Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam lies between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, on a coast long visited by merchants and mariners. Ships anchored offshore and took cargo from small boats crossing the surf. A temple inscription of 1068 mentions a merchant of the town, and by the twelfth century it was a fortified trading settlement managed by a guild. Buddhist monasteries and stupas on nearby hills recall an older sacred landscape.

The coast passed among the rulers of Kalinga, Vijayanagara and Jeypore before the Qutb Shahi kings of Golconda appointed governors here. In 1674 Vishwambhar Dev of Jeypore defeated their governor and asserted his sovereignty. European merchants traded through the port in textiles and other goods, and the Northern Circars later came under French and then British influence. In September 1804 British and French squadrons fought a naval battle near the harbour.