Srikakulam district

Srikakulam district is one of the 13 districts in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 9 coastal districts, located in the extreme north eastern direction of the state. The headquarters of the district is located at Srikakulam. It was formerly known as Chicacole.

Geography

It is situated within the geographic co-ordinates of 18°-20’ and 19°-10’ N and 83°-50’ and 84°-50’ E. The district is skirted to a distance by Kandivalasagedda, Vamsadhara and Bahuda at certain stretches of their courses white a line of heights of the great Eastern Ghats run from the northeast. Vizianagaram district flanks in the south and west while Odisha bounds it on the north and Bay of Bengal on the East.

History

Prehistory

Evidence of early historic man and his activities during Stone Age and Iron Age periods have been recently discovered at Sangamayya Konda and Dannanapeta. The speciality of Dannanapeta Iron Age megalithic site is a large single capstone as a dolmen with 36 ft in length and 14 ft in width and 2 ft thickness. Sailada Hills consists of 36 upright rocks and natural caves used for habitation by Iron Age man in Amudalavalasa mandal of the district.

Srikakulam

Srikakulam is a city and the district headquarters of Srikakulam district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and also the mandal headquarters of Srikakulam mandal in Srikakulam revenue division.As of 2011 census, it was ranked as the 23rd most populous city in the state with a population of 125,939. It had a metropolitan population of 147,015. The city was known as Chicacole before Indian Independence.

History

This region of Andhra Pradesh was part of Kalinga region at first, and later a part of Gajapati kingdom of Odisha up to the medieval period. Srikakulam was integral part of the domain of Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi during the rule of Kubja Vishnuvardhana (624- 641). During his rule the Vengi kingdom had expanded from Srikakulam in the north to Nellore in the south. They patronised Telugu. It was under the rule of Kakatiya Dynasty of Warangal during the rule of Ganapati Deva in 13th century CE. Srikakulam was under the rule of illustrious Krishna Deva Raya of Vijayanagara Empire too. Srikakulam was under the rule of Nizam state of Hyderabad for only a brief period, namely from 1707 to 1753. It was the headquarters for revenue collection of Rajahmundry, Eluru and Kondapalli as well as Srikakulam district itself. The French defeated and ended the brief rule of Nizam in 1753, these all districts were thereafter part of French India in 1753. However French imperialists too could not hold their sway over here for a long time, and were soon driven out from here by British imperialists, during 1756 in Anglo-French wars. Thereafter Srikakulam was under was soon a part of British - Northern Circars.