Dharanikota is a village in

Palnadu district Palnadu district is a district in coastal Andhra Region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With Narasaraopet as its administrative headquarters, it was formed on 04 April 2022 to become one of the resultant twenty-six districts The district ...

of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

. It is located in Amaravathi mandal of

Guntur revenue division Guntur revenue division is an administrative division in the Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises 10 mandals and is one of the two revenue divisions in the district, along with Tenali revenue division, Tenali. Gunt ...

. The village forms a part of

Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Andhra Pradesh Capital Region is the metropolitan region area of Andhra Pradesh state capital, the defacto capital city of Andhra Pradesh. Vijayawada is the headquarters and the largest city of the region. It includes the major ancient cities o ...

, under the jurisdiction of

APCRDA The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (abbreviated as APCRDA), Amaravati, ACT No. 27 of 2020. It was notified on 31 July 2020 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh as per ''The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority ...

History

In 500 BCE, Dharanikota was known as Dhanyakatakam. Dharanikota ivory seal

Archaeological excavations In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

at Dharanikota revealed viharas in Dharanikota and nearby areas. It is the site of ancient Dhanyakataka, which was the capital of 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 ...

that ruled in the

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in South India, 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 bou ...

around the 1st to 3rd centuries CE. It was also the capital of the

Kota Vamsa Kota Vamsa was a medieval dynasty which ruled in parts of the modern-day Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The Kotas belonged to Dhananjaya gotra. Kota chiefs ruled Kammanadu with Dharanikota as capital. Kota Kings belonged to the Shudra Shu ...

, which ruled during the medieval period until the mid-12th century. The Krishna River Valley is an important rice-producing area. It was also an important centre of trade with other parts of India and foreign countries. The place is also famous for the great

Amaravati stupa The Amarāvati ''Stupa'', is a ruined Buddhist ''stūpa'' at the village of Amaravathi, Palnadu district, Andhra Pradesh, India, probably built in phases between the third century BCE and about 250 CE. It was enlarged and new sculptures replac ...

; a very large

Kalachakra ''Kālacakra'' () is a polysemic term in Vajrayana Buddhism that means "wheel of time" or "time cycles". "''Kālacakra''" is also the name of a series of Buddhist texts and a major practice lineage in Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The ta ...

ceremony was conducted there by the

Dalai Lama Dalai Lama (, ; ) is a title given by the Tibetan people to the foremost spiritual leader of the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest and most dominant of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The 14th and current Dal ...

in January, 2006.

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

visited Dharanikota and the Amaravati stupa and wrote an enthusiastic account of the place and the viharas that existed then.

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current ...

flourished in Dharanikota during the reign of Sada kings.

Geography

Dharanikota is situated to the west of the mandal headquarters,

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 ...

, at . It is spread over an area of .

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 ...

, Dharanikota had a population of 7,534. The total population constitute, 3,734 males and 3,800 females —a sex ratio of 1018 females per 1000 males. 725 children are in the age group of 0–6 years, of which 368 are boys and 357 are girls —a ratio of 970 per 1000. The average literacy rate stands at 66.06% with 4,498 literates, slightly lower than the state average of 67.41%.

Government and politics

Dharanikota

Gram Panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

is the

local self-government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

of the village. It is divided into wards and each ward is represented by a ward member. The village is administered by the ''Amaravathi Mandal Parishad'' at the intermediate level of

panchayat raj The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

institutions.

Education

As per the school information report for the academic year 2018–19, the village has a total of eight schools. These schools include five

MPP MPP or M.P.P. may refer to: * Marginal physical product * Master of Public Policy, an academic degree * Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), Canada * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape), South Africa * ''Merriweather Post Pavilion ...

and three private schools.

References

Citations

Sources

* {{citation , editor-last=Vyas , editor-first=Dr. R. T. , author-link=R.T. Vyas , url={{Google books, fETebHcHKogC, plainurl=yes , title=Studies in Jaina Art and Iconography and Allied Subjects , publisher=The Director, Oriental Institute, on behalf of the Registrar, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara , year=1995 , isbn=81-7017-316-7 Former capital cities in India Villages in Palnadu district Archaeological sites in Andhra Pradesh Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh Ancient Indian cities