Tel: ఆదోని ādōni
‘Five Hills’ City, Andhra Pradesh
From Tel: aydu, ‘five’; and konda, ‘hill(ock)’, ‘mountain’, ‘rock’.
Adoni is an ancient hill fort town which found a leading role for itself as part of the Vijayanagar kingdom in the 14-16thC. It was captured in 16thC by the Sultanate of Bijapur and then was acquired by a succession of Muslim rulers until Aurangzeb’s army took control in 1688. From 1760, and the fall of the Mughal Empire, Adoni’s governors were appointed by the Nizam of Hyderabad.
The fort sits was built on a series of five uneven granite hills:
‘or rather five peaks of the same range, of which the best known are the Barakilla and the Talibunda, both of which rise to the height of 800 feet above the plain.’ [Kelsall (1872)].
The modern city, more famous for its cotton ginning, groundnut oil and textiles than siege warfare, lies in the plain below the hills.
View from the hills near Adoni RameshSharma1
