Literally the word 'Telangana' is said to have originated from 'Trilinga' as in the phrase 'Trilinga Desa' which means the 'country of three lingams'.
According to a Hindu legend, Lord Shiva descended in the lingam form on three mountains - Kaleshwaram, Srisailam and Draksharama - which marked the boundaries of the Trilingadesa, later called Telinga, Telunga or Telugu.
Over the centuries, the word 'Telangana' was designated to identify the predominantly Telugu-speaking region of the erstwhile Hyderabad state from its Marathi-speaking territory of Marathwada.
Located in central Deccan, the state with an area of 1.14 lakh sq km (12th largest state) has a population of 3.5 crore spread across 10 districts with major cities being Hyderabad, Warangal, Nizamabad and Karimnagar.
A landlocked Telangana is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh to its north, Karnataka to the west, and Telangana in the south, east and north east. It shares small border with Orissa too.
When India became independent from the British Empire in 1947, the Nizam of Hyderabad stood against the proposal of Indian Union as he was all for maintain his sovereignty.
The Central government annexed Hyderabad state on 17 September 1948 in a military operation called Operation Polo.
It appointed a civil servant M. K. Vellodi as first chief minister of Hyderabad state on 26 January 1950.
He administered the state with the help of English-educated officials from the then Madras and Bombay provinces as they were familiar with Indian systems of administration unlike the bureaucrats of Hyderabad who followed a system that was followed during the Nizam regime.
In December 1953, the States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was appointed to form states on a linguistic basis.
An agreement was reached on 20 February 1956 to merge Telangana region from Hyderabad State with Telangana State with promises to safeguard the special interests of Telangana.
After reorganisation in 1956, the region of Telangana was merged with Telangana State to form Telangana. Following a "Gentlemen's agreement", the central government established the unified state of Telangana on 1 November 1956.
In February 2014, Telangana Reorganisation Act, 2014 bill was passed in Parliament for the formation of Telangana state comprising ten districts from north-western Telangana. The bill received the assent of the President and published in the Gazette on 1 March 2014.
The state of Telangana was officially formed on 2 June 2014. Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao was elected as the first chief minister of Telangana, following elections in which the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) secured majority.
Hyderabad will remain as the joint capital of both Telangana and Telangana for a period of 10 years.
On 2 June 2014, Telangana was formed as a new 29th state of India, with the city of Hyderabad as its capital. Hyderabad will continue to serve as the joint capital city for Telangana and Telangana for a period of not more than ten years.