Hyderabad is the largest city in the Telangana region
In Treta yuga, it is believed that Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana arrived into TELANGANA from DANDAKAARANYA( today's-
CHATTISGARH). They initially stepped in karimnagar district and lived in many places like Ramagiri Khilla hills, illantha
kunta village etc... and then they moved along Godavari River spent their life in exile at Parnashala on the banks of the
Godavari river, which is about 25 km from Bhadrachalam in Khammam District in the Telangana region.
The Telangana region is believed to have been mentioned in the Mahabharata as the Telinga Kingdom which is said to have
been inhabited by the tribe known as Telavana,who fought on the Pandavas side in the great war of Kurukshetra. There is
also Pandavula Guhalu in Warangal district (where the Pandavas spent their life in exile (Lakkha Gruham).
Telangana has been the homeland to the Sathavahanas and Kakatiyas. Kotilingala in Karimnagar was the first capital of the
Sathavahanas before Dharanikota. Excavations at Kotilingala revealed coinage of Simukha, the first Satavahana emperor.
The region experienced its golden age during the reign of the Kakatiyas, a Telugu dynasty that ruled most parts of what is
now Andhra Pradesh from 1083 CE to 1323. Ganapatideva was known as the greatest of the Kakatiyas and the first after the
Satavahanas to bring the entire Telugu area under one rule. He put an end to the rule of the Cholas, who accepted his
suzerainty in the year 1210. He established order in his vast dominion that stretched from the Godavari delta in the east
to Raichur (in modern day Karnataka) in the west and from Karimnagar & Bastar (in modern day Chattisgarh) in the north to
Srisailam & Tripurantakam, near Ongole, in the south. It was also during his reign that the Golkonda fort was first
constructed by the Kakatiyas. Rani Rudramadevi and Prataparudra were prominent kings from the Kakatiya dynasty.
Telangana then came under Muslim rule in 14th century by the Delhi Sultanate, followed by Bahmanis, Qutb Shahis, and the
Mughals. As the Mughal Empire began to disintegrate in the early 18th century, the Muslim Asafjahi dynasty established a
separate state known as Hyderabad. Later, Hyderabad entered into a treaty of subsidiary alliance with the British Empire,
and was the largest and most populous princely state in India. Telangana was never under direct British rule, unlike the
Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, which were part of British India's Madras Presidency.
