The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is located in the southeastern part of the country. It is bounded by the Indian states of Tamil Nadu on the south, Karnataka on the west, Telangana on the northwest and north, and Odisha (Orissa) on the northeast. On the east, Andhra Pradesh has a long coastline along the Bay of Bengal. Roughly two-thirds of the people live in rural areas. The capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is Hyderabad, the major urban center for the interior of south-central India. Hyderabad is located in Telangana, which was long a region within Andhra Pradesh before becoming a separate state in 2014. Large cities in Andhra Pradesh include Vishakhapatnam and Vijayawada.
The state has three natural areas: from east to west they are a long coastal plain, the mountains of India’s Eastern Ghats range, and a plateau. The coastal plain is well watered by several rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal. The principal rivers are the Godavari and the Krishna. Their deltas are fertile agricultural areas. The plateau is part of the country’s vast Deccan region.
Andhra Pradesh has extremely hot and humid summers, with temperatures often exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) in the central portions of the state. Winters are somewhat cooler. The monsoon season brings most of the state’s annual rainfall, which ranges from about 20 to 55 inches (50 to 140 centimeters).
The population of Andhra Pradesh is highly diverse. The state is named for the Andhra people, who have lived in the area since ancient times. Their language, Telugu, is the official and most widely spoken language in the state. A small minority of the state’s people speak Urdu. Lambadi (Banjari) and a number of other languages are spoken by the state’s tribal peoples. The vast majority of the people of Andhra Pradesh are Hindus. There are smaller communities of Muslims and Christians.
The Andhras have made important contributions to India’s cultural heritage. Kuchipudi, one of the main forms of Indian classical dance, is native to Andhra Pradesh, and the Karnatak music of southern India has derived much from Andhra roots. Telugu literature was prominent in the Indian literary renaissance of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Agriculture is a major sector of the state’s economy, though that sector has been declining. Andhra Pradesh is one of India’s leaders in the production of rice. Other chief crops include cereals, pulses (peas, beans, and lentils), peanuts (groundnuts), corn (maize), cotton, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. The state also grows much of India’s tobacco, and its fishing industry produces large quantities of shrimp and prawns. The raising of livestock—mainly cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs, and poultry—has increased significantly. Andhra Pradesh is one of the country’s most highly industrialized states. Among the principal manufactures are ships, aeronautics, machinery, electrical equipment, processed foods, medicines, chemicals, textiles, and cement. It is the only state in southern India with significant deposits of coal. Other mineral resources in Andhra Pradesh include asbestos, mica, manganese, barite, and natural gas. Services—notably banking and insurance, communications, and public administration—provide the largest share of the state’s income.
A governor serves as head of state and is appointed by India’s president. Real power, however, is in the hands of the Council of Ministers, which is led by the chief minister. The state has a one-house legislature.
Over the course of the long history of what is now Andhra Pradesh, many dynasties flourished there, including the Mauryan in the 4th to 2nd centuries bc. The Satavahanas, one of the most renowned of the Andhra dynasties, came to power in the 1st century ad. They were patrons of diverse religions, including Buddhism, and also were great builders. In the 11th century the Eastern Chalukya dynasty unified most of the Andhra area. Under the Chalukyas, Hinduism emerged as the chief religion. The greatest kingdom in Andhra history was that of Vijayanagar, the dominant power in southern India starting in the 14th century.
The area came under British influence in the 17th century. In the 19th century the Andhras played a decisive role in the rise of Indian nationalism. Andhra Pradesh was created as an Indian state in 1953. The region of Telangana became part of the state in 1956. A movement arose in the late 1960s to separate Telangana, which consistently lagged behind the coastal areas economically and socially, from the rest of Andhra Pradesh. By the start of the 21st century, the movement had grown dramatically. The people in what would remain of Andhra Pradesh strongly opposed giving up Hyderabad—the state’s most populous and economically important city—to Telangana. An agreement was finally reached that made Hyderabad the capital of both states for up to 10 years, to allow time for Andhra Pradesh to create a new capital. After that period, Hyderabad would be the capital solely of Telangana. In 2014 Telangana was created as a separate state of India. Population (2011) 84,665,533.