Andhradesa

Andhradesa, meaning the country of the Andhras, is a historical region in the Deccan Plateau of the Indian subcontinent. It takes its name from the Andhra people, who lived around the deltas of the Godavari and Krishna rivers from the Iron Age and are named in early texts such as the Aitareya Brahmana, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Its core territory covered what are now Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and at its widest its influence reached parts of present-day Maharashtra, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Geographically it took in the eastern Deccan Plateau between the Balaghat Range in the west and the Eastern Ghats in the east, with fertile coastal plains and rugged plateaus. Its earliest capital was Andhapura, followed by Dhanakataka, and the region was known for Buddhist centres such as Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda, for maritime trade with Rome, and for rule by dynasties including the Satavahanas, the Eastern Chalukyas, the Kakatiyas and the Vijayanagara Empire.