Bangalore (proposed to be renamed Bengalooru or Bengaluru) is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Located on the Mysore Plateau in south-western Karnataka, Bangalore has an estimated metropolitan population of 6.1 million (61 lakh), making it India's third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area. Though historical references to the city predate 900, a written history of continuous settlement exists only from 1537, when Kempe Gowda I, whom many regard as the architect of modern Bangalore, built a mud fort in the city and established it as a province of the Vijayanagara Empire.