir Hussain (1963) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966) Indira Gandhi (1971) V. V. Giri (1975) K. Kamaraj (1976) Mother Teresa (1980) Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987) M. G. Ramachandran (1988) B. R. Ambedkar (1990) Nelson Mandela (1990) Rajiv Gandhi (1991) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1991) Morarji Desai (1991) Abul Kalam Azad (1992) J. R. D. Tata (1992) Satyajit Ray (1992) A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1997) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997) M. S. Subbulakshmi (1998) Chidambaram Subramaniam (1998) Jayaprakash Narayan (1998) Ravi Shankar (1999) Amartya Sen (1999) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999) Lata Mangeshkar (2001) Bismillah Khan (2001) Bhimsen Joshi (2008)