The History of Deccan Plateau in hyderabad

Few relics of prehistoric settlement on the Deccan Plateau have survived. The earliest culture appears to date back to the second millennium B.C., when light-complected Aryans began pushing the native inhabitants from the Indus River valley to the south. Many of them settled on the Deccan Plateau, where they retained their original religion and tribal organizations.

Over the centuries, certain Aryan elements, such as Vedic gods, made their way into the Deccan culture. The first important state to arise on the Deccan Plateau was the Satavahanas dynasty. The Satavahanas created a kingdom based on the superiority of the Brahmans and the political organization of the Mauryan Empire. Power was decentralized, with much authority given to local governors. Although the Satavahanas were Hindus, they granted religious freedom to the Buddhists who controlled trade in the region.

Satvahanas c.240 BC - AD 200 

If the Mauryas are credited with forming the first empire in northern India, then the credit for forming the first southern empire should go to the Satvahanas. The Satvahanas (Satavahanas, or Sattvahana) are also called the Andhras, mainly because one of their clansmen, King Puloma, is considered to have been the first amongst Andhra kings (the Andhras are a community residing in present day Andhra Pradesh state in southern India, and Puloma was the first to capture the territory which later made up the Andhras). 

They belonged to Dravidian stock, Indians who predated the arrival of the Aryan Indo-Europeans from the north. The were essentially Brahmins who were later accepted in the Aryan fold. They probably remained regional chieftains under Mauryan rule. After the death of Ashoka they declared their independence from the Mauryas and founded their own empire. The kingdom of the Satvahanas lay to the west of Iron Age Kalinga.

Cities became more common under the Satavahanas, and extensive land and sea trade routes developed, linking northern and southern India. The Satavahanas kingdom lasted from the second century B.C. to the third century A.D. It then split into smaller kingdoms that were ruled by families who had been feudal vassals of the Satavahanas. For nearly 1,000 years, India was divided into regional kingdoms that developed their own cultures.