Nalgonda is a city and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

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 ...

. It is the headquarters of the

Nalgonda district Nalgonda district is a district in the Telangana state of India. Nalgonda district has the highest number of mandals in the state with 31 mandals. The district shares boundaries with Suryapet, Rangareddy, Yadadri and Nagarkurnool districts ...

, as well as the headquarters of the Nalgonda

mandal 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 ...

in the Nalgonda

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 ...

. It is located about from the state capital

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 ...

Etymology

In the past, Nalgonda was referred to as ''Nilagiri''. During the medieval

Bahamani 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,

, it was renamed Nalgunda. The name was changed to "Nalgonda" for official uses during the rule of the later

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 ...

kings.

History

Paleolithic Age

There is archaeological evidence that

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

people lived in the area that is now Nalgonda, fashioning tools and weapons out of stone. Some of these implements have been found in the Nalgonda area, similar to those discovered at the

Sloan archaeological site Sloan may refer to: *Sloan (surname) *MIT Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States *Sloan (band), a Canadian rock band *Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a major astronomical survey **Sloan Great Wall, a galac ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Neolithic Age

Traces of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

culture were found at Chota Yelupu, where sling stones and other contemporary objects were excavated. Evidence of

Megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

culture was also found via the discovery of innumerable burials at various places around Nalgonda.

The Mauryas and Satavahanas (230 BC – 218 BC)

The political history of the Nalgonda district commences with the

Mauryas 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 ...

. During the reign of

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, ...

the Great, the Mauryas maintained control over the Nalgonda region. Later, 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 ruled between 230 BC and 218 BC, took control of the area. During this period, the region established trade contacts with the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

Ikshvakus (227 AD – 306 AD)

In 227 AD, the

Ikshvaku dynasty The Solar dynasty (IAST: Suryavaṃśa or Ravivaṃśa in Sanskrit) or the Ikshvaku dynasty was founded by the legendary king Ikshvaku.Geography of Rigvedic India, M.L. Bhargava, Lucknow 1964, pp. 15-18, 46-49, 92-98, 100-/1, 136 The dynasty is ...

took control of the region. During this period, members of various

Saka The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who hist ...

tribes migrated to the area.

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

flourished during this time.

Invasion of Samudragupta

After the Ikshvakus, the

Pallava The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The dynasty rose to prominence after the downfall of the Satavahana dynasty, with whom they had formerly served as fe ...

s and

Yadavas 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 Satv ...

fought for supremacy over the region. However, after

Samudragupta Samudragupta (Gupta script: ''Sa-mu-dra-gu-pta'', (c. 335–375 CE) was the second emperor of the Gupta Empire of ancient India, and is regarded among the greatest rulers of the dynasty. As a son of the Gupta emperor Chandragupta I and the Li ...

(c. 335 AD – c. 375 AD) invaded and conquered most of India, the area fell under the control of his

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gol ...

. The Empire fell in the 6th century.

The Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas

Starting in the 6th century, the

Chalukya dynasty The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynast ...

ruled the modern-day Nalgonda region, as well as much of southern and central India. A major portion of the Nalgonda area appears to have passed from the Chalukyas of

Badami Badami, formerly known as Vatapi, is a town and headquarters of a taluk by the same name, in the Bagalkot district of Karnataka, India. It was the regal capital of the Badami Chalukyas from CE 540 to 757. It is famous for its rock cut monumen ...

to the

Rashtrakuta 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 ...

s. However, the Rashtrakutas fell in 973, and power shifted to the Chalukyas of Kalyani. The Chalukyas continued to rule the area until the end of the 12th century.

Medieval period

During the medieval era, the

Kakatiya dynasty 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 ...

took control of the region from the western Chalukyas. During the reign of

Prataparudra II Pratāparudra (r. c. 1289–1323), also known as Rudradeva II, was the last ruler of the Kakatiya dynasty of India. He ruled the eastern part of Deccan, with his capital at Warangal. Prataparudra succeeded his grandmother Rudramadevi as the Ka ...

, in 1323, the kingdom was

annexed Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

to the

Tughluq The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...

