state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

United Andhra Pradesh United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

United Andhra Pradesh United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the Ba ...

Kurnool Kurnool is a city in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It formerly served as the capital of Andhra State (1953–1956). The city is often referred to as "The Gateway of Rayalaseema".Kurnool is also known as The City of Gem Stones. It also se ...

chaitya A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded ...

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circumamb ...

Koh-i-Noor The Koh-i-Noor ( ; from ), also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Q ...

Kollur Mine Kollur Mine was a series of gravel-clay pits on the south bank of the Krishna River in the Golconda Sultanate of India. It currently falls within the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is thought to have produced many large diamonds, known as Golcon ...

Rice bowl The breadbasket of a country or of a region is an area which, because of the richness of the soil and/or advantageous climate, produces large quantities of wheat or other grain. Rice bowl is a similar term used to refer to Southeast Asia; and C ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

classical languages of India Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians, both families together are sometimes known ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Early inhabitants were known as the Andhras, tracing their history back to the

Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...

, when they were mentioned in the 8th century BCE

Rigvedic The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one S ...

text Aitareya Brahmana. According to the Aitareya Brahmana, the Andhras left

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...

from the banks of the

Yamuna river The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Ban ...

and migrated to

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

. The

Assaka Ashmaka (Sanskrit: ) or Assaka (Pali: ) was a Mahajanapada in ancient India which existed between 700 BCE and 425 or 345 BCE according to the Buddhist texts '' Anguttara Nikaya'' and ''Puranas''. It was located around and between the Godavar ...

Mahajanapada The Mahājanapadas ( sa, great realm, from ''maha'', "great", and ''janapada'' "foothold of a people") were sixteen Realm, kingdoms or oligarchy, oligarchic republics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE during ...

(700–300 BCE) was an ancient kingdom located between the

Godavari The Godavari ( IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakesh ...

and

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

rivers in southeastern India. Accounts that people in the region are descended from the

Viswamitra Vishvamitra ( sa, विश्वामित्र, ) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient India. According to Hindu tradition, he is stated to have written most of the Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gayatri Mant ...

are found in the ''

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

'', the ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'' and the

Puranas Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

. The region also derives its name from the

Satavahanas The Satavahanas (''Sādavāhana'' or ''Sātavāhana'', International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ), also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan region. Mos ...

, who are also known as Andhras, the earliest

kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

of Andhra Pradesh and India. People of the said era supported local art and culture by building temples and sculptures of the Buddhist monuments in the state. It was ruled by the

Mauryan Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

,

Satavahana dynasty The Satavahanas (''Sādavāhana'' or ''Sātavāhana'', IAST: ), also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. Most modern scholars believe that the Satavahana rule began in the late ...

,

Salankayanas The Salankayana (IAST: Śālaṇkāyana) dynasty of ancient India ruled a part of Andhra region in India from 300 to 440 CE. Their territory was located between the Godavari and the Krishna rivers. Their capital was located at Vengi, modern Pedave ...

,

Andhra Ikshvaku The Ikshvaku (IAST: Ikṣvāku) dynasty ruled in the eastern Krishna River valley of India, from their capital at Vijayapuri (modern Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh) during approximately 3rd and 4th centuries CE. The Ikshvakus are also kno ...

s,

Pallavas The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of South India, the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahanas, Satavahana dynasty, with whom they ...

,

Vishnukundinas The Vishnukundina dynasty (IAST: Viṣṇukundina) was an Indian dynasty based in Deccan Plateau, Deccan, which ruled modern Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and parts of South India during the 5th and 6th centuries, carving land out from the V ...

,

Eastern Chalukyas Eastern Chalukyas, also known as the Chalukyas of Vengi, were a dynasty that ruled parts of South India between the 7th and 12th centuries. They started out as governors of the Chalukyas of Badami in the Deccan region. Subsequently, they became ...

,

Rashtrakutas Rashtrakuta (IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...

,

Cholas The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

,

Kakatiyas The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...

,

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...

,

Gajapati Empire The Gajapati Empire or the Suryavamsa (IAST: Sūryavaṃśa, "Solar dynasty") dynasty was a medieval dynasty from the Indian subcontinent, it originated in the region of Trikalinga (most of the present-day Odisha and North coastal Andhra) an ...

,

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

,

Deccan sultanates The Deccan sultanates were five Islamic late-medieval Indian kingdoms—on the Deccan Plateau between the Krishna River and the Vindhya Range—that were ruled by Muslim dynasties: namely Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. Th ...

,

Qutb Shahi dynasty The Qutb Shahi dynasty also called as Golconda Sultanate (Persian: ''Qutb Shāhiyān'' or ''Sultanat-e Golkonde'') was a Persianate Shia Islam dynasty of Turkoman origin that ruled the sultanate of Golkonda in southern India. After the coll ...

, and Asaf Jahis. In the 3rd century BCE, Andhra was a vassal kingdom of Ashoka, but after his death Andhra became powerful and extended its empire to the whole of Maratha country and beyond. Andhra Pradesh comprises three major regions namely

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

in the south-west,

Coastal Andhra Coastal Andhra (South costal Andhra) also known as Kostha Andhra is a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Vijayawada is the largest city in this region. It was part of Madras State before 1953 and Andhra State from 1953 to 1956. ...

bordering the Bay of Bengal in the east and

Uttarandhra Uttarandhra or North coastal Andhra, also known as Kalinga Andhra is a region consisting of six northern districts of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises the districts of Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram District, V ...

at north-east. The state has 26 districts, 6 in Uttarandhra, 12 in Coastal Andhra and 8 in Rayalaseema. The state also borders a union territory,

Yanam Yanam (Telugu: ''యానాం'') is a town located in the Yanam district in Puducherry. It has a population of 35,000 and is entirely surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. It was formerly a French colony for nearly 200 years, and, though united wi ...

– a district of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry tal ...

, which lies to the south of

Kakinada Kakinada (List of renamed places in India, formerly called Kakinandiwada, Coringa, and Cocanada; ) is the List of cities in Andhra Pradesh by population, sixth largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra P ...

in the Godavari delta on the eastern side of the state. The

economy of Andhra Pradesh The GSDP at constant (2011–12) Prices for the year 2018-19 (Advance Estimates) is estimated at 850,000 crores as against 490,134 crores for 2015-16 (First Revised Estimates) indicating a growth of 11.61%. Per Capita Income at current prices i ...

is the 8th largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of and has the country's 17th-highest GSDP per capita of . Andhra Pradesh ranks 27th among Indian states in

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...

(HDI). It has a jurisdiction over almost of territorial waters. Andhra Pradesh hosted 121.8 million visitors in 2015, a 30% growth in tourist arrivals over the previous year, making it the third most-visited state in India. The

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple Sri Venkateswara Swami Vaari Temple is a Hindu temple situated in the hill town of Tirumala at Tirupati in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The Temple is dedicated to Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu, who is believed to have appeared ...

in

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

is one of the world's most visited religious sites, with 18.25 million visitors per year. The region is also home to a variety of other pilgrimage centres, such as the

Pancharama Kshetras The Pancharama Kshetras (or the Pancharamas) are five ancient Hindu temples of Shiva in Andhra Pradesh. The Sivalingas at these temples are made from a single Sivalinga. Legend As per the legend, a Shiva Lingam was owned by the Rakshasa king ...

,

Mallikarjuna Jyotirlinga Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple or Srisailam Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deities Shiva and Parvati, located at Srisailam in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is significant to the Hindu sects of both Shaivism and Shakt ...

and Kodanda Rama Temple. The state's natural attractions include the

beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells ...

of Visakhapatnam,

hill station A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia (particularly in India), but also in Africa (albeit rarely), for towns founded by European colonialists as refuges ...

s such as the Araku Valley and

Horsley Hills Horsley Hills or Horsleykonda or Yenugulla Mallamma Konda is a series of hills in Andhra Pradesh in Madanapalle Taluka of Annamayya district and is about 9 miles from Madanapalle town. The local name of the hill was Yenugu Mallama Konda after a l ...

, and the deltas of

Konaseema Konaseema is a group of islands between the tributaries of the Godavari River and Bay of Bengal located in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. It is nicknamed "Gods Own Creation" due to similarities wit ...

in the Godavari river, and

Diviseema Diviseema is a small and deltaic island in Krishna District of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises three Mandals - Avanigadda, Koduru and Nagayalanka. Etymology The word Diviseema translates as the ''abode of the divine''. Divi ...

in the Krishna river.

History

Toponym

A group of people named Andhras was mentioned in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

texts such as Aitareya Brahmana (800–500 BCE). According to ''Aitareya Brahmana'' of the

Rig Veda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (''śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one Sh ...

, the Andhras left north India from banks of

River Yamuna The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of Ban ...

and settled in south India. The Satavahanas have been mentioned by the names ''Andhra'', ''Andhrara-jateeya'' and ''

Andhrabhrtya The s (Devanagari:आन्ध्रभृत्य) was an Indian dynasty mentioned in the Puranas. Lists of Andhrabhrtyas have been mentioned in various Puranas. They are mostly identified with Satavahanas which replaced the house of the Maurya ...

'' in the Puranic literature. They did not refer themselves as ''Andhra'' in any of their coins or inscriptions; it is possible that they were termed as Andhras because of their ethnicity or because their territory included the Andhra region.

Early and medieval history

The

Assaka Ashmaka (Sanskrit: ) or Assaka (Pali: ) was a Mahajanapada in ancient India which existed between 700 BCE and 425 or 345 BCE according to the Buddhist texts '' Anguttara Nikaya'' and ''Puranas''. It was located around and between the Godavar ...

Mahajanapada, one of the sixteen Vedic Mahajanapadas, included Andhra,

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

and Telangana. Archaeological evidence from places such as Amaravati,

Dharanikota Dharanikota is a village in Palnadu district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in Amaravathi mandal of Guntur revenue division. The village forms a part of Andhra Pradesh Capital Region, under the jurisdiction of APCRDA. Hi ...

, and

Vaddamanu Vaddamanu is a village in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located at a distance of 7km from Krishna River in Thullur mandal of Guntur revenue division. The village is a part of the new capital, Amaravati. Demogra ...

suggests that the Andhra region was part of the

Mauryan Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

. Amaravati might have been a regional centre for the Mauryan rule. After the death of Emperor Ashoka, Mauryan rule weakened around 200 BCE and was replaced by several smaller

kingdoms Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...

in the Andhra region. The

Satavahana dynasty The Satavahanas (''Sādavāhana'' or ''Sātavāhana'', IAST: ), also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. Most modern scholars believe that the Satavahana rule began in the late ...

dominated the Deccan region from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The later Satavahanas made Dharanikota and Amaravathi their capital, which according to the Buddhists is the place where

Nagarjuna Nāgārjuna . 150 – c. 250 CE (disputed)was an Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, scholar-saint and philosopher. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers.Garfield, Jay L. (1995), ''The Fundamental Wisdom of ...

, the philosopher of

Mahayana ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

lived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The

Andhra Ikshvaku The Ikshvaku (IAST: Ikṣvāku) dynasty ruled in the eastern Krishna River valley of India, from their capital at Vijayapuri (modern Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh) during approximately 3rd and 4th centuries CE. The Ikshvakus are also kno ...

s, with their capital at Vijayapuri, succeeded the Satavahanas in the Krishna River valley in the latter half of the 2nd century. Pallavas, who were originally executive officers under the Satavahana kings, were not a recognised political power before the 2nd century CE and were swept away by the Western Chalukyan invasion, led by

Pulakesin II Pulakeshin II ( IAST: Pulakeśin, r. c. 610–642 CE) was the most famous ruler of the Chalukya dynasty of Vatapi (present-day Badami in Karnataka, India). During his reign, the Chalukya kingdom expanded to cover most of the Deccan region in ...

in the first quarter of the 7th century CE. After the downfall of the Ikshvakus, the

Vishnukundinas The Vishnukundina dynasty (IAST: Viṣṇukundina) was an Indian dynasty based in Deccan Plateau, Deccan, which ruled modern Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and parts of South India during the 5th and 6th centuries, carving land out from the V ...

were the first great dynasty in the 5th and 6th centuries, and held sway over the entire Andhra country, including

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writin ...

and parts of

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

. They played an important role in the history of Deccan during the 5th and 6th century CE, with

Eluru Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of Eluru district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 14 municipal corporations in the state and the mandal headquarters of Eluru mandal in the Eluru revenue division. The city ...

