Telangana which literally means Land of Telugu people, is a region in the present state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is bordered by the states of Maharashtra to the north and north-west, Karnataka to the west, Chattisgarh to the north-east and Orissa to the east.
Andhra Pradesh State has three main cultural regions of which Telengana is one; others include Coastal Andhra region in the east and Rayalaseema region in the south.
The Telangana region has an area of 114,840 square kilometres (44,340 sq mi), and a population of 35,286,757 (2011 census) which is 41.6% of Andhra Pradesh state population.
The Telangana region comprises 10 districts: Hyderabad, Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy, and Warangal. The Musi River, Krishna and Godavari rivers flow through the region from west to east.
Since Telangana was merged with Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh state in 1956, there were several agitations in Telangana to invalidate the merger and to form Telangana state. On December 9, 2009, Government of India announced process of formation of Telangana state. Due to objections raised in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions immediately after the announcement, and due to the agitation in those regions for 14 days, the decision to form to new state was put on hold on December 23, 2009. Since December 2009, Telangana movement intensified and it continue to dominate the state politics and is the cause of instability in the region
History
After the decline of the influential Mauryan Empire, the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE to 220 CE), the first great Telugu empire, came to be the dominant power in the region. It originated from the lands between the Godavari and Krishna Rivers. Kotilingala in Karimnagar was their first capital, before moving to Dharanikota. Excavations at Kotilingala revealed coinage of Simukha, the first Satavahana emperor. The Satavahana Empire was important in repelling foreign empires from India, such as the Kushans, Sakas and Greeks, thereby preserving Indian culture.
