Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh is a state on the east coast of southern India. The seventh largest Indian state by area and the tenth largest by population, it is bound by the Bay of Bengal to the east, and shares borders with the states of Odisha to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the north, Telangana to northwest, Karnataka to the west, and Tamil Nadu to the south. Telugu, one of the classical languages of India, is the most widely spoken language in the state and serves as its official language. Amaravati is the state capital, and Visakhapatnam is the largest city. Archaeological excavations have unearthed stone tools used by early hominins and later Neolithic settlements. The Andhras are mentioned in the Aitareya Brahmana (c. 800 BCE) of the Rigveda. In the 4th century BCE, Megasthenes described the Andhras living in the Godavari and Krishna River deltas, and the region later came under the control of the Mauryan Empire. The Satavahana dynasty ruled over most of the Deccan from the 1st to 3rd century CE, with their capital at Dhanyakataka. Subsequent major dynasties that ruled the region include the Vishnukundinas, Andhra Ikshvakus, Pallavas, Eastern Chalukyas, Cholas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara Empire, and Qutb Shahis. European colonisation began in the 17th century, with the British controlling much of the state as a part of the Madras Presidency for two centuries. After the Indian independence in 1947, Andhra State was carved out of Madras State in 1953. In 1956, it merged with the Telugu-speaking regions of the former Hyderabad State to form Andhra Pradesh. A new state of Telangana was bifurcated from it in 2014. The Eastern Ghats separate the coastal plains from the Deccan Plateau. Major rivers include Godavari, Krishna, Tungabhadra, and Penna, which flow eastwards towards the Bay of Bengal. The state has significant reserves of...