,

Amaravathi Amaravati () is the capital of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located on the banks of the river Krishna in Guntur district. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone at a ceremonial event in Uddandar ...

and Puranisangam. The

Salankayanas The Salankayana (IAST: Śālaṇkāyana) dynasty of ancient India ruled a part of Andhra region in India from 300 to 440 CE. Their territory was located between the Godavari and the Krishna rivers. Their capital was located at Vengi, modern Pedave ...

were an ancient dynasty that ruled the Andhra region between

Godavari The Godavari ( IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakesh ...

and

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

with their capital at Vengi (modern

Pedavegi Pedavegi is a village in Eluru district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, 10 km north of Eluru. It is administered under Eluru revenue division. Pedavegi also serves as the mandal headquarters of Pedavegi mandal. The nearest railway st ...

) from 300 to 440 CE. The

Eastern Chalukyas Eastern Chalukyas, also known as the Chalukyas of Vengi, were a dynasty that ruled parts of South India between the 7th and 12th centuries. They started out as governors of the Chalukyas of Badami in the Deccan region. Subsequently, they became ...

of

Vengi Vengi (or Venginadu) is a delta region spread over the Krishna and Godavari River, (also called Godavari and Krishna districts), the region is also known as Godavari Delta, that used to house world famous diamond mines in the Medieval period. The ...

, whose dynasty lasted for around five hundred years from the 7th century until 1130 CE, eventually merged with the

Chola dynasty The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...

. They continued to rule under the protection of the Chola dynasty until 1189 CE when the kingdom succumbed to the

Hoysalas The Hoysala Empire was a Kannadiga power originating from the Indian subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur, but was later moved ...

and the

Yadava The Yadava (literally, descended from Yadu) were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage. The community was formed of various clans, being the Abhira, Andhaka, Vrishni, and Sat ...

s. The roots of the

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

have been seen on inscriptions found near the

Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and with a po ...

and from others dating to the rule of Renati Cholas in the fifth century CE. Kayastha chiefs descended from North Indian Kayasthas ruled over vast swathes of land in Andhra country, and they are recorded in Andhra history dating back to the 13th century CE.

Kakatiyas The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...

ruled Andhra Pradesh state for nearly two hundred years and constructed several forts. They were succeeded by the

Musunuri Nayaks The Musunuri Nayakas were warrior kings of 14th-century South India who were briefly significant in the region of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Musunuri Kapaya Nayaka is said to have taken a leadership role among the Andhra chieftains and driv ...

. Musunuri Nayaks led a confederation of Nayakas to overthrow the rule of the

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Sultanate in Telugu lands. The

Reddi kingdom The Reddi kingdom or Kondavidu Reddi kingdom (1325–1448 CE) was established in southern India by Prolaya Vema Reddi. Most of the region that was ruled by the Reddi dynasty is now part of modern-day coastal and central Andhra Pradesh. Orig ...

(1325–1448 CE) was established by Prolaya Vema Reddi in the early 14th century, who ruled from present day Kondaveedu. Prolaya Vema Reddi was part of the confederation of states that started a movement against the invading Turkic Muslim armies of the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

. They constructed

Kondaveedu Fort Kondaveedu Fort is a historically significant ancient hill fortress located in Kondaveedu, a village in the Chilakaluripet constituency of Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The site is located 16 miles west of the city of Guntur. Apart fr ...

, which they ruled between 1328 and 1428, before it was taken over by the Gajpathis of Orissa, and later ravaged by the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

rulers of the

Bahmani kingdom The Bahmani Sultanate, or Deccan, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim Indian Kingdom located in the Deccan region. It was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan,

in 1458. The

Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellary ...

emperor

Krishnadevaraya Krishnadevaraya (17 January 1471 – 17 October 1529) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Empire, reigning from 1509 to 1529. He was the third monarch of the Tuluva dynasty, and is considered to be one of the g ...

captured it in 1516. The

Golconda Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparu ...

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

s fought for the fort in 1531, 1536 and 1579, and Sultan

Quli Qutb Shah Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, more often though less correctly referred to in English as Quli Qutb Shah (1485–1543), was the founder of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, which ruled the Sultanate of Golconda in southern India from 1518 to 1687. Of Turkmen o ...

captured it in 1579, renaming it ''Murtuzanagar''. It was reconquered by Vijayanagara who overthrew sultanate rule across the entirety of modern-day Andhra Pradesh (excluding Telangana). After this rebellion, the Bahmani sultans launched no further military campaigns outside their kingdoms, because the

Maratha empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

soon emerged as the strongest power in India. Efforts are in progress to classify

Kondaveedu Fort Kondaveedu Fort is a historically significant ancient hill fortress located in Kondaveedu, a village in the Chilakaluripet constituency of Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The site is located 16 miles west of the city of Guntur. Apart fr ...

as a UNESCO

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

.

The

Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellary ...

Empire originated in the

Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

region in the early 14th century. It was established in 1336 by

Harihara Raya I Harihara I, also called Hakka and Vira Harihara I, was the founder of the Vijayanagara Empire, which he ruled from 1336 to 1356 CE. He and his successors formed the Sangama dynasty, the first of four dynasties to rule the empire. He was the eldes ...

and his brother

Bukka Raya I Bukka Raya I (reigned 1356–1377 CE) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire from the Sangama Dynasty.Phrof A V Narasimha MurthyRare Royal Brothers: Hakka and Bukka He was a son of Bhavana Sangama(Unofficial). Background The early life of Bu ...

of the

Sangama Dynasty The Sangama dynasty was a dynasty of the Vijayanagara Empire founded in the 14th century by two brothers: Harihara I (also called ''Vira Harihara'' or ''Hakka Raya'') and Bukka Raya I. They were the sons of Bhavana Sangama, members of a pastora ...

.By James Mansel Longworth page 204edited by J C morris page 261 The empire's patronage enabled fine arts and literature to reach new heights in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

,

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

, and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, while

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

evolved into its current form.Historians such as

P. B. Desai Pandurangrao Bhimrao Desai (1910–1974) was an Indian epigraphist, historian, and archaeologist. Early years Desai was born in Gurmitkal village Gulbarga District on 24 December 1910. Panduranga was the youngest among five sons and faced some ...

(''History of Vijayanagar Empire'', 1936),

Henry Heras Henry Heras (11 September 1888, Barcelona, Spain – 14 December 1955, Bombay, India) was a Spanish Jesuit priest, archeologist and historian in India. Education Enric Heras de Sicars (later in India he anglicised his Christian name to Henry) w ...

(''The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara'', 1927),

B. A. Saletore Bhaskar Anand Saletore (1900–1963), better known as B. A. Saletore, was an Indian historian from Mangalore, Karnataka. Early years B.A. Saletore was born in village named Saletore in the Puttur taluk of South Canara district (present Dakshina ...

(''Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire'', 1930), G.S. Gai (Archaeological Survey of India), William Coelho (''The Hoysala Vamsa'', 1955) and Kamath (Kamath 2001, pp. 157–160) During the Vijayanagara Empire, the

Pemmasani Nayaks Pemmasani Nayaks were a ruling clan in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. They came into prominence during Vijayanagara Empire, Vijayanagara times as rulers of Gandikota over 300 years.Gandikota, by Tavva Obul Reddy, 2016, Telugu Samajam pu ...

controlled parts of Andhra Pradesh and had large mercenary armies that were the vanguard of the Vijayanagara Empire in the sixteenth century. The

Lepakshi Lepakshi is a village in the Sri Sathya Sai district of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is located east of Hindupur and approximately west of Kadiri and north of Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest ...

group of monuments are culturally and archaeologically significant as it is the location of shrines dedicated to

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

,

Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

, and

Veerabhadra Virabhadra (), also rendered Veerabhadra, Veerabathira, and Veerabathiran, is a fierce form of the Hindu god Shiva. He is created by the wrath of Shiva, when the deity hurls a lock of his matted hair upon the ground, upon hearing of the self- ...

which were built during the Vijayanagara Kings' period (1336–1646). The temples are the location of mural paintings of the Vijayanagara kings, Dravidian art, and inscriptions. Near the temple complex is a large granite

Nandi bull Nandi ( sa, नन्दि), also known as Nandikeshwara or Nandideva, is the bull vahana of the Hindu god Shiva. He is also the guardian deity of Kailash, the abode of Shiva. Almost all Shiva temples display stone-images of a seated Nandi, g ...

. On a hillock known as ''Kurma Saila'' ('tortoise-shaped hill') are other temples to Papanatheswara,

Raghunatha Raghunatha is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami (1505–1579), disciple of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu *Raghunatha dasa Goswami, one of the principal disciples of the Vaishnava saint, Chait ...

, Srirama, and

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has taken the initiative for including the "Lepakshi Group of Monuments" among the

UNESCO World Heritage sites in India The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designates World Heritage Sites of outstanding universal value to cultural or natural heritage which have been nominated by countries which are signatories to the UN ...

.

Modern history

Harihara Harihara (Sanskrit: हरिहर) is the fused sattvika characterisation of Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara) from Hindu theology. Hari is the form of Vishnu, and Hara is the form of Shiva. Harihara is also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara ...

and

Bukka Bukka Raya I (reigned 1356–1377 CE) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire from the Sangama Dynasty.Phrof A V Narasimha MurthyRare Royal Brothers: Hakka and Bukka He was a son of Bhavana Sangama(Unofficial). Background The early life of Bu ...

, who served as treasury officers of the

Kakatiyas The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. Th ...

of

Warangal Warangal () is a city in the Indian state of Telangana and the district headquarters of Warangal district. It is the second largest city in Telangana with a population of 704,570 per 2011 Census of India, and spreading over an . Warangal ser ...

, founded the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...

. In 1347 CE, an independent Muslim state, the

Bahmani Sultanate The Bahmani Sultanate, or Deccan, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim Indian Kingdom located in the Deccan region. It was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan,

, was established in

south India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah in a revolt against the Delhi Sultanate. The

Qutb Shahi dynasty The Qutb Shahi dynasty also called as Golconda Sultanate (Persian: ''Qutb Shāhiyān'' or ''Sultanat-e Golkonde'') was a Persianate Shia Islam dynasty of Turkoman origin that ruled the sultanate of Golkonda in southern India. After the coll ...

held sway over the Andhra country after the resolution of Vijayanagar empire by joint action of Mughals, Bijapur and Golconda sultanates. In the early nineteenth century,

Northern Circars The Northern Circars (also spelt Sarkars) was a division of British India's Madras Presidency. It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude, in the pr ...

was ceded to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

and became part of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

. Eventually, this region emerged as the

Coastal Andhra Coastal Andhra (South costal Andhra) also known as Kostha Andhra is a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Vijayawada is the largest city in this region. It was part of Madras State before 1953 and Andhra State from 1953 to 1956. ...

region. Later the Nizam rulers of Hyderabad ceded five territories to the British that eventually became the

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

region. The Nizams retained control of the interior provinces as the

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

of

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, acknowledging British rule in return for local autonomy. However,

Komaram Bheem Komaram Bheem (1900/1901–1940), alternatively Kumram Bheem, was a revolutionary leader in Hyderabad State of British India from the Gond tribes. Bheem, in association with other Gond leaders, led a protracted low intensity rebellion against ...

