Temples in Srikakulam

   

Sunset at Srikakulam Town

Srikakulam (Telugu: శ్రీకాకుళం) is a town, municipality and headquarters of Srikakulam district in northeastern Andhra Pradesh, India. It is part of Srikakulam Assembly constituency and Srikakulam Parliament Constituency. Srikakulam was formerly called Gulshanabad (Garden city) during Muslim rule and was headquarter of Muslim fauzdars. It was renamed as Chicacole by British colonial rulers; after independence, it was renamed Srikakulam.

There are two places with the same name in the state: A district and town on the northeast corner of the state and a small village on the bank of river Krishna in Ghantasala (Mandal) of Krishna district.

Stone carved ceiling at Srikurmam Temple

This region of Andhra Pradesh was part of Kalinga region at first, and later a part of Gajapati kingdom of Odisha up to the medieval period. It was in the 'Bendi Shilpa' ruling in 1687 Srikakulam (Gulshanabad) was a village and formed as fauzdhari-center for their money transactions for the areas of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Vishakhapatnam, and some parts of Odisha. The word Gulshanabad derives from Persian words Shilpa that means Rose garden and Bendi (Bending). It was developed as a town in the Muslim ruling; today you can find more than 10,000 Muslims living in this town following their culture, tradition and values. Srikakulam has been a headquarters for revenue collection under Nizam state of Hyderabadsince 1707. Nizams of Hyderabad assigned Gulshanabad (Srikakulam), Rajahmundry, Eluru and Mustafanagar (Kondapalli) districts to French India in 1753. French imperialists were driven out from these districts by British imperialists in 1756 during Anglo-French wars.

Buddha statue in Nagavali river, Srikakulam

In 1759 the Fauzdhari ruling was ended and British ruling started, and Srikakulam town has been made part of Ganjam district and Palakonda andRajam areas were included in Vizag district in the undivided Madras province. In 1936 the combined Madras-Odisha state was divided to Madras and Odisha and Parlakimidi Taluk was separated from combined Madras state. The Srikakulam was remained as Srikaklam taluk, Srikakulam town as Srikakulam municipality since 1857 under British rule. In 1947 after Indian independence, many including Potti Sriramulu fought for separate Andhra State. In 1948 many demanded for Srikakulam district as it was in combined vizag district. First 'chintada' village was proposed as district head-quarter by some central leaders. On 17 July 1950, a representation was given by Challa Narasimhu naidu, an eminent leader,Pullela Vemkataramanayya (P.V. Ramanayya), who was an eminent advocate, public prosecutor, and freedom fighter, to the then revenue minister H. Sitaramareddy on his visit to this area and requested to select Srikakulam as district headquarters at his camp office in Vizianagaram. Sitaramareddy personally saw some places in Srikakulam for selection.

The MLA of this area, Garemalla Kumaraswami, gave a speech on the dias of the meeting arranged on honour of the minister indicating that many important towns and capitals in the world were on the banks of rivers like England (Thames River), Srirangam (Kaveri), Agra (Yamuna), Kashi (Ganga), Rajamundry (Godavari), Vijayawada (Krishan), etc., and for Srikakulam it is Nagavali, convincing Sitaramareddy. Along with Rokkam Ramamurty, Pullela Venkataramanyya (P.V. Ramanayya), Pasagada Suryanarayana, Baratam Venkataramanayya, Mangu Raghavarao followed Garemella Kumaraswami as group to convince and represent the request memorandum. The minister decided and selected Srikakulam as headquarters after reaching Madras, then state capital. Kimidi Kalavenkatarao, ex-revenue minister in the combined Madras state, had done a lot for formation of this district. On 15 August 1950, at about 4.00 p.m. the district was announced with Srikakulam town as headquarters and with three revenue divisions: Palakonda, Srikakulam and Tekkali. At first, Parvatipuram revenue division was part of Srikakulam district and later transferred to Vizianagaram district. Mr. Night was the then collector in the combined Vizag Srikakulam and Janab Shek Ahammadh appointed as first district collector for separated Srikakulam. On 3 January 1951, the first District Board was formed and Rokkam Laxmi Narasimha Dora was elected as president.