Gooty ( ;

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

: గుత్తి, transliterated as Guththi) is a town in

Anantapur district Anantapur district, officially Ananthapuramu district, is one of the eight districts in the Rayalaseema region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The district headquarters is located in Anantapur city. It is one of the driest places in South ...

of the Indian state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

. It is the headquarters of Gooty

mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative c ...

Anantapur revenue division Anantapuramu revenue division is an administrative division in the Ananthapuram district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 3 revenue divisions in the district with 12 mandals under its administration. The divisional headqu ...

. The town is renowned for the Gooty hill fort.

Geography

Gooty is located at , at a distance of 52 km from

Anantapur Anantapur, officially Anantapuramu, is a city in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the mandal headquarters of Anantapuru Tehsil, mandal and also the divisional headquarters of Anantapur revenue division. The city ...

. It has an average elevation of 345 metres (1131 feet). Earlier, Gooty was under the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Kingdom, was a late medieval Hinduism, Hindu empire that ruled much of southern India. It was established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty, belongi ...

, later they abandoned Gooty Fort,

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

took over fort they ruled through sandoor Gorpades till British left India.

History

Eight inscriptions have been found on the rocks close to the Narasimha temple located within the fort premises. These inscriptions are seriously damaged, but appear to be from the reign of the

Western Chalukya The Western Chalukya Empire ( ) ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannada dynasty is sometimes called the ''Kalyani Chalukya'' after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan i ...

king

Vikramaditya VI Vikramaditya VI (r. 1076 – 1126 CE) became the Western Chalukya King after deposing his elder brother Someshvara II, a political move he made by gaining the support of Chalukya vassals during the Chola invasion of Chalukya territory.Sen ...

(r. c. 1076–1126 CE). The earliest of the existing fortifications and other structures can be dated to the late Chalukya period. The fort later came under the control of the

. During the reign of

Venkata II Venkatapati Raya ( – October 1614), also known as Venkata II, was the third Emperor of Vijayanagara from the Aravidu Dynasty. He succeeded his older brother, the Emperor Sriranga Deva Raya as the ruler of Vijayanagara Empire with bases in Penu ...

(r. c. 1584–1614), the Vijayanagara lost the fort to the

Qutb Shahi dynasty The Sultanate of Golconda (; ) was an early modern kingdom in southern India, ruled by the Persianate, Shia Islamic Qutb Shahi dynasty of Turkoman origin. After the decline of the Bahmani Sultanate, the Sultanate of Golconda was established ...

. The

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

appear to have controlled the fort after their conquest of the Qutb Shahi capital

Golconda Golconda is a fortified citadel and ruined city located on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparudra in the 11th century out of mud walls. It was ceded to the Bahmani ...

. Around 1746 CE, the

Maratha The Marathi people (; Marathi: , ''Marāṭhī lōk'') or Marathis (Marathi: मराठी, ''Marāṭhī'') are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are native to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-A ...

general

Murari Rao Murari Rao (Murari Rao Ghorpade, ; 1699 – 8th May 1779) was a Maratha general and statesman who held Gooty and the surrounding territories, which extended eastward to Madras and Pondicherry. From 1741 to 1743, he administered the fort of Ti ...

captured the fort, and made it his permanent residence eight years later. He repaired the fort, and commissioned the

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

ornamentation of the small gateways. In 1775 CE, the

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

ruler

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali (''Haidar'alī''; ; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the attention of Mysore's ...

attacked and besieged the fort. After two months, Murari Rao was forced to surrender, as he ran out of water supplies. The fort later came under the control of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Its administrator

Thomas Munro Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet KCB (27 May 17616 July 1827) was a Scottish soldier and British colonial administrator. He served as an East India Company Army officer and statesman, in addition to also being the governor of Mad ...

was buried at the cemetery located at the foothill.

Demographics

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, had a population of 48,658. The total population constitute, 23,943 males and 24,715 females —a sex ratio of 1032 females per 1000 males. 5,216 children are in the age group of 0–6 years, of which 2,662 are boys and 2,554 are girls —a ratio of 959 per 1000. The average literacy rate stands at 76.91% with 33,411 literates.

Government and politics

Gooty was constituted as III-Grade municipality on 3 September 2011. The total income earned per annum for the FY (2010–2011) was and the expenditure spent by the municipality for the same year was .

Transport

Bus and train facilities available to the major cities Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. The

Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (abbreviated as APSRTC) is the state-owned road transport corporation in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its headquarters is located at NTR Administrative Block of RTC House in Pandit Ne ...

operates bus services from Gooty bus station. Gooty railway station is located on the Guntakal–Chennai Egmore section, which is part of

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

–

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

railway route, it is home to one of the 5 diesel locomotive sheds in the

South Central Railways South Central Railway (abbreviated SCR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways. The jurisdiction of the zone is spread over the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka. It has three divisions under its administration, wh ...

(SCR). Gooty Junction railway station is situated on the

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

–

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

National Highway 7 (India)(old numbering) National Highway 44 (NH 44) is a major north–south National Highway in India and is the longest in the country. It passes through the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Prades ...

or 44, Ankola–Bellary–Gooty National Highway NH 63, Gulbarga–Gooty National Highway (in process w.e.f 23/01/2014). Diesel Loco Shed, Gooty is home to diesel locomotives of the

ALCO The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various time ...

WDG-2A,

WDG-3A The Indian locomotive class WDG-3A is a class of diesel–electric locomotive that was developed in 1994 by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW),Varanasi for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad-gauge (W), Diesel (D), Goods traffic (G) en ...

WDM-3A The Indian locomotive class WDM-3A is a class of diesel–electric locomotive that was developed in 1993 by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW), Varanasi for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), Diesel (D), Mixed traffic (M) ...

and

WDM-3D The Indian locomotive class WDM-3D is a class of diesel–electric locomotive that was developed in 2003 by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW), Varanasi for Indian Railways. The model name stands for 5 ft 6 in gauge railway, broad gauge (W), Diesel ...

classes.

Education

The primary and secondary school education is imparted by government, aided and private schools, under the School Education Department of Andhra Pradesh. Higher education facility bachelor's degree (BTech,Bsc,Bcom,BA) / master's degree(MCA,MBA).

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Anantapur district Archaeological sites in Andhra Pradesh Mandal headquarters in Anantapur district