Themes

Language & literature

From Prakrit inscriptions and the first Telugu records to Nannaya, Pothana, Vemana and modern prose.

Music & dance

Annamacharya, Tyagaraja, Kuchipudi, Perini and the folk performance traditions.

Religion & philosophy

Buddhism, Jainism, Shaiva and Vaishnava movements, Islam and the Sufi orders, Christianity and village deities.

Temples & architecture

Stupas, rock-cut caves, temples, mosques, tombs and palaces, and how they were built.

Forts & warfare

Hill forts, city walls, armies and the battles that changed who ruled the region.

Trade & economy

Ports such as Motupalli and Machilipatnam, Golconda diamonds, tanks and farming, merchant guilds.

Crafts & textiles

Kalamkari, ikat weaving, Nirmal paintings, Kondapalli and Etikoppaka toys and other crafts.

Government & administration

Kingship, the nayankara system, village officers, land revenue and law.

Society & communities

Castes, communities and tribes, and how social life changed over time, from scholarly sources.

Daily life & festivals

Food, dress, homes and games; Sankranti, Ugadi, Bathukamma, Bonalu and other festivals.

Folk songs & oral traditions

Burrakatha, Oggu katha, Yakshaganam and the heroic ballads of Palnadu and Bobbili.

Inscriptions & sources

How we know: inscriptions, coins, travellers' accounts, the Mackenzie kaifiyats and archives.

Legislatures & government, 1952–2014

1952–2014 CE

The elected houses that made laws for the Telugu districts from the first general elections of 1952 to the division of 2014: the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly, the Madras Assembly and the Andhra Legislative Assembly at Kurnool, and the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council at Hyderabad. With the chief ministers, governors and periods of President's rule that the official records name.

How the map changed

1766–2014 CE

How the borders and districts of the Telugu country changed from the Company's take-over of the coast and Rayalaseema (1766–1800) to the division of Andhra Pradesh in 2014: the Madras districts and the Nizam's dominions, the Andhra State of 1953, the reorganisation of 1956, the boundary changes of 1959–60, the new districts of 1953–1979, and the ten districts that became Telangana.

Land, rivers and water

How the land shaped Telugu history: a coastal plain with two great river deltas, the forested hills of the Eastern Ghats, and the dry Deccan plateau of Telangana and Rayalaseema. The deltas rarely failed, while the uplands lived by rain and by tanks. The pages below follow the rivers, the water works, the forests and hills, and the famines, floods and cyclones that the old records describe.

Rivers of the Telugu country

The Godavari, the Krishna and its tributaries the Tungabhadra and the Musi, the Penna (Pennar) and the Kolleru lake, as the gazetteers of about 1900 describe them: their courses through the Telugu country, their deltas, the holy places and towns on their banks, their floods and their crossings.

Famines, floods and cyclones

The disasters that the old records describe in the Telugu country before 1914: the famine of 1791–1792 in the Circars, the Guntur famine of 1832–1833, the Great Famine of 1876–1878, the famines of 1896–1900 in the Agency and the Nizam's state, the sea floods and cyclones of 1787, 1839 and 1864, and the floods of the Godavari, the Krishna and the Musi. Every figure is given as its source gives it.

Water works in Telugu history

How people in the Telugu country stored and led water: the tanks of the Kakatiya kings and their chiefs, which inscriptions counted among the seven lasting good deeds; the tanks and river dams of Vijayanagara in Rayalaseema; the great lakes of Golconda and Hyderabad; and the anicuts and canals of the nineteenth century on the Godavari, the Krishna, the Penna and the Tungabhadra.

Old names of regions

The old country names of the Telugu lands and where the sources place them: Andhra and Telingana, Vengi between the two deltas, Kammanadu round Ongole, Velanadu in the western Krishna delta, Pakanadu between Ongole and Nellore, Renadu round Kadapa, the Kondapalli and Kondavidu countries, and the later names Circars and Ceded Districts. Names only: for how borders changed, see How the map changed.