The people of Andhra are getting a capital for themselves for the first time in over 2,000 years of existence.
For, despite being central to the functioning of trade and commence, the region was always marginalised when it came to getting a capital city. It has always been ruled from different seats of power.
According to descriptions in Aiteraya Brahamana, a later Vedic text, around 1,000 BC, the Andhras fought on the side of the Kauravas in the Mahabharata war.
Though Asokan inscriptions in the 3rd century BC do mention Andhras as people under his suzerainty, it was under Satavahana rule from the 2nd century BC to about 2nd century A.D that the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Managalagiri (VGTM) region shot into fame with Amaravathi becoming a Buddhist centre of learning and trade hub.
Muslia (Machilipatnam) port was a trade hub, and export of goods from the hinterland including the present Telangana to the Roman empire has been mentioned in contemporary Greek text, The Periplus of the Erythrian Sea (The Diary of the Red Sea), which is an eye-witness account by an unknown Greek navigator.
But all this did not give the region a capital, as the Satavahanas had ruled from Pythan or Prathistan in Maharashtra. Subsequently, the Chalukyan rulers governed it from Badami in Karnataka. This was followed by the Kakatiyas from Warangal, Vijayanagara kings from Hampi, Qutubshahis from Golconda and Nizams from Hyderabad.
From the second half of the 18th Century, most of the region went under British rule and became part of the Madras Presidency. The rest was ruled by local nawabs and rulers. Post independence, Andhra was first under Madras, then Kurnool and later Hyderabad.
When Telangana was bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh in June, the new State got Hyderabad, too.
Now, for the first time, Andhra expects to a have new capital built all for itself. Interestingly, the region has driven economic growth throughout. While Machilipatnam port was famed for its export of fine textiles till the beginning of the 19th century on its own, later it became a money-spinning port for the East India Company.
Similarly, East India Company records speak volumes about the rich trade through the Buckingham Canal which runs parallel to the sea on the Coromandel coast. The region was home to banking and finance activity and it was in Machilipatnam that Andhra Bank was first established in 1923.
In the recent past, the fruits of globalisation and infrastructure growth shifted to Hyderabad and Andhra lagged behind. It now remains to be seen whether the new capital will catalyse growth in the residuary State.