ANANTAPUR, a town and district of India, in the Madras presidency. The town has a station on the Madras railway, 62m. S.E. from Bellary. Pop. (1931) 15,099. The district of Anantapur was constituted in 1882 out of the unwieldy district of Bellary. It has an area of 6,741 sq.m., and the north and centre form a high plateau, generally undulating, with large granite rocks or low hill ranges rising here and there above its surface. The south is more hilly, the plateau there rising to 2,600f t. above the sea. There is a remarkable fortress rock at Gooty, and a similar but larger rock at Penukonda, over 3,000f t. above the sea. Gooty fortress was a stronghold of the Mahrattas, but was taken from them by Hyder Ali. In 1789 it was ceded by Tippoo Sahib to the nizam, and in I800 the nizam ceded the district of Anantapur with others to the British in payment for a subsidiary British force. The population in 1931 was 1,050,411. The principal crops are millet, rice, other food grains, pulse, oil seeds and cotton. There are factories for pressing cotton. Two railways traverse the district.