, a tribal leader, started his fight against the erstwhile

Asaf Jahi Dynasty The Asaf Jahi was a Muslim dynasty that ruled the Kingdom of Hyderabad. The family came to India in the late 17th century and became employees of the Mughal Empire. They were great patrons of Persian culture, language, and literature, the famil ...

for the liberation of Hyderabad State. Meanwhile, the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

occupied

Yanam Yanam (Telugu: ''యానాం'') is a town located in the Yanam district in Puducherry. It has a population of 35,000 and is entirely surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. It was formerly a French colony for nearly 200 years, and, though united wi ...

, in the Godavari delta, and (save for periods of British control) would hold it until 1954. In 1947, Vizianagaram was the largest Hindu princely state in Andhra Pradesh. In 1839 just before the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

, a cyclone struck

Coringa, East Godavari district Coringa, also known as Korangi by natives, is a tiny coastal village of the East Godavari district, in Andhra Pradesh, India. Coringa consists of the village and one adjacent island, which was whimsically named Hope Island by British officials i ...

and toppled buildings, as a result 20,000 ships were destroyed and over 300,000 people were killed. India became independent from the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

in 1947. The 7th

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

wanted to retain the independence of the Princely

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

from India, but the people of the region launched a movement to join the Indian Union. The state of Hyderabad was integrated into the

Indian Union Union of India or Indian Union may refer to: * The country of India * Dominion of India (1947–1950) * The Government of India, whose legal name is "Union of India" as per Article 300 of the Indian constitution * Political integration of India ...

with

Operation Polo Operation Polo was the code name of the Hyderabad "police action" in September 1948, by the then newly independent Dominion of India against Hyderabad State. It was a military operation in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the Nizam-rule ...

in 1948.

Post-independence

Archaeological Museums map of Andhra Pradesh

In an effort to gain an independent state based on linguistic identity, and to protect the interests of the Telugu-speaking people of

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and c ...

,

Potti Sreeramulu Potti Sreeramulu (IAST: ''Poṭṭi Śreerāmulu''; 16 March 1901 – 15 December 1952), was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. Sreeramulu is revered as ''Amarajeevi'' ("Immortal Being") in the Andhra region for his self-sacrifice for ...

fasted to death in 1952. As Madras became a bone of contention, in 1949 a JVP committee report stated: "Andhra Province could be formed provided the Andhras give up their claim on the city of Madras ow Chennai. After Potti Sreeramulu's death, the Telugu-speaking area of Andhra State was carved out of

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and c ...

on 1 October 1953, with

Kurnool Kurnool is a city in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It formerly served as the capital of Andhra State (1953–1956). The city is often referred to as "The Gateway of Rayalaseema".Kurnool is also known as The City of Gem Stones. It also se ...

as its capital city. On the basis of the

gentlemen's agreement A gentlemen's agreement, or gentleman's agreement, is an informal and legally non-binding agreement between two or more parties. It is typically oral, but it may be written or simply understood as part of an unspoken agreement by convention or th ...

of 1 November 1956, the

States Reorganisation Act The States Reorganisation act, 1956 was a major reform of the boundaries of India's States and territories of India, states and territories, organising them along linguistic lines. Although additional changes to India's state boundaries have b ...

formed combined Andhra Pradesh by merging the Telugu-speaking areas of the already existing

Hyderabad State Hyderabad State () was a princely state located in the south-central Deccan region of India with its capital at the city of Hyderabad. It is now divided into the present-day state of Telangana, the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka, and t ...

. Hyderabad was made the capital of the new state. The Marathi-speaking areas of Hyderabad State merged with

Bombay State Bombay State was a large Indian state created at the time of India's Independence, with other regions being added to it in the succeeding years. Bombay Presidency (roughly equating to the present-day Indian state of Maharashtra, excluding Sou ...

and the Kannada-speaking areas were merged with

Mysore State Mysore State, colloquially Old Mysore, was a state within the Dominion of India and the later Republic of India from 1947 until 1956. The state was formed by renaming the Kingdom of Mysore, and Bangalore replaced Mysore as the state's capital. ...

. In February 2014, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act bill was passed by the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

for the formation of the

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

state comprising ten districts.

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

will remain as a joint capital for not exceeding ten years. The new state of Telangana came into existence on 2 June 2014 after approval from the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

. Number of petitions questioning the validity of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 is long pending for the verdict since April 2014 before the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

constitutional bench. In 2017,

Government of Andhra Pradesh Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the Subnational administrative division, subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 Member of the Legislative ...

began operating from the newly planned capital city Amaravati. In August 2020, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020. The decision resulted in widespread protests by the farmers of Amaravati. The act has been challenged in

Andhra Pradesh High Court The High Court of Andhra Pradesh is the High Court of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The seat of the High Court is currently located at Nelapadu. History The High Court of Andhra Pradesh was established in the year 1954 when the sta ...

, which ordered to maintain status quo until the court completes its hearing. On 22 November 2021, the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

, led by

Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy (born 21 December 1972) also known as Y. S. Jagan or mononymously Jagan, is an Indian entrepreneur and politician serving as the 17th and current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh since 30 May 2019. He is the ...

, has withdrawn the act. The Chief Minister, however, said his government would bring a better and more complete bill.

Geography

File:Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Physical.jpeg, Andhra Pradesh topographical map File:AP map.jpg, Map of Andhra Pradesh File:Srisailam Dam and River Krishna.jpg, Krishna River at Srisailam The state has varied

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

ranging from the hills of

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

and

Nallamala Hills The Nallamalas (also called the Nallamalla Range) are a section of the Eastern Ghats which forms the eastern boundary of Rayalaseema region of the state of Andhra Pradesh and Nagarkurnool district of the state of Telangana, in India. They run i ...

to the shores of

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

that support varied ecosystems, the rich diversity of flora and fauna. There are two main rivers namely,

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

and

Godavari The Godavari ( IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakesh ...

, that flow through the state. The coastline of the state extends along the Bay of Bengal from

Srikakulam Srikakulam is a city and the headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. census,. it has a population of 165,735. There are many other places of Buddhist Tourism such as Salihundam, Kalinga Patnam, Dabbaka Vaa ...

to Nellore district with a length of 975 km (606 mi). The plains to the east of Eastern Ghats form the

Eastern Coastal plains The Eastern Coastal Plains is a wide stretch of landmass of India, lying between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal. It is wider and leveled than the Western Coastal Plains and stretches from Tamil Nadu in the south to West Bengal in the n ...

. The coastal plains are for the most part of delta regions formed by the Godavari, Krishna, and

Penna Penna may refer to: * 7mm Penna, a handgun cartridge * Monte Penna, a mountain in northern Italy * Penna (surname) * Penna, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia * Penna in Teverina, a comune in Terni, Umbria, Italy * Penna River, a ri ...

rivers. The Eastern Ghats are discontinuous and individual sections have local names. The Eastern Ghats are a major dividing line in the state's geography. The Kadapa Basin formed by two arching branches of the Eastern Ghats is a mineral-rich area. The Ghats become more pronounced towards the south and extreme north of the coast. Most of the coastal plains are put to intense agricultural use. The

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

region has semi-arid conditions.

Natural vegetation and conservation

The

Andhra Pradesh Forest Department Andhra Pradesh Forest Department is one of the administrative divisions of Government of Andhra Pradesh. It is headed by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Head of Forest Force. The primary function of this department is protection, con ...

deals with protection, conservation and management of

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s. The total forest cover of the state after the bifurcation is left with an area of . The forest in the state can be broadly divided into four major biotic provinces. They are: #

Deccan Plateau The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

# Central Plateau # Eastern Highland # East Coastal Plains

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

region is home to dense tropical forests, while the vegetation becomes sparse as the Ghats give way to the Deccan Plateau, where shrub vegetation is more common. The vegetation found in the state is largely of dry deciduous types with a mixture of

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...

, ''

Terminalia Terminalia may refer to: * Terminalia (festival), a Roman festival to the god of boundaries Terminus * ''Terminalia'' (plant), a tree genus * Terminalia (insect anatomy), the terminal region of the abdomen in insects * ''Polyscias terminalia'', a ...

'', '' Dalbergia'', ''

Pterocarpus ''Pterocarpus'' is a pantropical genus of trees in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Pterocarpus'' clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of ''Pterocarpus'' ...

'', ''

Anogeissus ''Anogeissus'' is a genus of trees in the family Combretaceae. The 10''Anogeissus''.
Fl ...

'', etc. The state has many

sanctuaries A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sa ...

,

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

and zoological parks, such as Coringa,

Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary Krishna Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary located in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is one of the rarest eco-regions of the world because it harbors vast tracts of pristine mangrove forests. It is believed by conservationists to ...

,

Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve is the largest tiger reserve in India. The reserve spreads over five districts, Kurnool District, Prakasam District, Guntur District, Nalgonda District and Mahabub Nagar district. The total area of the tig ...

,

Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary The Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary is a forest located near Visakhapatnam. It has been under the control of Andhra Pradesh Forest Department since 10 March 1970. Earlier the land was under the control of Maharajah of Vizianagaram. ...

,

Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park is located in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India. History It was established on 29 September 1987, and covers an area of . it is the largest zoological park in Asia. The main features of the Zoo Park are: * Mayur ...

and

Indira Gandhi Zoological Park Indira Gandhi Zoological Park is located amidst Kambalakonda Reserve Forest in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the third largest zoo in the country. The zoological park is named after the former Prime Minister of India, Indira ...

. Atapaka Bird Sanctuary,

Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is a bird sanctuary in Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, India, near the village of Nelapattu. It has an area of 458.92 hectares. It is an important breeding site for spot-billed pelicans (''Pelecanus philippensis''). ...

,

Telineelapuram and Telukunchi Bird Sanctuaries Telineelapuram and Telukunchi Bird Sanctuaries are located in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, India. Telineelapuram is a village located 65 kilometers from Srikakulam in Tekkali mandal, while Telukunchi is at a distance of 115 kilometer ...

and

Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary is a sanctuary for birds, 759 km2 in area, located in the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh and a protected area of the Thiruvallur District of Tamil Nadu, India. Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish-w ...

attract many migratory birds. The state possesses some rare and endemic plants like ''

Cycas beddomei ''Cycas beddomei'' is a species of cycad in the genus ''Cycas'', native to India, where it is confined to a small area of Andhra Pradesh state in the Tirumala Hills in scrubland and brush covered hills. Superficially similar to ''Cycas revolu ...

'', ''

Pterocarpus santalinus ''Pterocarpus santalinus'', with the common names red sanders, red saunders, protect it Yerra Chandanam, Chenchandanam, red sandalwood, Rakta Chandana, and saunderswood, is a species of ''Pterocarpus'' endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats mou ...

'', ''Terminalia pallida'', ''

Syzygium alternifolium ''Syzygium alternifolium'' is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is native to Arcot, Vellore, North Arcot, Kadapa, Cuddapah, Kurnool, and the Nagari hills, in eastern Chittoor district, India. It has alternate leaves. Syzygium altern ...

'', ''Shorea talura'', ''Shorea tumburgia'', ''

Psilotum nudum ''Psilotum nudum'', the whisk fern, is a fernlike plant. Like the other species in the order Psilotales, it lacks roots. Its name, ''Psilotum nudum'', means "bare naked" in Latin, because it lacks (or seems to lack) most of the organs of typica ...

'', etc. The diversity of fauna includes

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

s, panthers,

hyena Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...

s, black bucks, cheetals, sambars,

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, ...

s and a number of birds and reptiles. The estuaries of the Godavari and Krishna rivers support rich mangrove forests with

fishing cat The fishing cat (''Prionailurus viverrinus'') is a medium-sized wild cat of South and Southeast Asia. Since 2016, it is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Fishing cat populations are threatened by destruction of wetlands and have declin ...

s and

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

s as

keystone species A keystone species is a species which has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance, a concept introduced in 1969 by the zoologist Robert T. Paine. Keystone species play a critical role in maintaini ...

