Place · coastal trade city · India
Ongole
Also known as Prakasam district headquarters
The coastal Andhra Pradesh city of Ongole, 290 kilometres from Hyderabad, with continuous settlement traced through the Mauryas, Satavahanas, Pallavas, Cholas, Kakatiyas and the Vijayanagara Empire. The nearby medieval ports of Motupalli (named by Marco Polo in 1292 as a Kakatiya trading entrepot) and Vodarevu handled trade across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia. Ongole was absorbed into the Nellore district under British rule and later transferred to Guntur district; it became headquarters of its own Ongole district in 1970, renamed Prakasam district in 1972 after the freedom-fighter and first chief minister of Andhra Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu (1872-1957). The city is globally famous for the Ongole cattle breed, a large white draft breed exported to Brazil in the 19-century and developed there into the Nelore breed that now dominates South American beef cattle.
- Function
- Trade & production
- Patron dynasty
- Satavahana · Kakatiya · Vijayanagara · Indian Union
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 15.506, 80.050
Connections (3)
- Trade routeUberaba, Brazil
Ongole and Uberaba share a globally unique cattle-breeding heritage through the Ongole bull, a large white draft breed exported from the Prakasam-Guntur coast of Andhra Pradesh to Brazil beginning with the 1868 import of 'Ongole' bulls by José Gomes Coelho. The Brazilian breeders renamed the breed 'Nelore' after the nearby Nellore port region and, through 1930s-1960s breeding programmes centred at Uberaba in Minas Gerais, developed the modern Nelore breed that now dominates the Brazilian beef cattle industry (over 80% of Brazil's 230 million head). The 1934 ExpoZebu annual fair at Uberaba became the world's largest zebu cattle event. Ongole and Uberaba have formalised a sister-city partnership to promote cooperation in cattle breeding, genetics, livestock science, dairy technology and agricultural research.
- BirthplaceTanguturi Prakasam Pantulu
Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu was born at Vinodarayunipalem village in Ongole taluk of the then Guntur district on 23 August 1872. The 1972 Prakasam district formation (renamed from Ongole district) honours him; the city of Ongole is the district headquarters and the central location of his boyhood and early legal practice.
- Site withinTanguturi Prakasam Pantulu
Tanguturi Prakasam's birthplace Vinodarayunipalem village sits within the Ongole administrative area of modern Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. The village is 12 kilometres from Ongole city centre and is maintained as the Tanguturi Prakasam Memorial by the Andhra Pradesh government since 1972. His primary education at Ongole and law practice at Rajahmundry link him firmly to the Ongole-Prakasam district landscape.
Sources
Standard reference; Andhra Pradesh district records; Ongole-Uberaba sister city agreement.
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