ANDHRA PRADESH

constituent state of India, located in the southeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is bounded by the states of Tamil Nadu to the south, Karnataka to the west, and Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Orissa to the north. The Bay of Bengal bounds the state to the east. Its name derives from the Andhra people who have long inhabited the area and have their own language, Telugu. Many dynasties ruled in the area, dating back to the 3rd century BC, and Buddhism flourished there. Rulers during the 12th and 13th centuries expanded Andhra power, which reached its peak in the 16th century. The Andhras came under British influence in the 17th century, then played a decisive role in the rise of Indian nationalism in the 19th. Pride in their historical and linguistic achievements led them to demand a separate state, and the state in its present form dates from 1956. Three main physiographic regions characterize Andhra Pradesh: a coastal plain to the east, running from the Bay of Bengal inland to the mountain ranges; the Eastern Ghats mountain range; and a plateau to the west of the Ghats. The deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers in the central part of the alluvial coastal plains contain especially fertile soil. Andhra Pradesh has three seasons. Summer lasts from March to June. A period of tropical rains follows from July to September, and winter begins in October and concludes in February. Maximum and minimum temperatures range from 74 to 82 F (23 to 28 C) and from 50 to 53 F (10 to 12 C), respectively, with summers cooler and winters colder on the plateau. The southwest monsoon causes the most rainfall, which ranges from a maximum of 55 inches (1,400 mm) to 20 inches (500 mm) annually. Rainfall is heavy in the coastal area. Nearly nine-tenths of the people of Andhra Pradesh speak Telugu, and about one-twelfth speak Urdu, largely the language of the Muslim population. The remaining groups consist of people speaking border-area languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and Oriya, and such tribal languages as Lamani. Some 70 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, which accounts for about half of the state's income. About half of the agricultural area is devoted to producing food grains, yielding some 9 million tons of rice alone each year. Andhra Pradesh produces most of the Virginia tobacco of the country and is one of the largest rice-producing states in India. Other crops include cotton and sugarcane, together with chili peppers, sorghum, pulses (legumes), and castor beans. Forested areas yield timber and forest products. Andhra Pradesh contains such minerals as asbestos, mica, manganese, barite, coal, limestone, and low-grade iron ore. Even though it has become one of the most highly industrialized states in India, manufacturing still accounts for only a small share of its income. Government-run industries include shipbuilding and aeronautics and the manufacture of electrical equipment, machine tools, cement, and drugs; private-sector activities include chemical and textile production. As a means of stimulating industry, Andhra Pradesh increased its hydroelectric and thermoelectric generating capacity. Significant natural-gas deposits have been discovered in the deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers. The rail system serves much of the state, and there are four major airports, located at Hyderabad (the capital), Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Vishakhapatnam. The arts and literature of Andhra Pradesh thrive under both state and private sponsorship. The kuchipudi dance style, which includes singing, is unique in the Indian tradition, and Teluguone of the four literary languages of the Dravidian familyoccupies a prestigious position among Indian languages. Folk culture predominates in rural areas, through such forms as minstrel-ballad performances, puppet shows, and mythological storytelling. Andhra Pradesh has universities at Hyderabad, Waltair, Warangal, Guntur, Anantpur, and Tirupati, with numerous affiliated colleges. An agricultural university is at Hyderabad. Various industrial-training institutes provide vocational education. Area 106,204 square miles (275,068 square km). Pop. (1991) 66,508,008. state of India, located in the southeastern part of the subcontinent. It is bounded by the states of Tamil Nadu (formerly Madras) to the south, Karnataka (Mysore) to the west, Maharashtra to the northwest and north, and Madhya Pradesh and Orissa to the northeast; the eastern boundary is a 600-mile (970-kilometre) coastline along the Bay of Bengal. The state has an area of 106,195 square miles (275,045 square kilometres). The capital is Hyderabad. The state's name refers to the Andhra people, who have inhabited the area since antiquity and who have developed their own language, Telugu. In its present form, it came into existence in 1956 as a result of the demand of the Andhras for a separate state. Although it is primarily agricultural, there is some mining and a significant amount of industry. Additional reading The state's