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Stone Age artefacts discovered at Jalahalli, Sidhapura and Jadigenahalli on Bengaluru's outskirts indicate human settlement around 4000 BCE. Iron Age tools and burial mounds from around 800 BCE, have been found in Koramangala and Chikkajala. Coins of the Roman emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Caligula found at Yeswanthpur and HAL indicate the involvement of the region in trans-oceanic trade with the Romans and other civilisations in the first century CE.

Begur Nageshwara Temple was built around c. 860, during the reign of the Western Ganga dynasty.

The region of modern-day Bengaluru was part of several successive South Indian kingdoms. Between the fourth and tenth centuries CE, the region was ruled by the Western Ganga dynasty, the first dynasty to set up effective control over the region. According to Edgar Thurston, twenty-eight kings ruled Gangavadi from the start of the Common Era until its conquest by the Cholas in the early eleventh century CE. The Western Gangas ruled as a sovereign power from 350 to 550 CE, and as feudatories of the Chalukyas of Badami, and later the Rashtrakutas until the tenth century. The Begur Nageshwara Temple was commissioned around 860 CE, during the reign of the Western Ganga King Ereganga Nitimarga I, and extended by his successor Nitimarga a Chola I, and captured the region. During this period, the region witnessed the migration of many groups—warriors, administrators, traders, artisans, pastorals, cultivators, and religious personnel from the Southern Tamil speaking regions and other Kannada-speaking parts of the region. The Cholas built many temples in the region including the Chokkanathaswamy temple, Mukthi Natheshwara Temple, Choleshwara Temple, and Someshwara Temple.

In 1117, the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana defeated the Cholas in the Battle of Talakad in south Karnataka, and extended his rule over the region. In the later part of the 13th century CE, Bengaluru was a source of contention between two warring cousins, the Hoysala ruler Veera Ballala III of Halebidu and Ramanatha, who administered the Hoysala held territory in the southern Tamil speaking regions. Veera Ballala appointed a civic head at Hudi on came under Vijayanagara empire, which saw the rule of four consecutive dynasties – Sangamas 1336–1485, Saluvas 1485–1491, Tuluvas 1491–1565, and Aravidu 1565–1646. In the early 16th century CE, Achyuta Deva Raya built a dam across the Arkavati river near Hesaraghatta, whose reservoir was used to supply water to the region.