.

Climate

The climate of Andhra Pradesh varies considerably, depending on the geographical region. Summers last from March to June. In the coastal plain, the summer temperatures are generally higher than the rest of the state, with temperature ranging between . July to September is the season for tropical rains. About one-third of the total rainfall is brought by the

northeast monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscill ...

. October and November see low-pressure systems and

tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s form in the Bay of Bengal which, along with the northeast monsoon, bring rains to the southern and coastal regions of the state. November, December, January, and February are the winter months in Andhra Pradesh. Since the state has a long coastal belt the winters are not very cold. The range of winter temperature is generally .

Lambasingi Lambasingi (or Lammasingi) is a small village in the Eastern Ghats of Chintapalli Mandal of Alluri Sitharama Raju district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With an altitude that of 1000 m above sea level, the area is cooler than the surr ...

in

Visakhapatnam district Visakhapatnam district (formerly known as Vizagapatam district) is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, headquartered at Visakhapatnam. It is one of th ...

is also nicknamed as the "Kashmir of Andhra Pradesh" due to its relatively cool climate as compared to others and the temperature ranges from .

Demographics

Census of India The decennial Census of India has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881. Post 1949, it has been conducted by ...

, the residual state had a population of with a population density of . According to the Polavaram ordinance bill 2014, 7

mandals A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

of

Khammam district Khammam district is a district in the eastern region of the Indian state of Telangana. The city of Khammam is the district headquarters. The district shares boundaries with Suryapet, Mahabubabad, Bhadradri districts and with Eluru and NTR di ...

in Telangana state merged with Andhra Pradesh to facilitate

Polavaram project The ''Polavaram Project'' is an under construction multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in the Eluru District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh. The project has been accorded National Project of India, National pro ...

, due to which population of added to Andhra Pradesh. Thus the final population of Andhra Pradesh in the year 2014, as per census 2011 is , with a density of . The total population constitute, 70.4% of rural population with inhabitants and 29.6% of urban population with inhabitants. Children in the age group of 0–6 years are , constituting 10.6% of the total population, among them are boys and are girls.

Visakhapatnam district Visakhapatnam district (formerly known as Vizagapatam district) is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, headquartered at Visakhapatnam. It is one of th ...

has the largest urban population of 47.5% and

Srikakulam district Srikakulam district is one of the twenty-six districts of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located in the Uttarandhra region of the state, with its headquarters located at Srikakulam. It is one of the si ...

with 83.8%, has the largest rural population, among others districts in the state. The overall population of the state comprises 17.1% of

Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

and 5.3% of Scheduled Tribe population. There are male and female citizens—a

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

of 996 females per 1000 males, higher than the national average of 926 per 1000. The

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of the state stands at 67.41%. However, post bifurcation from Telangana, the state is expected to reach 91.1% by 2021. West Godavari district has the highest literacy rate of 74.6% and

Vizianagaram district Vizianagaram district is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with its headquarters located at Vizianagaram. The district was once the part of ancient Kalinga.Saripilli Dibbilingeswara temple ...

has the least with 58.9%. Andhra Pradesh ranks tenth of all Indian States in the Human Development Index scores with a score of 0.416. The

National Council of Applied Economic Research National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research think tank. Established in New Delhi in 1956, it acquired considerable national and international standing wi ...

district analysis in 2001 reveals that

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

, West Godavari and Chittoor are the three districts in rural AP with the highest Human Development Index scores in ascending order. Vizag View from Kailasagiri

Languages

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, which is also the mother tongue of nearly 90% of the population. Rajahmundry is the cultural capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telugu language has roots originated from this region. The Minister of Tourism and Culture has declared Telugu a

Classical Language A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large and ancient body of written literature. Classical languages are typically dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the ...

.

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

,

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

are also spoken mainly in the border-areas.

Lambadi Lambadi, Gor Boli, Banjara, Labanki or Banjari is a language spoken by the once nomadic Banjara people across India,Ancient Pastoral Nomadic Community of India Ancient Warrior Community/Raajputs Medieval Traders/Grain Carriers Modern Grain Tra ...

,

Koya Koya may refer to: Places Iraq * Koya; ( ar, كيويسنجق), a town in Iraqi Kurdistan ** Koya University, a university in that town Japan * Mount Kōya, a mountain in Japan ** Kōya, Wakayama, a town on the top of Mount Kōya * Kōya Stati ...

,

Savara Savara may refer to: *Savara people or Sora people * Savara language (Munda), or Sora, in India * Savara language (Dravidian), in India * ''Savara'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Erebidae *Savara, a planet in the computer game ''Tyrian Tyr ...

, Konda, Gadaba and a number of other languages are spoken by the Scheduled Tribes of the state.

Religion

The majority of the people in Andhra Pradesh are Hindus while Muslims constitute a sizeable minority. According to the 2011 census, the major religious groups in the state are Hindus (90.87%), Muslims (7.32%) and Christians (1.38%). Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and the people who declined to state their religion make up the remaining portion of population. File:Sri Kala Hasti.jpg,

Srikalahasti Srikalahasti is a holy town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the revenue division of Srikalahasti mandal & Srikalahasti revenue division. It is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority, wh ...

Temple File:Tirumala 090615.jpg,

Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala Sri Venkateswara Swami Vaari Temple is a Hindu temple situated in the hill town of Tirumala at Tirupati in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The Temple is dedicated to Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu, who is believed to have appeared ...

File:Rock-cut Lord --Buddha-- Statue at Bojjanakonda near Anakapalle of Visakhapatnam dist in AP.jpg, Rock-cut

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

statue at

Bojjannakonda Bojjannakonda and Lingalakonda are two Buddhism rock-cut caves on adjacent hillocks, situated near a village called Sankaram, Anakapalle of ancient Kalinga. in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The sites are believed to date between 4th and 9 ...

near

Anakapalle Anakapalli is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Anakapalli district. The municipality was merged with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. It has the second largest jaggery market of the coun ...

,

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

.

Hinduism

Venkateswara Temple Sri Venkateswara Swami Vaari Temple is a Hindu temple situated in the hill town of Tirumala at Tirupati in Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The Temple is dedicated to Venkateswara, a form of Vishnu, who is believed to have appeared ...

at

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

is the world's second-richest

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

and is visited by millions of devotees throughout the year. Andhra Pradesh is home to Shankaracharya of Pushpagiri Peetham. Other Hindu saints include

Sadasiva Brahmendra Sadasiva Brahmendra was a saint, composer of Carnatic music and Advaita philosopher who lived near Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, during the 18th century. Only a few of his compositions have survived, but they are recognised as great compositions o ...

, Bhaktha Kannappa,

Yogi Vemana Vemana, popularly known as Yogi Vemana, was an Indian philosopher and poet in the Telugu language. His poems are known for their use of simple language and native idioms. They discuss the subjects of yoga, wisdom and morality. Early life and ...

and

Pothuluru Veerabrahmendra Potuluri Veerabrahmendhra swami varu (popularly known as Brahmam garu), was an Indian Hindu saint, who lived in gadapa (now- use kadapa) Andhra Pradesh region. He is most notable in Andhra for his work ''Kalagnanam'', a book of predictions writ ...

.

Mahayana Buddhism

Buddhism spread to Andhra Pradesh early in its history. The Krishna river valley was "a site of extraordinary Buddhist activity for almost a thousand years." The ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Krishna valley, including Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda and

Jaggayyapeta Jaggayyapeta, also spelled “Jaggiahpet”, is a census town in NTR district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located just southwest of the border with Telangana. It is also the mandal headquarters of Jaggayyapeta mandal of Nandigama revenu ...

"can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier." The region played a central role in the development of

Mahayana Buddhism ''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing bra ...

, along with the

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...

-area in northeastern India. A. K. Warder holds that "the Mahāyāna originated in the south of India and almost certainly in the Andhra country." According to Xing, "Several scholars have suggested that the Prajnaparamita probably developed among the Mahasamghikas in Southern India probably in the Andhra country, on the Krishna River." The

Prajñāpāramitā A Tibetan painting with a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra at the center of the mandala Prajñāpāramitā ( sa, प्रज्ञापारमिता) means "the Perfection of Wisdom" or "Transcendental Knowledge" in Mahāyāna and Theravāda B ...

Sutras belong to the earliest

Mahayana Sutras The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures (''sūtra'') that are accepted as canonical and as ''buddhavacana'' ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibetan B ...

.

Administrative divisions

Regions

Andhra Pradesh comprises three regions:

Uttarandhra Uttarandhra or North coastal Andhra, also known as Kalinga Andhra is a region consisting of six northern districts of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises the districts of Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram District, V ...

,

Coastal Andhra Coastal Andhra (South costal Andhra) also known as Kostha Andhra is a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Vijayawada is the largest city in this region. It was part of Madras State before 1953 and Andhra State from 1953 to 1956. ...

and

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

.

Districts

It has a total of 26 districts, twelve in Coastal Andhra region, six in Uttarandhra and eight in the Rayalaseema region.

Uttarandhra Uttarandhra or North coastal Andhra, also known as Kalinga Andhra is a region consisting of six northern districts of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises the districts of Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram District, V ...

region : # Alluri Sitharama Raju #

Anakapalli Anakapalli is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Anakapalli district. The municipality was merged with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation. It has the second largest jaggery market of the coun ...

# Parvathipuram Manyam #

Srikakulam Srikakulam is a city and the headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. census,. it has a population of 165,735. There are many other places of Buddhist Tourism such as Salihundam, Kalinga Patnam, Dabbaka Vaa ...

#

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

#

Vizianagaram Vizianagaram is a city and the headquarters of Vizianagaram district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is central Eastern Ghats, about west of the Bay of Bengal and north-northeast of Visakhapatnam. The city has a population of 228,02 ...

Coastal Andhra Coastal Andhra (South costal Andhra) also known as Kostha Andhra is a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Vijayawada is the largest city in this region. It was part of Madras State before 1953 and Andhra State from 1953 to 1956. ...

region : # Bapatla # Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema # East Godavari District with Rajahmundry Headquarters #

Eluru Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of Eluru district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 14 municipal corporations in the state and the mandal headquarters of Eluru mandal in the Eluru revenue division. The city ...

#

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the Ba ...

#

Kakinada Kakinada (List of renamed places in India, formerly called Kakinandiwada, Coringa, and Cocanada; ) is the List of cities in Andhra Pradesh by population, sixth largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra P ...

#

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

# NTR #

Palnadu Palnadu is a region located in Palnadu district and covering a portion of Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It is spread over the revenue divisions of Gurazala revenue division, Gurazala in Palnadu district and Markapur revenue division ...

# Prakasam # Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore # West Godavari

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema () is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises eight south western districts of the State namely, Kurnool, Nandyal, Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, YSR, Annamayya, Tirupati and Chittoor districts ...

region : #

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city is loca ...

# Annamayya # Chittoor # YSR #

Kurnool Kurnool is a city in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It formerly served as the capital of Andhra State (1953–1956). The city is often referred to as "The Gateway of Rayalaseema".Kurnool is also known as The City of Gem Stones. It also se ...

#

Nandyal Nandyal is a city and District headquarters of Nandyal district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Nandyal mandal in Nandyal revenue division. Demographics In the 2011 census of India, Nandyal ...

# Sri Sathya Sai #

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

Revenue divisions

These 26 districts are further divided into 77

revenue division A Revenue division is an administrative division of some of the States and union territories of India, Indian states. It is a geographic area covering many tehsils, which in turn comprises villages. A revenue division is headed by a Revenue Divisio ...

s.

