Place · Vijayanagara trade town · India
Anantapur
Also known as Anantapuram
The city of Anantapur in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, 350 kilometres from Bangalore. The town was founded in 1364 CE by Chikkappa Odeyar, a Vijayanagara feudatory who named it after his wife Ananthamma. The town became an important Vijayanagara trade centre and later a Hyder Ali-Tipu Sultan Mysore sultanate garrison (1770-1799) before falling to the British East India Company in 1799 after the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. Anantapur is the chief city of the Rayalaseema cotton-and-groundnut belt and the headquarters of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education. The 2022 Sri Sathya Sai district carve-out and the 2014 Andhra bifurcation have reshaped the district's boundaries.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 14.682, 77.601
Connections (3)
- Site withinDharmavaram
Dharmavaram sits within Anantapur district until the 2022 Sri Sathya Sai district carve-out that gave Dharmavaram its own sub-district. The historic 1153 CE silk-weaving town was 90 kilometres from Anantapur city, under Anantapur district administration from 1858 to 2022. The Dharmavaram silk sari (GI 2008) and the adjacent Puttaparthi Sri Sathya Sai ashram (16 km east) together anchor the Sri Sathya Sai district's cultural identity.
- Site adjacencyBallari
Anantapur and Ballari (Bellary) sit 100 kilometres apart on the Rayalaseema-Bayalaseema border of modern Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Both cities were key Vijayanagara-period commercial-fortress centres (Anantapur founded 1364 CE, Ballari serving as a Vijayanagara fortress) and later Hyder Ali-Tipu Sultan garrisons before falling to British East India Company rule in 1799 after the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War. The 2014 Andhra bifurcation placed Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and Ballari in Karnataka, but historically they were part of the same Vijayanagara trade network.
- Life routeUyyalawada Narasimha Reddy
Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy's 1846 rebellion was based in Kurnool-Anantapur Rayalaseema region (Anantapur, Kurnool and Cuddapah districts). He operated from Uyyalawada village 110 kilometres from Anantapur city, and the Koilakuntla treasury he attacked on 10 June 1846 is within the Anantapur-Kurnool revenue district.
Sources
Standard reference; district gazetteer and Wikipedia.
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