Sir M.V’s great-grandnephew, family visit KRS Dam
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Sir M.V’s great-grandnephew, family visit KRS Dam

May 10, 2022

Srirangapatna: The family members of Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Sir. M.V.) were touched to hear from the officers manning the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam (KRS) in Mandya that people of Mandya worship Sir. M.V. and Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar every day as they have transformed their lives by giving them a permanent source of water that brought prosperity to their once barren lives.

Sir M.V’s great-grandnephew Mokshagundam Satish, who is also the President, Visvesvaraya National Memorial Trust, Bengaluru, his wife Lakshmi Mokshagundam and daughter Divya Mokshagundam visited the KRS Dam last evening and went around the massive structure, an engineering marvel, built by Sir M.V.

The family took information from the officers about the sluice gates that were designed from scratch by the great engineer.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya had refused to accept royalty from the then Government for his automatic sluice gate design technology so that the money could be used for public welfare.

After going around the Dam, the family visited the backwaters and the Brindavan Gardens. Collecting information from the officers, the family learnt about how the gates that were built decades ago are being maintained now.

In 1924, Sir M.V. oversaw the construction of his design for the Krishna Raja Sagara Lake and Dam, creating the largest reservoir in India at the time, which provided drinking water for several cities and entire Tamil Nadu.

Mokshgundam Satish said that while the Mysore Wadiyars — Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and his family in particular — pooled in their hard-earned resources for the Dam construction, his great-grandfather had pooled in engineering expertise and the technology that was considered the most advanced over 100 years ago.

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“Remarkably, the Dam still stands strong and the sluice gates still are efficient and this demonstrates how public works were carried out in absolute perfection without even a small deviation,” Satish said. He added that the Government has befittingly decided to install the statues of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar and Sir M.V. at the South Gate of the KRS.

Raised in a village of Muddenahalli, Sir M.V. was known to study under street lamps, walk over 60 kilometres to Bengaluru to attend United Mission School and eat food served at temples. Today the modest house where he was born is considered a place of worship for locals.

Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited Junior Engineers Ganesh and Abhilash, Government Employees Association – K.R. Sagar Planning Unit President Shivappa and others were present during their visit.

22 COMMENTS ON THIS POST To “Sir M.V’s great-grandnephew, family visit KRS Dam”

  1. Peshin says:

    Sir MV more than a good civil engineer-famous for his sluice gates construction, was a visionary to bring Mysore to modern times with educational and industrial plans for the state at that time.
    KRS Dam irrigated Mandya district, a rich farm land expanse.
    But, the construction of this Dam was a collective effort: One only has to look at the list of engineers who participated in its construction.
    It was a big dam in Asia at that time, but not an engineering marvel , like the Hoover Dam in the US.
    I would put Shiva Samudra hydroelectric project as an equally important, perhaps, more important, as it provided electric street lights in Bangalore-the first Asian city which had electrification.
    The best these relative can do instead of mere talk, is to emulate his distinguished relative to achieve something good? What has he done?

  2. B R S Murthy says:

    Grapes are Sour! Can’t you take pride in those days when technology was not so advanced,& The Vision is not appropriated , comparing with Shivanandan is like comparing Apples with Oranges
    Finally it’s irrelevant & Unwanted to ask What is contribution of great grand nephew!

  3. Vijay says:

    KR Circle and SKJTI Engeenering collage is one of my favorite place lot of nice memories are revolving this collage and circle I am heartfully thank full for Sir MV for KR circle and SKSJTI…

  4. Questo says:

    Why this is even worth a news story? He has not added anything that Mysoreans/Kannadigas did not know.
    Every one in Karnataka ( Mysore those days) knows about Sir MV and the KRS Dam. Almost every school boy/girl would have visited this Dam and would have been shown around by their teachers or would have gone with their parents. Those days in 1950s, in the Middle School textbooks,, the life history of Sir MV as an engineer and later as a Dewan, were a lesson taught in the class. His achievements as a Dewan was more formidable in ensuring the progress of the state., were explained by our teachers.
    During one of my days in my Middle School, in the mid-1950s, Sir MV visited Mysore, gave a speech standing in the stage erected near the KR Circle. Mysore schools were closed in that afternoon so that the teachers could take their pupils to see Sir MV.
    Sir MV and the Nalwadi Wadiyar are the most known historical figures of the state.
    This relative, a great Nephew should have had a quiet visit and gone home. He should be talking, if he wanted to talk about, about his own achievements. I guess, he has nothing in his credit.

  5. Magadi Kempegowda says:

    Great-grand nephew of Sir MV, would have hardly known his great grandfather ( he was born in 1953, Sir MV died in 1962) learned about him through his parents and other relatives. His information about his great grand father, Sir MV, is at best a second hand story; it was well known that Sir MV imbibed the punctuality habits from his English masters; for all practical purposes he was an Englishman dressed in a suit and tie but with a turban in all his professional and personal life, mixing with his Indian living. Those were the days of British Raj and Wadiyars, particularly the Nalwadi Wadiyar who were ruled under under the British Empire. Both , him and Nalwadi, were driven to modernising the then Mysore State. Do not forget Sir K Seshadri Iyer, the Dewan and the architect of Shiva Samudra hydroelectric project which gave first street lights in Bangalore, unique in Asia. Sir Iyer, made Bangalore a city leveraging it from a hamlet from those days of Kempegowda.

