Born as Mokshgundam Visvesvaraya 15th September 1860 in Muddenahalli (in modern-day Karnataka), Sir Mokshgundam Visvesvaraya was the only child of Mokshagundam Srinivasa Sastry and Venkatalakshamma. He lost his father when he was only 15. Their poor economic conditions worsened and they moved to Bangalore where his uncle lived. He completed high school in there. He studied in the Central College, Bangalore between 1875 and 1880 and obtained BA. When he want to broaden his engineering knowledge he faced again poverty like hundreds of people living in India. The head of the Central College who saw the ability and passion of Visvesvaraya arranged a scholarship for him so that he was able to study and specialize civil engineering in Science College of Poona and gratuated in 1883, standing first.