Mandals

The 77 revenue divisions are in turn divided into 679

mandals A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

.

Cities

There are a total of 31 cities which include, 16 municipal corporations and 14 municipalities. There are two cities with more than one million inhabitants, namely

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

and

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

.

Government and politics

District Collectorate of West Godavari (May 2019) 3

23 - Telugu Talli Statue with Kondareddy Buruju as background

When the state was first created,

Tanguturi Prakasam Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957) was an Indian jurist, political leader, social reformer, and anti-colonial nationalist who served as the chief minister of the Madras Presidency. Tanguturi subsequently became the fi ...

Pantulu, became the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

. After the unification with Telangana,

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (; 19 May 1913 – 1 June 1996) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth President of India, serving from 1977 to 1982. Beginning a long political career with the Indian National Congress Party in the independence ...

became the first

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

. He later served as the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

. The

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

(INC), the

Praja Socialist Party The Praja Socialist Party, abbreviated as PSP, was an Indian political party. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayaprakash Narayan, Rambriksh Benipuri, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh (Sinha), merged with the Kisan Mazdoo ...

and the Krishi Lok Party were the major parties in the 1950s. Later the

Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925. H ...

(CPI) became the dominant opposition party. In the 1967 state assembly elections, all socialist parties were eliminated and the CPI lost opposition party status. The INC ruled the state from 1956 to 1982. In 1983, the

Telugu Desam Party The Telugu Desam Party (; TDP) is an Indian regional political party operating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at the state and central level. Since its founding by N. T. Rama Rao (often referred to as NTR) on 29 March 1982, the party has foc ...

(TDP) won the state elections and

N. T. Rama Rao Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (28 May 1923 – 18 January 1996), often referred to by his initials NTR, was an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who served as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for seven years over three terms. He starred ...

became the Chief Minister of the state for the first time. This broke the long-time single party monopoly enjoyed by the INC. The

1989 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1989. Africa * 1989 Beninese parliamentary election * 1989 Botswana general election * 1989 Equatorial Guinean presidential election * 1989 People's Republic of the Congo parliamentary election * ...

ended the rule of Rao, with the INC returning to power with

Marri Chenna Reddy Dr. Marri Channa Reddy (13 January 1919 – 2 December 1996) was an Indian politician active in several states. He was the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1978 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1990. He also served as the governor of Uttar Pradesh ...

at the helm. He was replaced by Janardhan Reddy in 1990, who was replaced by

Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy (16 August 1920 – 27 September 2001) served as the chief minister of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in 1983 and then from 1992 to 1994. Reddy was a member of the Indian National Congress and was elected t ...

in 1992. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, Andhra Pradesh gave a mandate to the Telugu Desam Party again, and Rao became the Chief Minister again.

Nara Chandrababu Naidu Nara Chandrababu Naidu ( born 20 April 1950) is an Indian politician and current leader of opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He was also the leader of the opposition of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from 2004 to ...

, Rao's son-in-law, came to power in 1995 with the backing of a majority of the

MLAs The Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) was a proposed alternative to the Maxime Faget-invented "tractor" launch escape system (LES) that was planned for use by NASA for its Orion (spacecraft), Orion spacecraft in the event an Ares I malfunction du ...

. The Telugu Desam Party won both the

assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

and

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

in 1999 under the leadership of Chandrababu Naidu. Thus Naidu held the record for the longest-serving Chief Minister (1995 to 2004). In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, Congress returned to power with a new chief ministerial face, YS Rajashekara Reddy, better known as YSR. He also won the

2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...

, but shortly afterward was killed in a

helicopter crash A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

in September of that year. He was succeeded by two other Congressmen, namely

Konijeti Rosaiah Konijeti Rosaiah (4 July 1933 – 4 December 2021) was an Indian politician who served as the List of chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, 15th chief minister of United Andhra Pradesh from 2009 to 2010. He also served as the Governor of Karnataka ...

and

Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy (born 13 September 1959) is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 25 November 2010 and 1 March 2014. He was the last Chief Minister of the United Andhra Pradesh before the ...

, the last resigning over the impending

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

of

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

. In the last elections held in the unified state in

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, the TDP got a mandate in their favour in the residuary (new) state. After Telangana became a separate state, N. Chandrababu Naidu , the chief of the TDP became the Chief Minister on 8 June 2014, for the new state of Andhra Pradesh. As of 2014, the

Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly or Andhra Pradesh Śāsana Sabha is the lower house of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature. The Legislative Assembly consists of 175 members which are elected by adult universal suffrage under the first-p ...

is the lower house of the state with 175 members and the Legislative Council is the upper house with 58 members. In the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

, Andhra Pradesh has 11 seats in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

, and 25 seats in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

. There are a total of 175 Assembly constituencies in the state.

East Godavari district East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,549. In the Madras Pre ...

has the highest number of constituencies with 19 and

Vizianagaram district Vizianagaram district is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with its headquarters located at Vizianagaram. The district was once the part of ancient Kalinga.Saripilli Dibbilingeswara temple ...

has the least with 9 assembly seats. Whereas, the legislative council of the state has 58 seats, which is one-third of total assembly seats. In the 2019 elections, YSR's son Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy of the

YSR Congress Party The Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP or YCP; ) is an Indian regional political party based in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Its president Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy serves as the state's chief minister. It is currently the fifth lar ...

(founded in 2011) became the Chief Minister with a resounding mandate by winning 151 out of 175 seats.

Economy

Andhra Pradesh was ranked eighth among other Indian states in terms of GSDP for the financial year 2014–2015. The GSDP at current prices was and at constant prices was . The domestic product of agriculture sector accounts for and industrial sector for . The service sector of the state accounts more percentage of the GSDP with a total of . In the 2010 list by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine, several people from Andhra Pradesh were among the top 100 richest Indians.

Agriculture

File:Konaseema greenery 1.JPG, Lush green farms in

Konaseema Konaseema is a group of islands between the tributaries of the Godavari River and Bay of Bengal located in Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. It is nicknamed "Gods Own Creation" due to similarities wit ...

,

East Godavari East Godavari is a district in the Coastal Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh, India. Its district headquarters is at Rajahmundry. As of 2011 Census of India, census 2011, it became the most populous district of the state with a population of 5,151,54 ...

File:Map of Sugar industries in Andhra Pradesh.png, Map of Sugar industries in Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh's economy is mainly based on agriculture and livestock. Four important rivers of India, the

Godavari The Godavari ( IAST: ''Godāvarī'' �od̪aːʋəɾiː is India's second longest river after the Ganga river and drains into the third largest basin in India, covering about 10% of India's total geographical area. Its source is in Trimbakesh ...

,

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...

,

Penna Penna may refer to: * 7mm Penna, a handgun cartridge * Monte Penna, a mountain in northern Italy * Penna (surname) * Penna, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia * Penna in Teverina, a comune in Terni, Umbria, Italy * Penna River, a ri ...

, and Tungabhadra flow through the state and provide irrigation. 60 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture and related activities.

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

is the major food crop and staple food of the state. It is an exporter of many agricultural products and is also known as "Rice Bowl of India". The state has three Agricultural Economic Zones in Chittoor district for mango pulp and vegetables, Krishna district for mangoes, Guntur district for chilies. Besides rice, farmers also grow

jowar ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a grass species cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol produc ...

, bajra,

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

, minor millet, coarse grain, many varieties of

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

,

oil seeds Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...

,

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

,

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

,

chili pepper Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...

,

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

nuts and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. Crops used for vegetable oil production such as

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

and

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

s are popular. There are many multi-state irrigation projects under development, including

Godavari River Basin Irrigation Projects The Godavari River has its catchment area in seven states of India: Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Odisha. The number of dams constructed in Godavari basin is the highest among all the river ...

and

Nagarjuna Sagar Dam Nagarjuna Sagar Dam is a masonry dam across the Krishna River at Nagarjuna Sagar which straddles the border between Nalgonda district in Telangana and Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh. The dam provides irrigation water to the Nalgonda, Surya ...

. Livestock and

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

is also another profitable business, which involves rearing

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

in enclosed areas for commercial purposes. The state is also a largest producer of

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

in the country and hence, it is nicknamed as "Egg Bowl of Asia".

Fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

contribute 10% of total fish and over 70% of the

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

production of India. The geographical location of the state allows marine fishing as well as inland fish production. The most exported marine exports include '' Vannamei shrimp''

Infrastructure

Andhra Pradesh is investing in building infrastructure in the state such as highways and making every service of the government digital.

National Highway 16 Route 16, or Highway 16, can refer to: International * AH16, Asian Highway 16 * European route E16 * European route E016 Australia - Thompsons Road (Victoria) - South Australia Canada ;Parts of the Trans-Canada Highway: *Yellowhe ...

passes through Andhra Pradesh. The highways in the state are also being widened.

APSFL Overview Andhra Pradesh State FiberNet Limited, AP State FiberNet Limited, or APSFL is a fully-owned entity of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India, started in October 2015. The project aims to provide affordable end-to-end broadband, wifi c ...

is an initiative of the government of Andhra Pradesh to set up an

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

network throughout the thirteen districts of Andhra Pradesh. This network provides internet connectivity, telephony and

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...

with fiber to private and corporate users of Andhra Pradesh. The state also has seaports such as

Visakhapatnam Port Visakhapatnam Port is one of 13 major ports in India and the only major port of Andhra Pradesh. It is India's third largest state-owned port by volume of cargo handled and largest on the Eastern Coast. It is located midway between the Chennai a ...

,

Kakinada Port Kakinada Port is located at Kakinada off the east coast of India. It is south of Visakhapatnam Port. Kakinada Port is a large complex comprising Kakinada Anchorage Port, Kakinada Deep Water Port, Kakinada Fishing Harbour and Ship-Breaking Unit. ...

,

Krishnapatnam Port Krishnapatnam Port popularly known as KPCL is a privately built and owned all weather, deep water port on the east coast of India, located in the Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. It is located about 190 km north of the Chennai Port and ...

for import and export and a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

for building ships at Visakhapatnam. Major airports in the state are Visakhapatnam,

Rajahmundry Rajahmundry, officially known as Rajamahendravaram, is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and District headquarters of East Godavari district. It is the sixth most populated city in the state. During British rule, the District of Rajah ...

, Vijayawada, with

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

,

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

and

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

being international airports. Hsl view

Industrial sector

The industrial sector of the state includes some of the key sectors like

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

,

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

,

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

etc.

Sricity Sri City or Satyavedu Reserve Infracity Pvt. Ltd. is an integrated business city (township) and special economic zone located in Tirupati district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It was founded in 2008 and has now become one of the coveted ...

located in

Chittoor district Chittoor district () is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The district headquarters is located at Chittoor. It has a population of 4,170,468 according to 2011 census of India. It lies in ...

is an integrated business city which is home to firms including

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

, Isuzu Motors,

Cadbury India Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mars ...

,

Kellogg's The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...

