Rajamahendry

Rajamahendry, also known as Rajamahendravaram, stands on the Godavari in coastal Andhra, overlooking a fertile delta. The city was a centre of political and literary life under the Eastern Chalukyas, and is associated with the Telugu poet Nannaya and his rendering of the Mahabharata.

In the late fourteenth century the Reddy rulers made Rajamahendravaram the capital of an eastern province. A branch of their dynasty later ruled there independently, until the Gajapatis took the kingdom in the mid-fifteenth century. Vijayanagara's Krishnadevaraya subsequently brought Rajahmundry under his authority. In 1769 Rajahmundry and Eluru came under the East India Company's chief and council at Machilipatnam.