Koppal Travel Guide

Koppal is an administrative district in the state of Karnataka in India. The district headquarters are located at Koppal. The district occupies an area of 7190 km² and has a population of 1,877,416 (as of 2001).

Geographically, Koppal is a stretch of rocky terrain on one side and acres of dry land on the other wherein agricultural crops like Jowar, Ground-nuts etc are grown.Farmers still use the old Bullock-Cart ploughing methods, depending mainly on the Monsoons which is a rarity in these parts of the world.However recently some of them have ventured into high-tech irrigational Farming especially after the Thunga-Bhadra river waters from the neighbouring town of Munirabad (20kms away with a huge Dam) is been redirected to the Town to solve it's water problems.So, the current product crops are Pomegranites,Grapes,and Figs{which are being exported} The Town dates back nearly 600 years in History,going to the time of the Vijaya Nagar Empire which ruled the major part of Southern India from it's Capital HAMPI which is just an hours drive from Koppal.During the time of Krishna Deva Raya, the most powerful of the Vijaya Nagar Kings, Koppal was ruled by a fairly insignificant ruler who used to be an ally of the neighbouring prosperous and powerful Kingdom.Even to this day a Rock Fort stands on one of the Hills there.But after the Bahamanis of Bijapur defeated the Vijaya Nagar Kingdom and ransacked Hampi, Koppal also got influenced by the Muslim invasion.There was an influx of Mohemmedan traditions and cultures.A century or two later, the Town was annexed to the territory of the Nizam of Hyderabad who became the most powerful ruler. In fact word of mouth goes that Koppal was gifted to Salar-Jung by the Nizam and he had appointed a Subedar, who was incharge of all the influx and exflux from the Town. The British however changed the name from Koppal to Kobbal to suit their pronunciation hiccups,and untill a decade and a half ago, some of the hoardings like the one at the tiny Railway Station carried the Brit version loyally.