,

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

,

Kobelco Kobe Steel, Ltd. (株式会社神戸製鋼所, ''Kabushiki gaisha Kōbe Seikō-sho''), is a major Japanese steel manufacturer headquartered in Chūō-ku, Kobe. KOBELCO is the unified brand name of the Kobe Steel Group. Kobe Steel has the low ...

etc. The PepsiCo firm has its largest plant in India at Sri City. The state is also emerging as destination for the automobile industry which already hosts companies including

Ashok Leyland Ashok Leyland is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturer, headquartered in Chennai. It is owned by the Hinduja Group. It was founded in 1948 as Ashok Motors and became Ashok Leyland in the year 1955. Ashok Leyland is the second-most ...

in Krishna district,

Hero Motors Hero Motors is a former moped and scooter manufacturer based in Delhi, India. It is a part of multinational company Hero Motors Company, which also currently owns Hero Motocorp (formerly Hero Honda) and Hero Cycles, among others. Hero Motors was ...

in Chittoor district,

Kia Motors Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

in Anantapur district. IBM-Visakhapatnam

The state is also emerging in

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. The IT/ITES revenues of Visakhapatnam is at in 2012–2013. The development of IT in Tier-II and Tier-III cities like Vijayawada,

Kakinada Kakinada (List of renamed places in India, formerly called Kakinandiwada, Coringa, and Cocanada; ) is the List of cities in Andhra Pradesh by population, sixth largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra P ...

and

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

is also improving. In the fiscal year 2012–2013, Vijayawada's IT/ITeS revenues were . Tirupati with and Kakinada with stand next. For the benefit of state, that is, after separating Telangana from Andhra, people of Andhra protested for special status during January in 2017. CELKON Manifacturing plant at Tirupati

Resources

Andhra Pradesh is one of the storehouses of mineral resources in India. Andhra Pradesh with varied geological formations, contain rich and variety of industrial minerals and building stones. Andhra Pradesh is listed at the top in the deposit and production of

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

in India. Minerals found in the state include

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, reserves of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

,

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

,

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

,

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

, ball clay,

fire clay Fire clay is a range of refractory clays used in the manufacture of ceramics, especially fire brick. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines fire clay very generally as a "mineral aggregate composed of hydrous silicates of alumin ...

, gold diamonds,

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

,

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

,

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

,

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...

, steatitic,

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

, silica sand. It has about one-third of India's

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

reserves and is known for large exclusive deposits of

baryte Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

s and galaxy granite in the international market.

Mining

Mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

is identified as one of the growth engines for the overall development of industry and infrastructure. The

Tummalapalle Uranium mine The Tummalapalle Mine is a uranium mine in Tumalapalli village located in Kadapa of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Results from research conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission of India, in 2011, led the analysts to conclude that this mi ...

in Andhra has confirmed of ore and there are indications that it could hold reserves totaling three times its current size. of metal grade

Bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO(O ...

deposits in proximity to Visakhapatnam Port. Mangampet Barytes

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is ...

struck nine trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in the KG basin, off the Andhra Pradesh coast near

Kakinada Kakinada (List of renamed places in India, formerly called Kakinandiwada, Coringa, and Cocanada; ) is the List of cities in Andhra Pradesh by population, sixth largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra P ...

. Discovery of a large quantity of natural gas in KG Basin is expected to provide rapid economic growth. During 2016, nearly of

methane hydrate Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (8CH4·46H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amo ...

deposits were explored in KG basin whose extraction was adequate to impart

energy security Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven ...

for many decades to India.

Power plants

The state is a pioneer nationwide in solar power generation. APGENCO is the power generating company owned by the state. The state has become power surplus with excess power generation being exported to other states. The state is abundantly endowed with solar power and high head PHES sites to convert the solar power available during the day time in to round the clock power supply. PHES projects also has synergy with the

lift irrigation Periyar lift irrigation in Kadungallur, Kerala ">Kerala.html" ;"title="Kadungallur, Kerala">Kadungallur, Kerala Lift irrigation is a method of irrigation in which water is not transported by natural flow, (as in gravity-fed canal) but is lif ...

projects in storing water available during the monsoon season and supplying to the uplands throughout the year. Ultimate water and energy requirements of the state can be fully met by the combination of cheap solar power, PHES and irrigation projects economically harnessing

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

without much damage to the environment. NSRS Srisailam Dam

Thermal A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

(

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

based) and

renewable power Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

plants totaling to 21,000 MW were installed in the state by 2015. Local power plants of 9,600 MW capacity only are supplying electricity in the state, which includes

Simhadri Super Thermal Power Station Simhadri Super Thermal Power Plant is a coal-fired power plant located in the outskirts of Visakhapatnam city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The power plant is one of the coal fired power plants of NTPC, a Government of India enterpri ...

(2000 MW) of NTPC,

Vizag Thermal Power Station Hinduja National Thermal Power Station, Vizag is a coal-based thermal power plant located in Palavalasa village in Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh. The power plant is owned by Hinduja National Power Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Hind ...

(1040 MW),

Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station is located at Yerraguntla (Md) in Kadapa(Dist) in Andhra Pradesh. The power plant is one of the coal based power plants of APGENCO. Capacity The Thermal Power Station has a capacity of 1650 MW; 5 units of 2 ...

(1650 MW),

Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station is located in Nelatur Village, near Krishnapatnam and at a distance of 23 km from Nellore city of Andhra Pradesh. The power plant is one of the coal-based power plants of ''Andhra Pradesh Pow ...

(2400 MW), and Narla Tata Rao Thermal Power Plant (1760 MW). Hydel power plants have a capacity of 1671 MW.

Culture

Andhra Pradesh has rich culture and heritage.

Kuchipudi Kuchipudi () ( Telugu: ) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sa ...

, the cultural dance recognized as the official dance form of the state of Andhra Pradesh, originated in the village of

Kuchipudi Kuchipudi () ( Telugu: ) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sa ...

in

Krishna district Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...

. It entered the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for performing ''Mahabrinda Natyam'' with a total of 6,117 dancers in Vijayawada. Andhra Pradesh has thirteen

geographical indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

s in categories of agricultural

handicraft A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

s,

foodstuff Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

and textiles as per ''Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999''. It increased to fifteen with the addition of Banaganapalle Mangoes and

Bandar laddu Bandar laddu is a sweet produced in Machilipatnam of Krishna district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registered as one of the geographical indication from Andhra Pradesh on 3 May 2017, under foodstuff Food is any substance ...

. The other GI tagged goods are,

Bobbili Veena Bobbili veena is a large plucked string instrument used in Carnatic classical music. The Veena is named after Bobbili, a place where it was invented. In 2011 the musical instrument got a Geographical Indication tag from the Government of India. ...

, Budithi Bell and Brass Craft,

Dharmavaram Handloom Pattu Sarees and Paavadas Dharmavaram handloom pattu sarees and paavadas are textiles woven by hand with mulberry silk and zari. They are made in Dharmavaram of Anantapur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registered as one of the geographical ind ...

,

Guntur Sannam Guntur Sannam or ''Capsicum annuum'' var. ''longum'', is a variety of chili pepper that grows in the districts of Guntur, Prakasam (Andhra Pradesh), Warangal (Telangana), and Khammam in India. It is registered as one of the geographical indica ...

,

Kondapalli Toys Kondapalli Toys are toys made of wood in Kondapalli of Krishna district, a nearby Vijayawada in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. ''Bommala Colony'' translates to ''Toys Colony'' in Kondapalli is the place where the art of crafting takes place ...

,

Machilipatnam Kalamkari Pedana Kalamkari also known as Machilipatnam style of Kalamkari work which involves vegetable dyed block-painting of a fabric. it is produced at Pedana a nearby town of Machilipatnam in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. ...

,

Mangalagiri Sarees and Fabrics Mangalagiri Sarees and Fabrics are produced by performing handicraft weaving in Mangalagiri, a town in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registered as one of the handicraft in the geographical indication from Andhra Pr ...

,

Srikalahasti Kalamkari Srikalahasti Kalamkari is a style of Kalamkari work which involves dyed hand-painting of a Textile, fabric. It is produced in Srikalahasti of Tirupati district in the States and Territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registe ...

,

Tirupati Laddu Tirupati Laddu or SriVari Laddu is the laddu sweet offered as Naivedhyam to Venkateswara at Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The laddu is given as prasadam to devotees after having the darshan i ...

,

Uppada Jamdani Sari Uppada Jamdani Sari is a silk sari style woven in Uppada of East Godavari district in the States and Territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registered as one of the geographical indication from Andhra Pradesh by ''Geographi ...

and

Venkatagiri Sari Venkatagiri Sari is a sari style woven in Venkatagiri of Tirupati district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It was registered as one of the geographical indication from Andhra Pradesh by ''Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and ...

.

Arts, crafts and artifacts

Kondapalli toys at a house in Vijayawada

Machilipatnam and Srikalahasti Kalamkari are the two unique textile art forms practised in India. There are also other notable handicrafts present in the state, like the soft

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

carvings of

Durgi Durgi is a village in Palnadu district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Durgi mandal in Gurazala revenue division. In 15th century, Durgi stone craft was originated in the village. Geography Durgi is si ...

.

Etikoppaka Etikoppaka is a small village on the banks of Varaha River in Anakapalli district of Andhra Pradesh, India. In 2017, the traditional Etikoppaka toys acquired a geographical indication (GI) tag. Etikoppaka toys In the early development stages ...

in

Visakhapatnam district Visakhapatnam district (formerly known as Vizagapatam district) is one of the six districts in the Uttarandhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, headquartered at Visakhapatnam. It is one of th ...

is notable for its

lac Lac is the resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated is ''Kerria lacca''. Cultivation begins when a farmer gets a stick that contains eggs ready to hatch and ties it to the tree to be infes ...

industry, producing lacquered wooden. The state has many museums, which features a varied collection of ancient sculptures, paintings, idols, weapons, cutlery, and inscriptions, and religious artifacts such as the Amaravati Archaeological Museum,

Visakha Museum Visakha Museum (Full name: Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Museum) is a museum located in the port city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, India, which houses the historical treasures and artifacts of the Kalingandhra region. It was inaugu ...

and Telugu Cultural Museum in Visakhapatnam displays the history of the pre-independence and the

Victoria Jubilee Museum The Bapu Museum (formerly: Victoria Jubilee Museum) is an archaeological museum, located at M. G. Road of Vijayawada. It was renamed in the memory of the renowned film director, illustrator, cartoonist and author Bapu. The museum is maintaine ...

in Vijayawada with a large collection of artifacts.

Literature

Nannayya Nannaya ''Bhattaraka'' (sometimes spelled Nannayya or Nannaiah; ca. 11th century) was a Telugu poet and the author of the first '' Andhra Mahabharatam'', a Telugu retelling of the Sanskrit-language ''Mahabharata''. This work, which is rendered ...

,

Tikkana Tikkana (or Tikkana Somayaji) (1205–1288) was a 13th century Telugu poet. Born into a Telugu-speaking Niyogi Brahmin family during the golden age of the Kakatiya dynasty, he was the second poet of the "Trinity of Poets (Kavi Trayam)" that tra ...

and

Yerrapragada Yarrapragada or Erranna was a Telugu people, Telugu poet in the court of King Reddi Kingdom, Prolaya Vema Reddy (1325–1353). The surname of Erranna was Yerrapragada or Yerrana, which are epithets of the fair-skinned Murugan, Lord Skanda ...

form the trinity who translated the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

epic ''

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

'' into

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

. Nannayya wrote the first treatise on Telugu grammar called ''Andhra Shabda Chintamani'' in Sanskrit, as there was no grammatical work in Telugu prior to that.

Pothana Bammera Pothana (Telugu: బమ్మెర పోతన) (1450–1510) was a Telugu Shaiva poet best known for his translation of the Srimad Bhaagavatam from Sanskrit to Telugu. He was a Telugu and Sanskrit Scholar. His work, Srimad Bhagavata ...

is the poet who composed the classic ''Srimad Maha Bhagavatamu'', a Telugu translation of '' Sri Bhagavatam''.

Vemana Vemana, popularly known as Yogi Vemana, was an Indian philosopher and poet in the Telugu language. His poems are known for their use of simple language and native idioms. They discuss the subjects of yoga, wisdom and morality. Early life and ...

is notable for his philosophical poems. The

Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellary ...

emperor

Krishnadevaraya Krishnadevaraya (17 January 1471 – 17 October 1529) was an emperor of the Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Empire, reigning from 1509 to 1529. He was the third monarch of the Tuluva dynasty, and is considered to be one of the g ...

wrote Amuktamalyada. Telugu literature after

Kandukuri Veeresalingam Kandukuri Veeresalingam (16 April 1848 27 May 1919) was a social reformer and writer from the Madras Presidency, British India. He is considered as the father of the Telugu Renaissance movement. He was one of the early social reformers who en ...

is termed as Adhunika Telugu Sahityam (Modern Telugu literature). He is known as ''Gadya Tikkana'' and was the author of Telugu

social novel The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More ...

