By Gunturi Nageswara Rao, Ex Banker
Guntur is a city and administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and also the headquarters of Guntur mandal in Guntur revenue division. Guntur is called Garthapuri (Guntlapuri)
The city is the third most populous settlement in the state with a population of more than ten lakhs and also one of the urban entities to be a part of Andhra Pradesh Capital Region.
Guntur is classified as a Y-grade city as per the Sixth Central Pay Commission. It forms a part of Vishakhapatnam-Guntur Industrial Region, a major industrial corridor in the country.
The city is known for chillies export and has the largest chillies market yard in Asia. The earliest recorded reference of Guntur comes from the modern plates of Ammaraja I (922–929 CE), the Vengi Chalukyan king.
Guntur also appears in another two inscriptions dated 1147 AD and 1158 AD. Since the beginning of Buddhist epoch, Guntur stood foremost in matters of education. The inscriptions stones in the Agastyeshwara temple in *’Naga Lipi’* (నాగలిపి an ancient script, photo) dates back to about 1100 CE.
It is one of the most famous temples in the city and said that Agastya built the temple in the last Treta Yuga around the swayambhu linga and hence it has this name. The “Nagas” were said to have ruled the region at that time.
Guntur was ruled by famous dynasties such as the Satavahanas, Andhra Ikshvakus, Pallavas, Ananda Gotrikas, Vishnukundina, Kota Vamsa, Chalukyas, Cholas, Kakatiyas, Vijayanagara and QutbShahis during ancient and medieval times.
The region has been historically known for Buddhism and the first Kalachakra ceremony performed by Gautama Buddha himself.
The places like Sitanagaram and the Guttikonda caves are referred in the ancient texts (Puranas) going back to the Treta Yuga and Dwapara Yuga.
With the arrival of the Europeans in the late sixteenth century the city attained national and international significance. The French shifted their headquarters from Kondavidu Fort to Guntur in 1752, probably because of the ample availability of water. This settlement formed the nucleus of the modern city.
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