Warangal district

Warangal District (Telugu: వరంగల్ జిల్లా, Urdu: وارنگل ضلع) is located in the northern area in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The administrative seat is Warangal.

Warangal District has an area of 12,846 km², and a population of 3,246,004 of which 19.20% was urban as of 2001. The district is bounded by Karimnagar District to the north,Khammam District to the east and southeast, Nalgonda District to the southwest, andMedak District to the west. Warangal is well known for its granite quarries (notably the black and brown varieties) and as a market for rice, chilies, cotton, and tobacco.

The Warangal district headquarter is Warangal city. This city is also called as tri-city, as it includes Warangal, Hanamkonda and Kazipet cities.

Warangal has been recently in the news because of the Separate Telangana issue. It has been a major centre for the movement and its rebirth.

Kaloji Narayana Rao is a freedom fighter and a well known writer from Telangana.

Warangal was the capital of Kakatiya kingdom ruled by the Kakatiya dynasty from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The old name of this newly formed city isOrugallu. Oru means one and Kallu means stone.

History

Warangal District is currently a part of the Red Corridor.The Kakatiyas left many monuments, including an impressive fortress, four massive stone gateways, the Swayambhu temple dedicated to Shiva, and the Ramappa temple situated near Ramappa Lake. The cultural and administrative distinction of the Kakatiyas was mentioned by the famous traveller Marco Polo. Famous or well-known rulers included Ganapathi Deva, Prathapa Rudra, and Rani (queen) Rudrama Devi. After the defeat of PratapaRudra, the Musunuri Nayaks united seventy two Nayak chieftains and captured Warangal from Delhi sultanate and ruled for fifty years. Jealousy and mutual rivalry between Nayaks ultimately led to the downfall of Hindus in 1370 A.D. and success of Bahmanis.Bahmani Sultanate later broke up into several smaller sultanates, of which the Golconda sultanate ruled Warangal. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687, and it remained part of the Mughal empire until the southern provinces of the empire split away to become the state of Hyderabad in 1724 which included the Telangana region and some parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Hyderabad was annexed to India in 1948, and became an Indian state. In 1956 Hyderabad was partitioned as part of the States Reorganization Act, and Telangana, the Telugu-speaking region of Hyderabad state which includes Warangal, became part of Andhra Pradesh.