Gooty Fort

Gooty Town, Guntakal (M), Ananthapuramu Dist

Location: Gooty town and the fort are located 30 kms from Guntakal and 52 kms from Ananthapuramu District headquarters.

Brief History of Gooty Fort:

Gooty fort (Gutti kota) has the fortifications enclosing a roughly circular steep rocky hills, which rise to a height of more than 680 mts feet above the sea level, abruptly from the plains. These hills are connected by lower spurs enclosing a considerable area of level ground, within which is the old town of Gooty is situated. The ruins of a strong wall or rampart is strengthened by bastions. The citadel of the fortress is in the western most hill, which is conspicuously higher with elevated towers. The rock commands the lower fortifications and the town below which is defended by a series of ramparts built one above the other and connected by gateways flanked by bastions. Numerous small reservoirs made in the clefts of the rock catch the rain water seasonally and serve well the water needs of the place.

The summit of the citadel has two buildings which apparently are related to a granary and a powder-magazine. On the edge of a cliff, some 300 feet height, is a small pavilion built of brick and plaster which is called ‘Morari Rao’s Seat’ and present an excellent view of the town below. It is said that Morari Rao, the famous Maratha ruler of this fort used to sit and play chess or swing himself.

Continued………

There are many other buildings in ruins, mostly granaries, store rooms and magazines and some of these were used by Sir (Major) Thomas Munro as prisons for refractory hill Chiefs. Near the summit of the hill, on the rocks close to the ruined Narasimha temple are eight inscriptions, but owing to their exposure to seasonal variations over the centuries, they are seriously damaged. All that can be ascertained, out of three of them, is that they were of the period of Western Chalukya king Vikramaditya VI, surnamed Tribhuvanamalla, who ruled from 1076-1126 AD. It can be stated that the fort and the historical structures date back to Late Chalukyan Period.

After the death of Sri Krishnadevaraya, there was some turmoil in the Vijayanagara kingdom and Sadasivaraya, a nephew of Achyutaraya, was proclaimed as Emperor with the help of Adil Shahis. It was during  Venkatapathiraya-II’s (1584-1614) rule, the Gooty fort fell into the hands of the Qutb Shahis.

When Aurangazeb captured Golkonda, he apparently took Gooty from Qutb Shahis about 1746 A.D. Morari Rao established himself in the fort and eight years later he made it his permanent residence and repaired the fortifications. It is to this period that the stucco ornamentation of the small gateways belonged. In A.D.1775, Gooty was attacked by Haider Ali and sieged for five weeks the town and lower forts and two months later, Morari Rao was compelled through lack of water, to capitulate. At the foot of the hill is the European cemetery, where rested the body of Sir Thomas Munro, the first Principal District Collector of Ceded districts (1800-1807) who died of cholera at Pattikonda (Kurnool district) on the 6th July 1827. The body of another famous District Collector of the then Ceded districts, F.W.Robertson was also rested here.