Guntur 7.17

Guntur; is a city within the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region. Located 35km away from the state capital Amaravati, Guntur city is the administrative headquarters of Guntur district, of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and also the headquarters of Guntur mandal in Guntur revenue division. It is situated on the plains at a distance of to north of the Bay of Bengal. The city is the third most populous settlement in the state with a population of 743,654 as per 2011 census of IndiaGuntur is classified as a Y-grade city as per the Seventh Central Pay Commission. It forms a part of Vishakhapatnam-Guntur Industrial Region, a major industrial corridor in the country. The city is known for chilli export and has the largest chilli market yard in Asia.EtymologyThe earliest reference to the present name of the city can be dated back to the period of Ammaraja–I, the Vengi Eastern Chalukyan King. It also has its appearance in another two inscriptions dated 1147 AD and 1158 AD. In Sanskrit, the name of Guntur was referred as Garthapuri. Garthapuri or Guntlapuri translates to a place surrounded by water ponds. The settlement might have been near a pond and hence, gunta uru refers to pond village. Another one refers to kunta which transformed to kunta uru and later to Guntur.