Kondaveedu Fort, Guntur

History

The village of Kondavidu is said to have been established in 1115 CE as a fortified township by Gopanna, a commander of Buddhavarma of the Telugu Choda dynasty. Later it came under the Kakatiyas and occupied by Prolaya Vema Reddi (r. 1325–1353) who shifted his capital from Addanki to Kondaveedu. Later, the fort was under the control of Vijayanagar Kings, Gajapatis, Golkonda sultans and lastly under French and British.In 1323, Warangal and the whole of Andhra Pradesh came under the reign of Tughlaqs, rulers of Delhi. Their depredations and despotic reign resulted in the formation of a confederation movement by the Hindu Musunuri Nayaks who ousted the Muslims from Warangal, and the Reddys were part of this movement.The Reddys of Kondaveedu were initially feudatories of the kings of Warangal. From inscriptions, it is inferred that their rule overlapped with that of the Korukonda Reddis and that they shifted from their earlier capital at Addanki in Guntur to Kondaveedu. The founder of the dynasty was Prolaya Vema Reddy, the son of Prola. They ruled in the region around present-day Vijayawada and Guntur towns for nearly a hundred years (1328–1428). Their first ruler Prolaya Vema Reddy (followed by five other rulers till 1428) who ruled till 1353, strengthened the defenses of his kingdom by building a number of forts, which included the Kondaveedu Fort. He shifted his capital from Addanki in Guntur to Kondaveedu fort. Subsequently, the region was ruled by the Bahmanis (1458), the Vijayanagara Kings (1516), the Qutb Shahis, (1531,1537 & 1579), the Mughal army of Aurangzeb in 1687, the French (1752), the Asafjahi Kings, and finally the British (1766 and 1788).Early in 2019, remains of a Buddhist stupa were found under a dilapidated Hindu temple at Kondaveedu fort. The remains date back to the later Satavahana period — 1st to 2nd century CE. This discovery pushes back of the history of Kondaveedu to the Satavahana period.