The region was previously called
Ceded districts during the rule of the
British Raj. This is with reference to the time when the
Nizam of Hyderabad, Ali Khan, ceded the region to the British as a part of subsidiary alliance. Chilukuri Narayana Rao, a Telugu lecturer and activist from Anantapur, deemed the term "ceded" as derogatory and coined the term
Rayalaseema. In the Andhra Mahasabha and Ceded Districts Conference held at
Nandyala in November 1928, he moved a resolution to the effect which was accepted by the other delegates of the conference. The name
Rayalaseema hearkened back to the
Vijayanagara times, whose Kings used a suffix
Rāya (tadbhava of Sanskrit Rāja) or
Rāyalu in Telugu as their regnal title. The boundaries of Rayalaseema roughly match the territorial extent of the
Aravidu dynasty, the last dynasty to rule the Vijayanagara Empire. From 1953 to 1956, the region was a part of
Andhra State and in 1956, the
Telangana region was merged with
Andhra State to form
Andhra Pradesh State. On 2 February 1970, three taluks from
Kurnool i.e.,
Markapur,
Cumbum and
Giddalur were merged along with some other taluks of
Nellore district and
Guntur district to form
Prakasam district. In February 2014, the
Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 bill was passed by the
Parliament of India for the formation of
Telangana state comprising
ten districts.
Hyderabad will remain as a joint capital for 10 years for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The new State of Telangana came into existence on 2 June 2014 after approval from the
President of India.{{cite web {{Pie chart == Geography ==