BELLARY or BALLARI, a city and district of British India, in the Madras presidency. The city is 3o5m. by rail from Madras. Pop. (over 58,00o in 190 1) fell below 35,00o in 1911, owing to plague, and was 47,573 in 1931. The fort rises from a huge mass of granite rock, which, with a circumference of nearly 2m., juts up abruptly to a height of 45oft. above the plain. To the east and south lies an irregular heap of boulders, but to the west is an unbroken precipice, and the north is walled by bare rugged ridges. It is defended by two distinct lines of works. The upper fort is a quadrangular building on the summit, with only one approach, and was deemed impregnable by the Mysore princes. It contains several cisterns, excavated in the rock. The lower fort, with barracks, church, etc., and many private houses, lies at the eastern base of the rock and measures about half -a mile in diameter. The fort of Bellary was originally built by Hanumapa in the 16th century. It was first dependent on the kingdom of Vijayanagar, afterwards on Bijapur, and subsequently subject to the nizam and Hyder Ali. The latter erected the present fortifications, according to tradition, with the assistance of a French engineer in his service, whom he afterwards hanged for not building the fort on a higher rock adjacent to it. Bellary is a temporary military station. There is a considerable trade in cotton, in connection with which there are large steam presses, and some manufacture of cotton cloth. There are a cotton spin ning mill, distilleries and a sugar factory.
The district of Bellary has an area of 5,713 sq. miles. It consists chiefly of an extensive plateau between the eastern and western Ghats, of a height varying from 800—r ,000f t. above the sea. The highest tracts are on the west, where the surface rises towards the culminating range of hills, and on the south, where it rises to the elevated tableland of Mysore. Towards the centre the almost treeless plain presents a monotonous aspect, broken only by a few rocky elevations that rise abruptly from the black soil. The district is watered by five rivers : the Tungz..bhadra, formed by the junction of two streams, Tunga and Bhadra, the Haggari, Hindri, Chitravati and Pennar, the last considered sacred by the natives. None of the rivers is navigable and all are fordable during the dry season. The climate of Bellary is extremely dry, and it has a smaller rainfall than any other district in south India. Bellary is subject to disastrous storms and hurricanes, and to famines. Pop. (1931) 969,774. The principal crops are millet, other food-grains, pulse, ground-nuts and cotton. There are con siderable manufactures of cotton and woollen goods, and cotton is largely exported. The district is traversed by the Madras and Southern Mahratta railways, meeting on the eastern border at Guntakal junction, where another line branches off to connect with Bezwada.
Little is known of the early history of the district. It contains the ruined capital of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, and on the overthrow of that State by the Mohammedans in 1 564 the tract now forming the district of Bellary was split up into a number of military holdings. Between 1635 and 1800 the Carnatic was held by the Bijapur rulers, by the Mahrattas, by the great Mogul's viceroy, by Hyder Ali of Mysore and by the nizam of Hyderabad. The latter ceded it to the British in i800 in return for protection by a force of British troops to be stationed at his capital. In 1808 the "Ceded Districts," as they were called, were split into two districts, Cuddapah and Bellary. In 1882 the district of Anantapur was formed into a separate collectorate.