Andhra Pradesh is one of the state of the country, which takes pride in its rich historical and cultural heritage. A peek into the History of Andhra Pradesh can give an idea of the glorious past the state has witnessed. The brief history of Andhra Pradesh can be classified into four prime periods.
Historians believe that the original people of Andhra Pradesh were Aryans. They migrated to the south of Vindhyas and there they mixed up with other races. A major part of Emperor Ashoka's kingdom, Andhra Pradesh was an important Buddhist center of that time. Several places in the state still bears the traces of the Buddhist culture and influence.
The earlier period
The Satavahana dynasty is perhaps the earliest dynasty that ruled in Andhra Pradesh. This was during the second century B.C and they were also known as the Andhras. Amravati, on the banks of river Krishna was their capital. They promoted national and international trade and were great followers of Buddhism. After the end of the Satavahana reign, the state was ruled by the Pallavas, the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Kakaityas respectively.
The period of Muslim expansion
The Kakatiya dynasty was uprooted in 1323, following the capture of their ruler by Tughlak Sultan of Delhi. After the end of the Kakatiya dynasty, few local kingdoms rose to power in different parts of the kingdom. Among these, the Vijaynagar kingdom was the most powerful one. The great king Krishnadeva Raya belonged to that kingdom. After failing time and again against the Vijayanagar empire, the kingdom was finally captured by the Muslim invaders. In the middle of the 16th century, the state saw the emergence of the Qutb Shahi dynaty. They were defeated by the Mughals, to be precise by Aurangazeb's son. In 1707, Hyderabad was declared independent and went under the rule of the Nizams. The Nizams were great allies of the British and they helped the Europeans to defeat Tipu Sultan of Mysore.
The post independence period
After the Indian independence, Andhra Pradesh became the first state to be formed on the basis of language. The Telugu speaking people were given twenty one districts, out of which nine were in the Nizam's Dominions and the rest in the Madras Presidency. However following an agitation in 1953, eleven districts of the Madras state were taken to form a new Andhra state with Kurnool as its capital. Nine districts under the Nizam were later added to form the enlarged state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. Hyderabad became the capital of the state, which is one of the most technologically advanced cities of the modern India.