Google doodle honours Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya on Engineer’s Day
To commemorate M.Visvesvaraya’s birth anniversary, popularly known as Sir MV, India celebrates Engineers’ Day today. September 15 is observed as a tribute to the Bharat Ratna Award winner who devoted his life to the world of engineering.
Today, Google features an animated portrait of a man wearing the Mysuru Peta (classical royal Indian attire) with a wall in the background that represents the iconic Krishna Raja Sagar Dam built across the Cauvery River in Mandya, Karnataka (south India).
The man is Mokshagundam Vishweshvaraya, one of the most prominent civil engineers in India and a master of irrigation design. Referred to as the ‘father of engineers’, he designed the Krishna Raja Sagara Lake and Dam – the largest reservoir in India at the time, and oversaw the construction of the project. Google also immortalises the dam in its doodle, which is known to have provided drinking water to several cities.
On Twitter, people including India’s Prime Minister, paid tribute to Visvesvaraya listing out the number of achievements credited to him.
On #EngineersDay, I congratulate our hardworking engineers and appreciate their dexterity as well as dedication. Their role in nation building is extremely vital.
I also pay tributes to the noted engineer, Shri M Visvesvaraya, on his birth anniversary. pic.twitter.com/A5ITMon7Up
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 15, 2018
Did you know M. Visvesvaraya, the father of Indian Engineering, invented the Block System – automated dam doors that close in the conditions of overflow?
Celebrating his 158th birth anniversary with a #GoogleDoodle.https://t.co/TcP7ch9DuU pic.twitter.com/qtApuL2dHJ— Google India (@GoogleIndia) September 15, 2018
Belonging to a Telugu Brahmin family, he was born on September 15, 1861 in the Muddenahalli Village, Karnataka. He was appointed as the Chief Engineer of Mysore State in 1909, and was then given the status of a Diwan (ruler) in Mysore in 1912, which he held for seven years.
He was awarded India’s highest honour – the Bharat Ratna in 1955 for his work in the fields of engineering and education. George V, giving him the honorific prefix ‘Sir’ in his name, awarded him the British knighthood King. Last month too, Google through its famous doodles honoured an Urdu writer and a Padma Shri award winner – Ismat Chughtai, who back in the 1930s wrote on female sexuality and femininity, middle-class gentility and class conflict, subjects which were considered a taboo in that age. In June, it commemorated the 145th birth anniversary of legendary dancer and singer Gauhar Jaan, who was among the first performers to record music on 78 rpm records in the country.
