Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Moːkśguṇam Viśveśvarayya; 15 September 1861 – 12/14 April 1962),[1][2] also referred to by his initials, MV, was an Indian civil engineer, administrator, and statesman,[3] who served as the 19th Dewan of Mysore from 1912 to 1918.

[5] According to Prajavani, a Kannada language newspaper, he is also the most popular figure in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Visvesvaraya worked as a civil engineer for the government of British India and later as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Mysore.

[8] M. Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861 at Muddenahalli, Kingdom of Mysore (in present-day Chikkaballapura district, Karnataka) into a Telugu speaking family of Mokshagundam Srinivasa Shastry and Venkatalakshmi.

[9] His ancestors hail from Mokshagundam, a village in present-day Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, and had migrated to the kingdom years prior to Visvesvaraya's birth.

[10][11][12] Visvesvaraya received his primary education in Bangalore and earned a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Madras.

[13] It was here that he helped found and become a member of the Deccan Club and was its first secretary; he was well-acquainted with the progressives in Pune, including Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade, who were instrumental in starting the club and were its members.

In 1899, Visvesvaraya was invited to join the Indian Irrigation Commission where he implemented an intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan Plateau and designed and patented a system of automatic weir water floodgates that were first installed in 1903 at Khadakvasla Dam near Pune.

[23][24] Visvesvaraya was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1911 by King Edward VII, when he was the Chief Engineer to the Government of Mysore.

The College of Engineering, Pune, his alma mater, erected a statue in Visvesvaraya's honour.

[32] On 15 September 2018, to celebrate his 157th birth anniversary, Sir Visvesvaraya was honored with a Google Doodle.

The memorial exhibits his awards, titles and personal belongings, including his living room, spectacles, cups, books and block with which his visiting cards were printed.

Models of the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam, which Visvesvaraya designed and supervised the construction of, are exhibited.