United Andhra Pradesh - the first linguistic state of India

Andhra Pradesh is one of the state of the country, which takes pride in its rich historical and cultural heritage. A peek into the History of Andhra Pradesh can give an idea of the glorious past the state has witnessed. 

Andhra Pradesh is the first State formed based on linguistic basis.  Let us see a brief history of Andhra Pradesh.

The origin of Andhra Pradesh

 The historians believe that the Andhra Pradesh people were Aryans.  These people migrated to the south of Vindhyas and they mixed up with other races.  Andhra Pradesh which was a major part of Emperor of Ashoka's kingdom was an important Buddhist center of that time. Many places of the state still bears the traces of the Buddhist culture and influence.

The earlier period

One of the earliest dynasty which ruled Andhra Pradesh is the Satavahana dynasty.  This was during the second century B.C and they were also known as Andhras.  The capital city at that time was Amaravathi which was on the banks of river Krishna. They promoted national and international trade and were great followers of Buddhism. After the end of the Satavahana reign, the state was ruled by the Pallavas, the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Kakaityas respectively. 

The Kakatiya dynasty was uprooted in 1323.  Their ruler was captured by Tughlak Sultan of Delhi.  After the end of Kakatiya dynasty, some local kingdoms rose to power in different parts of the kingdom.  One of those was the Vijayanagar Kingdom was the most powerful.  King Krishnadeva Raya belonged to this kingdom.  The Vijayanagar kingdom was finally captured by Mulsim invaders.    The Qutb Shahi dynasty was seen by the state in middle of 16th century.  They were defeated by the Mughals, to be precise by Aurangazeb's son.  

Hyderabad was declared independent in 1707 and went under the rule of the Nizams.  The Nizams were great allies of the British and they helped the Europeans to defeat Tipu Sultan of Mysore.


The post independence period

Andhra Pradesh became the first state to be formed on basis of language after independence. 21 districts were given to Telugu speaking people out of which nine were in the Nizam's dominions and the rest are in Madras Presidency.  But after an agitation in 1953, 11 districts of the Madras presidency were taken out to form a new Andhra State with Kurnool as the capital. Nine districts under the Nizam rule were later added to form the combined Andhra Pradesh in 1956.  Hyderabad became the capital of the new Andhra Pradesh State.  Hyderabad was one of the most technologically advanced cities of modern India.