Empire. When

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

ruled (around 1324–1351), Musunuri chief Kapayanayaka ceded a part of Nalgonda to Ala-ud-din Hasan Bahman Shah of the Bahmani Sultanate. He annexed the region to the Bahmani Kingdom. In 1455,

Jalal Khan Jalal Khan ( ur, جلال خان) is a legendary figure in the history of the Baloch people who led the Baloch from Persia to Makran. Jalal Khan had four sons, Rind Khan, Hoth Khan, Lashar Khan, and Kora Khan, and a daughter, Bibi Jato, who was ...

he declared himself king at Nalgonda, but this was short-lived. He was quickly defeated and the region brought back to the Bahmani Kingdom. During the time of the Bahmani Sultan Shihabud-din Mahmun, Sultan Quli was appointed as tarafdar of the

region (now the state of Telangana). Quli's son, Jamshid, took control of the region from his father. Later,

Qutub Shahi 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 ...

s took control of the region, and maintained it until 1687.

Modern period: Mughals and Asaf Jahis

Nizam-ul-Mulk (

Asaf Jah I Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi (11 August 16711 June 1748) also known as Chin Qilich qamaruddin Khan, Nizam-ul-Mulk, Asaf Jah and Nizam I, was the 1st Nizam of Hyderabad. He was married to the daughter of a Syed nobleman of Gulbarga. He ...

) defeated Mubasiz Khan at Shaker Khere in

Berar Berar may refer to: *Vidarbha, the eastern region of Maharashtra Province, India, historically known as Berar *Berar Sultanate (1490–1596), one of the Deccan sultanates *Berar Subah (1596–1724), a Subah of the Mughal Empire *Berar Province (1724 ...

and ruled 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 ...

autonomously. This district, like the other districts of Telangana, was controlled by

Asaf Jahi 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 ...

s, and remained under their rule for nearly two hundred and twenty-five years.

Geography

Nalgonda is located at . It has an average elevation of .

Climate

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 ...

, Nalgonda had a population of 135,744; of which 67,971 are male and 67,773 are female. An average of 86.83% city population were literate; where 92.91% of them were male and 80.78% were female literates.

Governance

The municipality of Nalgonda was categorized as a "Grade-III municipality" when it was first created in 1941. It is now a "Special Grade Municipality." Nalgonda's jurisdictional area is spread over . Its population is distributed over an area of , which includes residents of the municipality Nalgonda, the rural areas of Panagallu, Gollaguda, Cherlapalli, Arjalabhavi, Gandhamvarigudam, and Marriguda.

Transport

The city is connected to major cities and towns by means of road and railways.

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

and

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 ...

that pass through the city are National Highway 565, State highway 2 and 18.

Road

TSRTC Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (abbreviated as TSRTC) is a state-owned corporation that runs bus transport services to and from the Indian state of Telangana. It was formed in 2014 by splitting the Andhra Pradesh State Road Trans ...

operates buses from Nalgonda to various destinations in

state.

Railway

Nalgonda railway station The Nalgonda railway station (station code: NLDA) is the major railway station in Nalgonda district of Telangana state. History A 152 km long Nadikudi-Pagidipalli section foundation stone laid by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 7 ...

provides rail connectivity to the city. It is classified as a ''B–category'' station in

Guntur railway division Guntur Railway Division is one of the three divisions of the South Coast Railway zone of Indian Railways. The division was sanctioned in 1995–96 and was fully operational on 1 April 2003, with its headquarters at Guntur. The ''Rail Vikas Bhavan ...

of the

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 is located on the Pagidipalli-Nallapadu section of the division.

Attractions

Nalgonda contains several religious sites, including

Maruthi Mandir Maruthi Mandir ( te, మారుతీ మందిర్),Mushampally Road, Nalgonda. Maruthi Mandir is a Hindu temple in the town of Nalgonda. The primary deity god of the temple is Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also ...

and Kolanupaka Temple, a

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an 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 time cycle being ...

shrine. Other attractions include the

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 ...

, a

Gowthama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a 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 born in Lu ...

Museum, and the Bhuvanangiri Fort, built by Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya VI, panagallu someswara temple and many masjid built by Alamgir in and around the district.

Education

As district headquarters, Nalgonda serves as a hub for primary and secondary education for surrounding villages. Nalgonda has many primary and upper primary schools, offering instruction in

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 ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. The district contains one university, Mahatma Gandhi University''.'' It also contains a number of colleges specializing in engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and sciences, as well as vocational colleges. There are also many state government-operated schools and colleges in the city, such as Nagarjuna Government Degree college.

References

External links

Nalgonda Municipality
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Nalgonda district Municipalities of Telangana District headquarters of Telangana Cities in Telangana