Vidhana Soudha (lit. 'Legislative House') in Bangalore, India, is the seat of the state legislature of Karnataka. Built with granite, Vidhana Soudha is the largest legislative building in India. It measures 213.36 by 106.68 metres (700.0 by 350.0 ft) on the ground and is 53.34 metres (175.0 ft) tall It is constructed in a style described as Neo-Dravidian,[3] and incorporates elements of various Dravidian styles. Construction was started in 1952 and completed in 1956.
The two houses of legislature of the princely state of Mysore, the legislative assembly and the legislative council, were established in 1881 and 1907 respectively. Sessions of the two houses took place in Mysore (with joint sessions taking place in the Bangalore Town Hall) until India's independence from British rule on 15 August 1947, when Mysore acceded to India. The state's capital was shifted to Bangalore; the two houses moved into Attara Kacheri, a British-built building in Cubbon Park that housed the High Court of Mysore.
A need was felt for more spacious quarters for the legislature than Attara Kacheri, and in April 1951. The foundation stone of the building was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on 13 July 1951. The structure was planned to be a two-storeyed building housing the assembly and the council.
Kengal Hanumanthaiah succeeded as Chief Minister after the 1952 election in the state.[7] Calling the existing plan a "plain and simple type of American architecture", Hanumanthaiah ordered extensive revisions to produce "a work of art in keeping with the tradition of Mysore State". Apart from house chambers, the revised plan included government offices, archives, a library and a banquet hall. Construction of the building was completed in 1956. Hanumanthiah personally supervised and ordered several particular aspects of the construction; one of them was to inscribe "Government Work Is God's Work" and its Kannada equivalent on the entablature of the front facade. The final design was meant to dwarf the British-built Attara Kacheri, currently the seat of the Karnataka High Court, opposite which Vidhana Soudha was being built.
