Madanapalle, is a town and a Municipality located in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh state, India. The name of the town was originally “Maryaada raamanna puram” which has over time, changed into “Madanapalle”. Madanapalle was built in 1618 AD by Sri Ahobila Naidu. It was constituted as Municipality on 01-04-1961, with an area of 14.20 Sqkms covering 3 Revenue Villages Kammapalle, Bandameedakammapalle, Madanapalle urban area and 3 hamlets of ponnetipalem viz Sugalithanda, Nakkaladinne and Madanapalle. Madanapalle is one of the Revenue divisional headquarters in Chittoor District. The Municipality is having 17 Revenue wards divided in to 35 election wards with 32 notified poor settlements and 10 non notified poor settlements.
Connectivity:
Madanapalle is very well connected by road and rail. There are three Bus terminals in Madanapalle. State owned APSRTC buses run to different parts of the district, state and interstate – Bangalore (KA), Mysore, Bellary and Chennai (TN), Vellore. Madanapalle Road Railway Station (MPL) is situated on the Tirupati – Guntakal BG line and all the trains stops here. Trains are available here to travel to Guntakal and Secunderabad. Daily trains are available from and to Guntakal & Tirupati. Other nearest Railway Station is Kurabalakota Railway Station where only Passenger trains stops.
Demography:
As per 2011 Census of India, the town had a population of 135,669. The total population constitute, 67,432 males, 68,237 females and 13,448 children, in the age group of 0–6 years. The average literacy rate stands at 81.40% with 99,486 literates, significantly higher than the national average of 73.00%.
Topography and climate:
It is located at an average elevation of 695 m (2,280 ft) above mean sea level. Madanapalle is located at 13.55°N 78.50°E. Madanapalle has pleasantly mild, to warm summers with average high temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees Celsius (86 F to 95 F). Temperatures do not exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and winters are cold with temperatures between 7 to 15 degrees Celsius (44.6 F to 59 F). Usually summer lasts from March to June, with the advent of rainy season in June, followed by winter which lasts till the end of February.
Tourist Attractions
Horsley Hills is a very popular summer hill resort situated near the town of Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh.It is surrounded throughout its entire length with dense growths of eucalyptus, jacaranda, allamanda and gulmohar trees. The major tourist places around madanapalle are Lake Gangotri, Highview seeing place, Gaalibanda, Environmental Park and the Horsley Hills Museum. Horsley Hills is also one of the few places to offer Zorbing in India along with adventurous sports like rapelling and trekking.
The Environmental park known as EEC Centre was built with the help of a hydrogeologist and environmentalist from Hyderabad named Balijepalli Venkata Subba Rao, Director of the Centre For Resource Education. He spent the early years of his career in building EEC centres all over Andhra Pradesh trying to educate the common man about the importance of saving the environment and encouraging Eco Tourism. It is also called as Poor man’s OOTY.
History:
The history of Madanapalle dates back to 907 AD in the reign of Chola Kingdom. Earlier, the town was located to west of Sri Yogabhogeswara Swami Temple. Madanapalle was ruled by Vijayanagara Palegars namely Basanna and Madanna. In memory of their names, the two hills on the east of Madanapalle were named as “Madanna Hill” and “Basavanna Hill” which gradually transformed to Madinikonda and Basinikonda. During 907 – 955, Yadavanayikas and Hoyasalas ruled by Vijayanagara Empire. After its downfall, it went under the rule of Golkonda nawabs during 1565. During 1713, the Kadapa Nawab, Abdul Nabi Khan captured Madanapalle. Madanapalle was transformed from Karnataka provinson to Kadapa division. There was war between Kadapa Nawabs and Maharastra rulers for the sake of Madanapalle and Punganur provision. Kadapa Nawab was defeated by Balajirao Peshi and captured Madanapalle later Tipu Sultan annexed it before falling to the British.
Sir Thomas Munro was first collector of Cuddapah. He constructed a small thatched house at the present Collector’s bunglow and visited Madanapalle every summer. In 1850, Madanapalle was developed as subdivision and F.B.Manoly was the first Sub Collector. The town experienced several natural calamities like floods, famines and epidemics.
Rabindranath Tagore translated “Jana Gana Mana” from Bengali to English and also set it to music in Madanapalle. The National Anthem was written by Rabindranath Tagore as early as in 1911 and was sung at the annual session of the Indian National Congress at Calcutta on December 27 that year. But it was actually done in Besant Theosophical College, Madanapalle, where Tagore stayed for few days in February 1919 that the now familiar tune was set. It was Margaret Cousins, wife of educationist, Dr. James Henry Cousins, who composed the tune for ‘Janaganamana.’ Dr. Cousins was then the Principal of the Madanapalle College that was established by Dr. Annie Besant.
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