Kempe Gowda I locally venerated as Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda, or commonly known as Kempe Gowda, was a governor under the Vijayanagara Empire in early-modern India. He is famous for the development of Bangalore Town in the 16th century. Kempegowda erected many Kannada inscriptions across the region. He also authored Ganga-gauri-vilasa, a yakshagana (verse-play) in Telugu. He is commemorated with various statues and memorials and many places are named after him in Bangalore.

Bengaluru Pete is the area of Bangalore city which was established by Kempegowda I in 1537 with roads laid out in the cardinal directions, and entrance gates at the end of each road. Kempegowda also termed the Pete he built as his "gandu bhoomi" or "Land of Heroes". Pete forms a well–defined body of markets which were associated with various trades and professions of the populace in the locality markets and given the names of trades pursued in such markets. The well known markets are the Tharagupete–market for grains, the Balepete – for Bangles and musical instruments, the Chikkapete and the Nagarthpete for textile trade, the Ballapurpete and the Ganigarapete market where oil is extracted by people of the Ganiga community, the Tigalarapete–flower market of gardeners, the Cubbonpete – textile manufacture by people of the Devanga community.