The early social history of Andhra Desa

Abstract

Andhra Desa mainly comprises the present State of Andhra Pradesh and parts of bordering neighbour states of Orissa, Karnataka and Maharashtra. As a political division Andhra Pradesh is known in the contemporary Indian Union as the first linguistic state formed during 1956 as most of the population - speak Telugu language1. This linguistic zone has three subdivisions. On the east and north-east can be seen the wider coastal area with Bay of Bengal and with many a break due to the interspersing Eastern Ghats having different names at different regions like Veligondalu, Palakondalu, Seshachalam, Errammalai, and Nallamalai. This area is called as Coastal Andhra comprising the districts of Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, East Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore. The present area covering the districts of Khammam, Warangal, Kareemnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad and Mahaboobnagar which were mostly under the rule of Nizams of Hyderabad is known as Telengana, The term Telengana is believed to have been derived from the word “Telanganamu”, literally meaning the land of the Telugu speaking people. The remaining districts of Chittoor, Cuddapah, Anantapur and Kurnool are known as Rayalaseema after the rulers of four Vijayanagara dynasties, who had a suffix “Raya” to their names.