, ''Satyavati Charitam''.

Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian w ...

holders from the state include

Viswanatha Satyanarayana Viswanatha Satyanarayana (10 September 1885 – 18 October 1976) was a 20th-century Telugu writer. His works included poetry, novels, dramatic play, short stories and speeches, covering a wide range of subjects such as analysis of his ...

. The Andhra Pradesh native and revolutionary poet Sri Sri brought new forms of expressionism into Telugu literature.

Media

The print media in the state consists mainly of Telugu and English newspapers. ''

Eenadu ''Eenadu'' () is the largest circulated Telugu-language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Sakshi'', ''

Andhra Jyothi ''Andhra Jyothi'' () is the third largest circulated Telugu language daily newspaper of India sold mostly in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was founded by K. L. N. Prasad, an Industrialist on 1 July 1960. It is also one of the ...

'', and Tel.J.D.Patrika

Vaartha ''Vaartha'' is a Telugu newspaper headquartered in Hyderabad, India. ''Vaartha'' means "news" in Telugu. History ''Vaartha'' was launched in 1996 with A.B.K Prasad as its first editor. It claimed to be the first Telugu daily in Tel ...

all these are Telugu newspapers. English newspapers include

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ( ...

and

The Hans India ''The Hans India'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well as in New Delhi. The newspaper was started on 15 July 2011 and belongs to Hyderabad Media House Ltd., which also owns ...

.

Art and cinema

Many composers of

Carnatic music Carnatic music, known as or in the Dravidian languages, South Indian languages, is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, an ...

like

Annamacharya Tallapaka Annamacharya (Telugu : తాళ్ళపాక అన్నమాచార్య) ( IAST: taḷḷapāka annamācārya; 22 May 1408 – 4 April 1503), also popularly known as Annamayya, was a 15th-century Hindu saint and the ea ...

,

Kshetrayya Kshetrayya ( Telugu:క్షేత్రయ్య) (–1680) was a prolific Telugu poet. He lived in the area of Andhra Pradesh in South India. He composed a number of ''padams'' and ''keertanas'', the prevalent formats of his time. He is c ...

,

Tyagaraja Thyagaraja (Telugu: త్యాగరాజ) (4 May 1767 – 6 January 1847), also known as Thyāgayya and in full as Kakarla Thyagabrahmam, was a composer and vocalist of Carnatic music, a form of Indian classical music. Tyagaraja and his ...

, and

Bhadrachala Ramadas Kancharla Gopanna ( te, కంచర్ల గోపన్న) ( – 1688), popularly known as Bhakta Ramadasu or Bhadrachala Ramadasu ( te, భద్రాచల రామదాసు), was a 17th-century devotee of the Hindu god Rama, a sain ...

were of Telugu descent. Modern Carnatic music composers and singers like Ghantasala and

M. Balamuralikrishna Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna (6 July 1930 – 22 November 2016) was an Indian Carnatic vocalist, musician, multi-instrumentalist, playback singer, composer, and character actor. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in ...

are also of Telugu descent. The Telugu film industry hosts many music composers and playback singers such as

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), also referred to as SPB or SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is wi ...

,

P. Susheela Pulapaka Susheela (born 13 November 1935), popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She is one of the greatest and best-known playba ...

,

S. Janaki Sistla Janaki (born 23 April 1938) is an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer from Andhra Pradesh. She is referred to respectfully as "Janaki Amma" and Nightingale of South India. She is one of the best-known playback singers in ...

and

P. B. Sreenivas Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas (22 September 1930 – 14 April 2013) widely known as P. B. Sreenivas was an Indian playback singer, composer, harmonium player, lyricist, littérateur, and poet known for his works in South cinema, and Bollyw ...

. Folk songs are very important and popular in the many rural areas of the state. Forms such as the ''

Burra katha Burra Katha, also spelled Burrakatha, is an oral storytelling technique in the Jangam Katha tradition, performed in villages of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The troupe consists of one main performer and two co-performers. It is a narrative ent ...

'' and ''Poli'' are still performed today. ''Harikathaa Kalakshepam (or

Harikatha ''Harikatha'' (Kannada: ಹರಿಕಥೆ : ''Harikathe''; Telugu: హరికథ : ''Harikatha;'' Marathi: हरीपाठ '': Haripatha'', ), also known as ''Harikatha Kaalakshepam'' in Telugu and Tamil (), is a form of Hindu tradition ...

)'' involves the narration of a story, intermingled with various songs relating to the story. Harikatha was originated in Andhra. ''Burra katha'' is an

oral storytelling Oral storytelling is an ancient and intimate tradition between the storyteller and their audience. The storyteller and the listeners are physically close, often seated together in a circular fashion. The intimacy and connection is deepened by t ...

technique with the topic be either a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

mythological story or a contemporary social issue. ''Rangasthalam'' is an

Indian theatre Theatre of India is one of the most ancient forms of theatre and it features a detailed textual, sculptural, and dramatic effects which emerged in mid first millennium BC. Like in the areas of music and dance, the Indian theatre is also define ...

in the

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken by Telugu people predominantly living in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language fami ...

, based predominantly in Andhra Pradesh.

Gurajada Apparao Gurajada Venkata Apparao (21 September 1862 – 30 November 1915) was an Indian playwright, dramatist, poet, and writer known for his works in Telugu theatre. Rao wrote the play ''Kanyasulkam'' in 1892, which is considered as the greatest play ...

wrote the play ''

Kanyasulkam ''Kanyasulkam'' is a Telugu play written by Gurajada Apparao in 1892.20th Century Telugu Luminaries, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005 It is one of the earliest modern works in an Indian language, and it is the first Telugu play ...

'' in 1892, often considered the greatest play in the Telugu language.20th Century Telugu Luminaries, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad, 2005

C. Pullaiah Chittajallu Pullayya (Telugu language, Telugu: చిత్తజల్లు పుల్లయ్య; 1898 – 6 October 1967) was an Indian film director and screenwriter. He is one of the earliest film personalities in Telugu cinema being ...

is cited as the father of Telugu theatre movement. The Telugu film industry is largely based in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. The Telugu film culture (also known as " Tollywood") is the second-largest film industry in India next to the

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film industry. Film producer

D. Ramanaidu Daggubati Ramanaidu (6 June 1936 – 18 February 2015) was an Indian film producer known for his work in Telugu cinema. He founded Suresh Productions in 1964 which became of one of the largest film production companies in India. He was placed i ...

holds a

Guinness Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the most films produced by a person. In the years 2005, 2006 and 2008, the Telugu film industry produced the largest number of films in India, exceeding the number of films produced in Bollywood. The industry holds the Guinness World Record for the largest film production facility in the world.

Cuisine

Telugu people's traditional sweet

Pootharekulu Pootharekulu (plural) or poothareku (singular) is a popular Indian sweet from the Andhra Pradesh state of south-east India. The sweet is wrapped in a wafer-thin rice starch layer resembling paper and is stuffed with sugar, dry fruits and nuts. T ...

originated from

Atreyapuram Atreyapuram is a village in Konaseema district of Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is located in Atreyapuram Mandal of Amalapuram revenue division of the district. Popularity The village is known for the popular Indian sweet pootharekulu ...

village of East Godavari district.

Tourism

The state has several beaches in its coastal districts such as

Rushikonda Rushikonda is a neighbourhood situated on Visakhapatnam and Bheemili road. Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority undertakes the development activities related to infrastructure and tourism. Transport ;APSRTC routes See a ...

,

Mypadu Mypadu is a village in Indukurpeta, Indukurupeta Mandal of Nellore district in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. This is located at 25 Kilometers from Nellore City. The beach here is a tourism spot and many people visit this during holidays and ...

, Suryalanka etc.; caves such as,

Borra Caves The Borra Caves (also called ''Borra Guhalu'') are located on the East Coast of India, in the Ananthagiri hills of the Araku Valley (with hill ranges' elevation varying from ) of the Alluri Sitharama Raju district in Andhra Pradesh. The caves ...

,

Indian rock-cut architecture Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid na ...

depicting Undavalli Caves and the country's second longest caves- the

Belum Caves The Belum Caves, located in Nandyala district of Andhra Pradesh's Rayalaseema region, is the second largest cave system on the Indian subcontinent, known for its speleothems, such as stalactite and stalagmite formations. The Belum Caves h ...

. The valleys and hills include, Araku Valley,

Horsley Hills Horsley Hills or Horsleykonda or Yenugulla Mallamma Konda is a series of hills in Andhra Pradesh in Madanapalle Taluka of Annamayya district and is about 9 miles from Madanapalle town. The local name of the hill was Yenugu Mallama Konda after a l ...

,

Papi Hills Papikonda National Park is a national park in India, located near Rajamahendravaram in the Papi Hills of the Alluri Sitharama Raju and Eluru districts of Andhra Pradesh, and covering an area of . It is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area ...

etc.

Arma Konda Arma Konda or Sitamma Konda, is a mountain peak in the northern part of the Eastern Ghats and located in Godavari River basin. It is located in the Madugula Konda sub-range north of Paderu village in Andhra Pradesh, India. Highest point in A ...

peak located in Visakhapatnam district is the highest peak in

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

. The state is home to various religious pilgrim destinations such as

Tirumala Temple Tirumala is a spiritual town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the suburbs of the Tirupati urban agglomeration. The town is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority and located in Tirupati (rural ...

,

Simhachalam Temple Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha temple, Simhachalam, also known as Sinhachala or Simanchala is a Hindu temple situated on the Simhachalam Hill Range,which is 300 metres above the sea level in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is dedicated to Vish ...

, Annavaram temple, Srisailam temple,

Kanaka Durga Temple Kanaka Durga Temple is a Hindu Temple dedicated to Goddess Kanaka Durga. The deity in this temple is also popularly referred as ''Kanaka Durga''. The temple is located in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India on the Indrakeeladri Hills on the bank ...

, Amaravati,

Srikalahasti Srikalahasti is a holy town in Tirupati district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the revenue division of Srikalahasti mandal & Srikalahasti revenue division. It is a part of Tirupati Urban Development Authority, wh ...

, Shahi Jamia Masjid in

Adoni Adoni is a city in the Kurnool district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Adoni mandal, administered under the Adoni Revenue Division. In the 2011 census of India, Adoni had a population of 166, ...

, Gunadala Church in

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

, Buddhist centres at Amaravati, and

Nagarjuna Konda Nagarjunakonda (IAST: Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, meaning Nagarjuna Hill) is a historical town, now an island located near Nagarjuna Sagar in Palnadu district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, near the state border with Telangana. It is one of ...

, Khadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple,

Kadiri Kadiri is a major city in Sri Sathya Sai District the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a ''Special Grade'' Municipal City Council and headquarters of Kadiri Mandal and Kadiri Revenue Division. Kadiri Taluka ('Tehsil') was the largest taluk ...

.

Transport

The state is well connected to other states through road and rail networks. It is also connected to other countries by means of airways and seaports as well. With a long seacoast along the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

, it also has many ports for sea trade. The state has one of the largest railway junctions at Vijayawada and one of the largest seaports at Visakhapatnam.

Roads

The state has a total road network of , of which of

National highways National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...

, of

state highways A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

and of district roads. NH 16, with a highway network of around in the state, is a part of Golden Quadrilateral Project undertaken by

National Highways Development Project The National Highways Development Project (NHDP) is a project to upgrade, rehabilitate and widen major highways in India to a higher standard. The project was started in 1998 under the leadership of Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Nation ...

