Raichur District is located in the north-western part of
Karnataka. Over the centuries, Raichur was part of various empires:
Mauryas,
Chalukyas,
Vijayanagara,
Bahmanis, and the
Mughal Kings. It was once known as
Kishkindha, the legendary kingdom of the vanaras (monkeys). The predominant languages are
Kannada,
Urdu and
Telugu; English is also well understood.
The
Krishna River on the north and the
Tungabhadra on the south contribute to the abundant agricultural produce and excellent electric power output of Raichur. The majority of the people are landless laborers, marginal and small farmers drawing their livelihood from subsistence farming. Raichur is well linked by rail and road to cities such as Bangalore,
Mumbai, Chennai,
Hyderabad,
Ahmedabad, and New Delhi.
