Place:Kurnool, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India

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Kurnool is a city and administrative seat of Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh state in southern India, about south of state capital, Hyderabad.
It is also the seventh most populous city of Andhra Pradesh, is the gateway to Rayalaseema and the largest city in the area.
Kurnool served as the capital of Andhra State from 1 October 1953 to 31 October 1956.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Palaeolothic era

The Ketavaram rock painting's are dated back to the Paleolithic era (located at a distance of 18 Kilometer from Kurnool). Also the Jurreru Valley, Katavani Kunta and Yaganti in Kurnool District have some important rock art's and painting's in their vicinity, may be dated back to 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Medieval era

Hamlet's existed around Kurnool for more than 2,000 years. The Chinese traveller Xuanzang, on his way to Kanchi, passed through Kurnool. In the seventeenth century, Kurnool was part of the sultanate of Bijapur, under the governorship of a hereditary line of jagirdars of African origin, who were among the most powerful nobles at the court.

Aurangazeb, the last Mogul King to rule India, conquered the Deccan in 1687 and left his governors, the Nizams, to rule the Andhra centres of Hyderabad and Kurnool. Both the Nizam of Hyderabad and Nawab of Kurnool declared independence and became sole rulers of their territories. Nawab Alaf Khan Bahadur was the first ruler of Kurnool and his descendants ruled it for over 200 years. In the early 18th century, the Nawabs joined hands with the sultan of Mysore and fought the British Empire.

Name of the City

There are many theories about the origin of the name Kurnool. According to A Manual of the Kurnool District in the Presidency of Madras, the name Kurnool is derived from Kandenavolu or Kandanavolu (a Telugu name by which it is referred to in the inscriptions and literature of the past), pronounced as karnooluu. The site on which the city now stands was a resting place before crossing the Tungabhadra river to Alampur, during the time of Chalukya's. Here, they greased their cart-wheels with oil. They called the place Kandenametta or kandanavolu (Kandanam means grease).

The strategic position led to the formation of a small settlement on the spot which subsequently came to be known as Kandenapalli, Kandenolu and Kandenavolu, the city of Kandena or grease. The site which was used as a halting place is still known as Bandla Metta (Bandla means carts and Metta means headquarters or halting place). There is a street in the Old city known as "Bandimetta".

Some scholars argue that Kurnool derived its name from Kallu which means stone and Nadu which means territory. Yet, others say the name Kurnool has been derived from Skandanavolu, the city of Skanda or Kumaraswamy. The worship of Skanda in Andhra Pradesh dates back to ancient times. The cities were also named after Skanda, the chief God of War of the Devas.

Fort Konda Reddy Buruju

There is a bastion named Konda Reddy fort, constructed as a strategic watch tower by the rulers of the Vijayanagara Empire. Underneath lies a passage (tunnel) which connects the fort to Gadwal which is 52 km away. The specialty of this tunnel is it crosses under the river Tungabhadra and reaches gadwal which was ruled by Nalla Somanadri who was the one built an ecxellent fort in gadwal . Stories tell that the ruler of Gadwal Kingdom utilized this tunnel to escape from the Muslim conquerors in 17th century. The government of Andhra Pradesh closed the tunnel somewhere around the 1901.

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