About District

In accordance with the usual practice Tumakuru district too has been named after its headquarter town. Tumakuru is the angliciscd form of Tumakuru which is itself a derivative of Tummeguru, the original name of the place. The present town has a history of just a couple of centuries and is said to owe its origin to Kante Arasu, a member of the Mysore royal family. The town does not have any historical relics to boast of, for even the traces of the fort, said to have been erected at the time of its founding, have already vanished completely. The area comprised in the district consists of a few places of great antiquarian interest and several places of historical importance. Sage Kadamba is believed to have had his hermitage near Kadaba in Gubbi taluk. On his way to Ayodhya after the conquest of Lanka, Shri Rama is said to have called on this sage at his hermitage for a brief sojourn, during which, at the request of his spouse Sita, he ordered the river Shimsha to be dammed so as to form a large lake here. Sampige in Turuvekcre taluk is identified with the ancient Champakanagara, the capital of Sudhanva of the Mahabharata period. The Paleolithic artifacts discovered near Biligere and Kibbanahalli reveal that certain places of the district were inhabited by the pre-historic man. The district has a megalithic site also and this is located on a crest of the low ridge near Keralakatte village.