  6. Mann Ki Baat, Bisi Bele Baat! says:

    Sir MV born in poverty was able to study BSC in Central College and civil engineering in the Pune Engineering college, because he was a hard-working and very clever student, and sure secured scholarships based on merit. Similarly his elevation to the position of chief engineer because of his extraordinary merit. That was in British Raj, where Indians progressed on merit only>
    Think of this Sir MV, a poor Brahmin student to day. He would not secure scholarship of any kind, all reserved for backward caste and SC/ST students, and with very great difficulty would have done his BSc, again , because of his upper caste would have been placed in the second class category-most first class and ranks awarded to backward caste, SXC/ST students. No chance of him getting into engineering college, nor becoming chief engineer-all of them are reserved for backward caste and SC/ST candidates.
    This is Karnataka of today, the reservation dump. Independent India!!

  7. Questo says:

    Sir MV would have no chance of becoming the Vice Chancellor of Kuvempu University either today, being not a Gowda and not a son-in-law of the Poet!

  8. Arun Kumar says:

    Ok,,what he knows, everybody knows,in what way Satish specialised,, he never met his great grandfather,, why now visit,, anyhow he and his family visited around,,which public can’t,, !??

  9. Bnr krishnan says:

    Actually sir m v did nothing except doing his job as a senior engineer.but in the history books he is the man against Backward class.when respected wodeyar wanted to implement reservation for backward community Mr.m.v.strongly objected to it.but wodeyar was determined to implant the reservation for backward community.as dewan Mr m.v. refused to implement, he was asked by the wodeyar to implement or otherwise he will be dismissed from the post of deewan.later he was dismissed from the post.not as written in books the he received.in fact m.v.was against Backward class

  10. P s l das says:

    Sir MV was great son of India and great engineer who shall be guiding icon for future generations.

  11. sin e the great grandson of sir. M.V is bramhin that is the reason so many negative comments , if any other expressed his opinion other than bramhin would have most people appricited. this shows the hatredness on one community.

  12. koppal boregowda says:

    @grmuralimohan Bnr krishnan Arun Kumar
    Hey posters
    You have had very poor education. You cannot string words together without errors of grammar. Go back to school , and this time , study well.

  13. koppal boregowda says:

    @grmuralimohan Bnr krishnan Arun Kumar
    Hey posters
    You have had very poor education. You cannot string words together without errors of grammar. Go back to school , and this time , study well.

  14. Sir M V was not against backward class. He was for meritocracy, workaholics. If we had government Servants and politicians who are as honest and efficient like Sir M V, the nation would have definetly prospered very well. A wrong information was intentionally spread against Sir M V by certain vested interests.

  15. Srinivasan says:

    I’m angered by the reaction of some berating the great grand nephew . Blame Star of Mysore ,who published the story,
    if you want to rid yourself of bile.
    Pathetic!

  16. Mann Ki Baat! says:

    Hello Ramakrishna
    You forget that India was ruled by the British, and they were for meritocracy and were not interested in playing backward caste reservation games. Best to acknowledge that fact. Without that meritocracy, firmly established by the British and practiced widely, there would have been no Sir CV Raman, No JC Bose , No Ramanujan and indeed no Sir MV. The corrupt independent India will not recognise that fact. Hence, it has become a third world cesspit, while China ( which became self-governing about the same time as India) is marching so much forward as the super power economically and militarily.

  17. Satarawalla says:

    The British strictly enforced 3 attitudes/characteristics : punctuality, merit and work ethic. One had to only look at their grand fathers as grand children then-like us in 1950s, to realise how they placed importance to the above 3 characteristics, and insisted us to keep them in mind. It was not surprising that Sir MV embodied all those 3 characteristics. Even in my school days in 1950s like the above poster, the above attitudes were valued by our teachers. The example of punctuality was often cited as the “Railway Time” -that is, trains arriving and departing at the times published. Which were facts. That was a different world then bereft of every community claiming as ‘backward’ as it is now! Sir MV represented that era.

  18. Yeshwanth pai says:

    Its a silly argument that MV was againstreservation for backward classesclass. Those days if I remember well, such reservations werr rarely heard of or discussed. Being such a kind human being, and highly professional, he could not have got jnto such sick thoughts at all. After all, he wsnted India as a nation to progress so ge could hardly aggord to get into pooiyi vf s

  19. Bala subrahmanya M H says:

    The greatest son of Karnataka.

  20. Sridhaar says:

    Sir
    Karnataka had lucky to have a great man to construct a dam to serve the people of South India
    We are saluting to these Great good mind people

  21. In the language of the Bhagavad Gita, Sir M.V., was a vibhuti (extraordinary manifestation) of the Almighty Himself. The Lord lent him the sharpest intelligence and thus he could create this engineering Marvel called the KRS Dam a century ago. We all can imagine how difficult it would have been for this greatest engineer to finish the job to perfection without the modern hitech machinery, just using the skills of the men under his control then and also the oldest available technology. It is unthinkable indeed! It was his sheer dedication and hard work. Therefore I wish to call him a Vibhuti of the Lord. May such Vibhutis appear in our country time and again should be our prayer. Congrats to dear Satish, Laxmi and Divya for being members of Sir M.V’s family.

  22. Q says:

    @Prasad
    Cut out the nonsense, you have written.
    The pyramids were constructed centuries ago, in 2500 BC without any modern tools at all. Considering that the KRS Dam is no special.
    Have you seen the pyramids by visiting Egypt, and wondered how was that perfect shape was achieved then.
    The Rigveda, I know more about it , and hence what Sir MV achieved was not the category of divine effort… Sir MV did not plan and construct this Dam alone. Have you read the list of people-quite a number of them , whose names appear at the entrance of the Dam, and who were responsible for this Dam construction? Stop this nonsense.

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