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Marvellous Murals In The Conservancy Lanes Of Malleshwaram

Where old culture meets new

Anu Anniah
Namaste Now
Published in
6 min readDec 10, 2024

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Mural of lady brewing filter coffee
One of the missing murals of Malleshwaram. Photo belongs to Shyam.

It is an extraordinary Sunday when you wake up early, hitch an auto->metro->auto ride from home, and spend the next 3 hours walking and gawking at wall art in one of Bangalore’s oldest areas — Malleshwaram.

Malleshwaram derives its name from the Kaadu Malleshwara temple built in the 17th century. Kaadu — forest. Malleshwara — one of several names for Eeshwara or Lord Shiva. Developed as an urban area in the late 18th century, Malleshwaram has an interesting concept in town development called conservancy lanes.

What is a conservancy lane?

Think back to the time when urban sewage planning was not sophisticated. After Bangalore reeled under the plague in the early 1900s, town planners decided to do something about the city’s sanitation. Hello, conservancy lanes!

This concept was introduced in Malleshwaram and Basavangudi — two of Bangalore’s iconic old areas. Conservancy lanes are about 10 feet wide and run perpendicular to the main roads. They served the sole purpose of allowing sanitation workers to enter homes from the backyard and clean out the toilets at night or early in the morning.

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Namaste Now
Namaste Now

Published in Namaste Now

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Anu Anniah
Anu Anniah

Written by Anu Anniah

Writer. Published author. Technical writer. Poet. Sit-down comedian. Collector of friends. Greedy for laughter.

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