page_title: Gulbarga
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gulbarga / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Asuf Gunj, Gulbarga
context_page_description: Gulbarga, officially known as Kalaburagi, is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Gulbarga district and is the largest city in the Hyderabad-Karnataka region of North Karnataka. Gulbarga is 623 km north of the state capital city of Bangalore and 220 km from Hyderabad. Previously it was part of Hyderabad State and incorporated into a newly formed Mysore State through the States Reorganisation Act in 1956.
  Gulbarga city is governed by Municipal Corporation and is in Gulbarga Urban Region. It is called one of the Sufi cities having famous religious places, like Khwaja Banda Nawaz Dargah, Sharana Basaveshwara Temple, and Buddha Vihar. It also has a fort built during Bahmani rule. Has many domes like Hafth Gumbad, Shor Gumbad and Gulbarga has a World's largest cannon. Gulbarga has a few architectural marvels built during the Bahamani Kingdom rule, including the Jama Masjid sited in the Gulbarga Fort. Gulbarga houses the circuit bench of the High Court of Karnataka
context_section_description: The history of Gulbarga dates to the 6th century. The Rashtrakutas gained control over the region, but the Chalukyas regained their domain within a short period and reigned supreme for over 200 years. The Kalyani Kalachuris who succeeded them ruled until the 12th century. Around the end of the 12th century, the Yadavas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas of Dwarasamadra destroyed the supremacy of the Chalukyas and Kalachuris of Kalyani. Around the same period, the Kakatiya kings of Warangal came into prominence and the present Gulbarga and Raichur districts formed part of their domain. The Kakatiya power was subdued in 1321 AD and the entire Deccan, including the district of Gulbarga, passed under the control of the Delhi Sultanate.
  The revolt of the officers appointed from Delhi resulted in the founding of the Bahmani Sultanate in 1347 CE by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah, who chose Gulbarga (Hasanabad) to be the capital. When the Bahamani dynasty came to an end in 1527, the kingdom broke up into five independent Sultanates, Bijapur, Bidar, Berar, Ahmednagar, and Golconda. The present Gulbarga/Gulbarga district came partly under Bidar and partly under Bijapur. The last of these sultanates, Golconda, finally fell to Aurangzeb in 1687.
  With the conquest of the Deccan by Aurangzeb in the 17th century, Gulbarga passed under the Mughal Empire. In the early part of the 18th century, with the decline of the Mughal Empire, Asaf Jha, one of Aurangzeb's generals, formed the Hyderabad State, in which a major part of the Gulbarga area was also included. In 1948, Hyderabad State became a part of the Indian Union, and in 1956, excluding two talukas which were annexed to Andhra Pradesh, Gulbarga district became part of new Mysore State.
  Gulbarga (Urdu) (city of flowers and gardens) was renamed Kalaburagi (Kannada) (Kal-means stone in Kannada, bur means thorns in Kannada the whole name represents "The Land of stones and thorns") effective 1 November 2014.
caption: Asuf Gunj, Gulbarga in 1880
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:05 16:38:24", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6664", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2919"}