History of Andhra Pradesh

History Of Andhra Pradesh

The recorded history of Andhra Pradesh can be traced to the period of Assaka Maha-Janapada (700–300) BCE located between the rivers of Godavari and Manjira in the present day telangana region, succeeded by the Satavahana Empire. Accounts of people in the region as descendants of Vishawamitra are littered in all versions of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and Jataka tales (Buddhist literature).

The Satavahana Empire that followed the Maha-Janapada period built the great city of Amaravathi and reached its zenith under Satakarni. They were instrumental in ushering in the era of Ashokan Buddhism in Andhra. At the end of Satavahana Empire, a divided Telugu region was ruled by many of the Satavahana feudatories. The Andhra Ikshvakus ruled the eastern Andhra country along the Krishna river during the later half of the 2nd century. The Pallavas extended their rule from southern Andhra to Tamil regions and established their capital at Kanchipuram around the 4th century. They rose in power during the reign of Mahendravarman I (571 – 630) and Narasimhavarman I (630 – 668) and dominated the southern Telugu and northern parts of Tamil region until the end of the 9th century.

Between 624 and 1323, a significant change came about in social, religious, linguistic and literary spheres of Andhra society. The Kakatiya dynasty emerged as the largest state which brought the entire Telugu land under one unified rule. During this period, the Telugu language emerged as a literary medium subsuming the predominance of Prakrit and Sanskrit with the contributions of Nannaya. The Chalukya Chola dynasty ruled the Cholas from 1070 until the demise of the empire in the second half of the 13th century. In 1323, the Delhi Sultan Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, sent a large army under Ulugh Khan (later took the name Mohammad bin Tuglhluq and ruled as the Delhi Sultan) to conquer the Telugu country and lay siege to Warangal.

The end of the Kakatiya dynasty started the next era under the competing influences of Turkic kingdoms ruling Delhi, Chalukya Chola dynasty ruling the south and the sultanate of central India (Persio-Tajik). The struggle for Andhra ended with the dramatic victories of Musunuri Nayaks over the Turkic Delhi Sultanate allowing for the emergence of the next era of independent Telugu way of life under the Vijayanagara Empire ruled by Krishnadevaraya. The retreat of the Delhi Sultanate from the south after battles with Musunuri Nayaks allowed for an independent Muslim state, the Bahmani Sultanate to be established in central India by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah as a revolt against the Delhi Sultanate. The tolerant Qutb Shahi dynasty of the Bahmani Sultanate held sway over the Andhra country after the demise of the Vijayanagara Empire and patronized Telugu way of life for about two hundred years from the early part of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century.

The arrival of Europeans notably the French under Bussy and English under Robert Clive ended another era of Andhra history. In 1765, Lord Robert Clive, the then existing Chief and Council at obtained from the Mughal emperor Shah Alam a grant of the five Circars. In 1792 the British got the complete supremacy, when they defeated Maharaja Vijaya Rama Gajapathi Raju of Vizianagaram.

The foundation for modern Andhra was laid by Indian independence struggle under Mohandas Gandhi. The struggle for an independent state by Potti Sriramulu, and social reform movements by Tanguture Prakasam Panthulu and Veeresalingam pantulu started of the building of this next era.A fully democratic society with two stable political parties, modern science and economics emerged under the Chief Ministership of N. T. Rama Rao.

India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947. The Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad wanted to retain his independence from India, he was forced accede his kingdom to India in 1948 as the Hyderabad State. Andhra State was the first state in India that has been formed on a mainly linguistic basis by carving it out from Madras Presidency in 1953. Andhra State was later merged with Telugu speaking area of Hyderabad state to create Andhra Pradesh state in 1956.