. It also forms part of

AH 45 AH45 is a route of the National Highway Network of India, running from in Kolkata to Krishnagiri. This route is composed of NH 16 and part of NH 48 from Chennai to Krishnagiri. Route The route shares a large portion of various Indian Nationa ...

which comes under the

Asian Highway Network The Asian Highway Network (AH), also known as the Great Asian Highway, is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to improve their connectivity via hig ...

.

The state government owned

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) is the state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its headquarters is located at NTR Administrative Block of RTC House in Pandit Nehru bus station of ...

(APSRTC) is the major public bus transport, which runs thousands of buses connecting different parts of the state.

Pandit Nehru Bus Station Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS), also known as Telugu Satavahana Prayana Pranganam, is a bus station in Vijayawada, situated on the southern side of the main city and adjacent to the Krishna River. It is owned by the Andhra Pradesh State Road ...

(PNBS) in Vijayawada is one of the largest bus terminals in Asia. From 30 January 2019, all the vehicles in the state are registered as AP–39, followed by an alphabet and four digits.

Railways

Andhra Pradesh has a total

broad-gauge railway A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

route of and has no

metre-gauge railway Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

. The rail density of the state is 16.59 per , compared to an all India average of 20. The

Howrah–Chennai main line The Howrah–Chennai main line is a railway line connecting Chennai and Kolkata cutting across Eastern Coastal Plains of India. It covers a distance of across, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Sections The long trunk line ...

which runs through the state is proposed to be upgraded into a high-speed rail corridor through the

Diamond Quadrilateral The Diamond Quadrilateral is a project of the Indian Railways to establish a high-speed rail network in India. The Diamond Quadrilateral will connect the four mega cities of India, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, similar to the Golde ...

project of the Indian Railways. The railway network spans two

zones Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

, further subdivided into divisions –

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises NT ...

,

Guntur Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the Ba ...

and

Guntakal Guntakal is a City in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Guntakal mandal and Guntakal revenue division.It is also the headquarters of the Guntakal Railway Division in South Central Railway. Geo ...

railway divisions of

South Central Railway zone The South Central Railway (abbreviated SCR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways. The jurisdiction of the zone is spread over the states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh. It has three divisions under its administrati ...

, and

Waltair railway division Waltair railway division is one of the three railway divisions under under East Coast Railway zone. A section of the division will be part of the new South Coast Railway zone upon operationalization. The Rayagada railway division has been pro ...

of

East Coast Railway zone The East Coast Railway (abbreviated ECoR) is one of the 19 railway zones of Indian Railways. It came into existence on 1 April 2003. The headquarters of the zone are at Bhubaneswar, Odisha History Consequent upon the parliament's approval, Ea ...

. There is a demand for creating a unified zone for the state based out of Visakhapatnam. There are three A1 and twenty-three A-category railway stations in the state. has been declared the cleanest railway station in the country. The railway station of

Shimiliguda Shimiliguda is a village in Alluri Sitharama Raju district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Transport The Shimiliguda railway station in the village is on Kothavalasa-Kirandul line of Waltair railway division in East Coast Railway zone ...

was the first highest broad gauge railway station in the country. As on date the Railways lines in Andhra Pradesh are under the following Railway zones/Divisions * South Central Railway- Secunderabad Division * South Central Railway-

Hyderabad Division Hyderabad Division ( sd, حيدرآباد ڊويزن) is an administrative division of the Sindh Province of Pakistan. It was abolished in 2000 but restored again on 11 July 2011. Hyderabad, Sindh, Hyderabad is the divisional headquarters of ...

* South Central Railway- Vijayawada Division * South Central Railway- Guntakal Division * South Central Railway- Guntur Division * East Coast Railway- Waltair Division * East Coast Railway- Khurda Road Division A new railway zone South Coast Railway Zone (SCoR) has been announced as the newest Zones and divisions of Indian Railways, railway zone of the Indian Railways and is headquartered at

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

, Andhra Pradesh. The formal notification for operationalization of this Zone is yet to be issued. When created it will include Waltair Division of East Coast Railway zone and Vijayawada Division, Guntakal railway division, Guntakal Division & Guntur railway division, Guntur Division of South Central Railway zone.

Airports

Visakhapatnam Airport is the only airport in the state with operating international flights while Vijayawada Airport at Gannavaram has launched an international flight to Singapore, recently. The state has four other domestic airports, Rajahmundry Airport, Kadapa Airport, Kurnool Airport a privately owned, public use airport at Sri Sathya Sai Airport, Puttaparthi, and Tirupati Airport located in the city of

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

. There are also 16 small airstrips located in the state.

Sea ports

Andhra Pradesh has one of the country's largest port at Visakhapatnam Port, Visakhapatnam in terms of cargo handling. The other famous ports are

Krishnapatnam Port Krishnapatnam Port popularly known as KPCL is a privately built and owned all weather, deep water port on the east coast of India, located in the Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh. It is located about 190 km north of the Chennai Port and ...

(Nellore district, Nellore), Gangavaram Port and

Kakinada Port Kakinada Port is located at Kakinada off the east coast of India. It is south of Visakhapatnam Port. Kakinada Port is a large complex comprising Kakinada Anchorage Port, Kakinada Deep Water Port, Kakinada Fishing Harbour and Ship-Breaking Unit. ...

. Gangavaram Port is a deep seaport which can accommodate ocean liners up to 200,000–250,000 Deadweight tonnage, DWT. There are 14 notified non-major ports at Bheemunipatnam, S.Yanam, Machilipatnam, Nizampatnam, and Vadarevu. Vizag seaport

Ship Darshani Prem at Vizag seaport Andhra Pradesh

Education and research

Andhra Pradesh has an overall

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

of 67.41% as per the 2011 Indian census. The primary and secondary school education is imparted by State school, government, aided and private schools, managed and regulated by the School Education Department of the state. There are urban, rural and Gurukula Patasala, residential schools. As per the child info and school information report (2018–19), there were a total of students, enrolled in schools respectively. The Directorate of Government Examinations of the state administers and conduct the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination. More than students have appeared for the 2019 SSC exam and recorded an overall pass percentage of 94.88% with a 100% pass percentage in 5,464 schools. The mediums of instruction are primarily

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and English with a very few opting for

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

,

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

.

Higher education in the state is administered by the Department of Higher Education. The central universities are All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Institute of Management Visakhapatnam, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIT Tirupati, National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh, NIT Tadepalligudem, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Kurnool, IIITDM Kurnool, Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy, National Institute of Design, Andhra Pradesh, NIDV, Central University of Andhra Pradesh, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City, IIIT Sri City, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, IISER Tirupati, Agriculture University, Guntur and Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, IIFT Kakinada. The

Government of Andhra Pradesh Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the Subnational administrative division, subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 Member of the Legislative ...

established Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) in 2008 to cater to the education needs of the rural youth of Andhra Pradesh. As per the University Grants Commission (India), University Grants Commission, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, GITAM, KL University and Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology & Research, Vignan University, MBU University are the Deemed university, Deemed Universities in the state. There are 18 state universities in the districts providing higher education in horticulture, law, medical, technology, Vedas, Vedic and Veterinary education, veterinary. Andhra University is the oldest of the universities in the state, established in 1926.

Research

Research institutes have been set up by the central state government. Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), National Institute of Oceanography, India, National Institute of Oceanography, Visakhapatnam (NIO), School of Planning and Architecture, Vijayawada, School of Planning and Architecture at Vijayawada is an autonomous research institute under Ministry of Education (India), Ministry of Human Resource Development of Government of India, National Atmospheric Research Laboratory carry out fundamental and applied research in atmospheric and space sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research, Visakhapatnam Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry under control of ICAR (Indian Council of Agriculture Research) conducts fundamental and applied research on tobacco for the benefit of the farming community, Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) at

Pedavegi Pedavegi is a village in Eluru district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, 10 km north of Eluru. It is administered under Eluru revenue division. Pedavegi also serves as the mandal headquarters of Pedavegi mandal. The nearest railway st ...

near

Eluru Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of Eluru district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 14 municipal corporations in the state and the mandal headquarters of Eluru mandal in the Eluru revenue division. The city ...

in West Godavari district serves as a centre for conducting and co-ordinating research on all aspects of Elaeis, oil palm conservation, improvement, production, protection, post-harvest technology and transfer of technology, CCRH Regional Research Institute at Gudivada, Clinical Research Institute at

Tirupati Tirupati () is a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district. The city is home to the important Hindu shrine of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple and other historic temples and is refe ...

and National Institute of Oceanography at Visakhapatnam are some of them. Agriculture Research Institute (Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University) Kadiri, KADIRI.

Space research organisation

Chandrayaan 2 Module on GSLV MK III at Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad

Satish Dhawan Space Centre, also known as Sriharikota Range (SHAR), at barrier island of Sriharikota in Tirupati district is a satellite launching station operated by Indian Space Research Organisation. It is India's primary orbital launch site. India's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 was launched from the centre at 6:22 Ante meridiem, AM Indian Standard Time, IST on 22 October 2008.

Sports

The Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh is the governing body which looks after the infrastructure development in cricket, field hockey, association football, roller skating, skating, Olympic weightlifting, chess, List of water sports, water sports, tennis, badminton, table tennis, cycle sport, cycling, etc. Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the state. The Dr. Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA–VDCA Cricket Stadium, ACA-VDCA Stadium in

Visakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura (S20), INS ...

is the home to Andhra cricket team, Andhra Pradesh cricket team. The venue regularly hosts international as well as domestic matches. Notable cricketers from Andhra Pradesh include former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, M. V. Narasimha Rao, M. S. K. Prasad, VVS Laxman, Tirumalasetti Suman, Arshad Ayub, Ambati Rayudu, Venkatapathy Raju, Sravanthi Naidu, Venugopal Rao (cricketer), Yalaka Venugopal Rao, Hanuma Vihari and Srikar Bharat. Koneru Humpy, Humpy Koneru, from Gudivada in

Krishna district Krishna district is district in the coastal Andhra Region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is the coastal district of Andhra Pradesh. Machilipatnam is the most populated city in the di ...

, is an Indian chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster. Dandamudi Rajagopal Rao, the first 12 times National heavy weight lifting Champion, hails from krishna district. Karnam Malleswari, the first female Indian to win an Olympic medal, hails from

Srikakulam district Srikakulam district is one of the twenty-six districts of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, located in the Uttarandhra region of the state, with its headquarters located at Srikakulam. It is one of the si ...

. She won the bronze medal on 19 September 2000, in the category with a lift of . Krishnam Raju Gadiraju of Bhimavaram, is a four-time world record holder. He is a speedcubing, speedsolver and unicycle, unicyclist. Pullela Gopichand is a former Indian badminton player. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second Indian to win after Prakash Padukone. Srikanth Kidambi, a badminton player, is the first ever Indian to reach the World Championships final in 2021 in the men's singles and win a silver medal. Cherukuri Lenin (1985 or 198624 October 2010) was an Indian archer and coach who won a silver medal at the Asian Grand Prix in Malaysia and was a national archery coach.

Notes

References

External links

Government

Andhra Pradesh Government Website

Department of Tourism

General information

* * {{Authority control Andhra Pradesh, South India, . States and union territories of India States and territories established in 1956 1956 establishments in India

History

Toponym

Early and medieval history

Modern history

Post-independence

Geography

Natural vegetation and conservation

Climate

Demographics

Languages

Religion

Hinduism

Mahayana Buddhism

Administrative divisions

Regions

Districts

Revenue divisions

Mandals

Cities

Government and politics

Economy

Agriculture

Infrastructure

Industrial sector

Resources

Mining

Power plants

Culture

Arts, crafts and artifacts

Literature

Media

Art and cinema

Cuisine

Tourism

Transport

Roads

Railways

Airports

Sea ports

Education and research

Research

Space research organisation

Sports

See also

Notes

References

External links

Government

General information