physical and human geography are discussed in A. Ramesh Choudhary (Arigapudi), Andhra Pradesh (1979); T.D. Jagadesan, Andhra Pradesh (1969); N.V.B.S. Dutt, Geology and Mineral Resources of Andhra Pradesh and Late Proterozoic Stratigraphy and Middle and Late Proterozoic Tectonic Evolution of Peninsular India, 3rd ed., rev., updated, and enlarged (1986); Christoph von Frer-Haimendorf, The Gonds of Andhra Pradesh (1979); and K.V. Narayana Rao, The Emergence of Andhra Pradesh (1973). Sudhir Vyankatesh Wanmali History Although Sanskrit writings dating to about 1000 BC contain references to a people called Andhras living south of the central Indian mountain ranges, definitive historical evidence of the Andhras dates from the times of the Mauryan dynasty, which ruled in the north in the 3rd century BC. The great Mauryan emperor Asoka (reigned c. 265238 BC) sent Buddhist missions to the Andhras in the south. About the 1st century AD, the Satakarni (or Satavahanas), one of the most renowned of the Andhra dynasties, came to power. Its members ruled over almost the entire Deccan Plateau and even established trade relations with Rome. They were patrons of diverse religions and were also great builders: their principal city, Amaravati, contained Buddhist monuments inaugurating a new style of architecture. Experts ascribe parts of the famous paintings in the Ajanta caves of the Deccan to the Andhra painters of that period. Buddhism prospered under the Andhras, and in their capital flourished the great Buddhist university of antiquity, where Nagarjuna (c. AD 150250), the founder of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, taught. The ruins of the university at Nagarjunakonda still attest to its former glory. In the 11th century, during the reign of the eastern Calukyas, a dynasty that unified most of the Andhra area, the first of the Telugu poets, Nannaya, began translating the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, into Telugu, thus inaugurating the birth of Telugu as a literary medium. The dynasty of the Kakatiyas of Warangal in the 12th and 13th centuries extended Andhra power militarily and culturally; it was during their regime that the commercial expansion of the Andhras toward Southeast Asia reached its peak. By this time, however, the Muslims had established themselves in the north, and their invasion of the south led to the fall of Warangal in 1323. But the rise of the kingdom of Vijayanagar, to the southwest of Warangal, arrested the expansion of the Muslim power for some time. Acclaimed as the greatest kingdom in Andhra history and as one of the greatest in Indian history, Vijayanagar, under the rule of its great king Krishna Deva Raya, who reigned from 1509 to 1529, became synonymous with military glory, economic prosperity, good administration, and artistic splendour. During this period, Telugu literature flourished. The formation of an alliance between the various neighbouring Muslim principalities, however, led to the fall of Vijayanagar in 1565, leaving the Muslims in control of the Andhra areas. In the 17th century, English and French traders began to involve themselves in Indian politics. As a result, successive nizams (rulers) of Hyderabad, seeking to consolidate their kingdom against rivals, obtained first French and later British support. In exchange for their help, the British acquired from the nizam the coastal Andhra districts lying to the north of Madras and later the hinterland districts. Thus, the major part of the Andhra country came under British rule. Part of the Telugu-speaking areas, known as the Telangana region, remained under the nizam's dominion, and the French acquired a few towns. During the 19th century, which witnessed the rise of Indian nationalism, the Andhras came to the forefront of the movement. Leaders such as Kandukuri Veerasalingam pioneered in social reform. In the struggle against British rule, Andhra leaders played decisive roles. Pride in their historical and linguistic achievements led them to demand a separate province. Simultaneously, a movement was also organized to unite the Telugu-speaking peoples living under British rule and those under the nizam's administration. The Andhras' demand for separate statehood became so insistent that, when the central government refused to comply, a local leader, Potti Sreeramulu, fasted to death in 1953 to dramatize the issue. The government finally acceded to the people's request by creating on Oct. 1, 1953, the Andhra state, which included the Telugu-speaking districts of the former Madras state, thus paving the way for the formation of linguistic states throughout India in 1957. The erstwhile state of Hyderabad, which had joined independent India in 1949, was split up, and its nine Telugu-speaking districts (constituting Telangana) were joined to the Andhra state on Nov. 1, 1956, to form the new state of Andhra Pradesh. In 1960, 221.4 square miles in the Chingleput and Salem districts of Madras (now Tamil Nadu) were transferred to Andhra Pradesh in exchange for 410 square miles from Chittoor district. R.V.R. Chandrasekhara Rao Sudhir Vyankatesh Wanmali