Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is a state on the east coast of southern India. It is the seventh-largest state and the tenth-most populous in the country. Telugu, one of the classical languages of India, is the most widely spoken language in the state and serves as its official language. Amaravati is the state capital, and Visakhapatnam is the largest city. Andhra Pradesh shares borders with Odisha to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the north, Karnataka to the west, Tamil Nadu to the south, Telangana to northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the east.

According to archaeological evidence, Andhra Pradesh has been continuously inhabited from early archaic hominins through Neolithic settlements. The earliest known reference to the Andhras appears in the Aitareya Brahmana (c. 800 BCE) of the Rigveda. Around 300 BCE, the Andhras living in the Godavari and Krishna river deltas were described by contemprory sources as having military strength only to the Maurya Empire in the Indian subcontinent. The first major Andhra polity was the Satavahana dynasty (2nd century BCE – 2nd century CE), which ruled over the entire Deccan Plateau and extended into western and central India. The Satavahanas established trade relations with the Roman Empire, and according to historian Stanley Wolpert, their capital, Dhanyakataka, may have been the most prosperous city in India during the 2nd century CE. Subsequent major dynasties included the Vishnukundinas, Eastern Chalukyas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara Empire, and Qutb Shahis, followed by British rule. After India gained independence, Andhra State was carved out of Madras State in 1953. In 1956, it merged with the Telugu-speaking regions of the former Hyderabad State (Telangana) to form Andhra Pradesh. The state reverted to its earlier form in 2014, when the new state of Telangana was bifurcated from it.