Gokak, India

History

Gokak lies in what the Puranas call the Kuntala country. According to regional accounts, the area was ruled in turn by the Western Chalukyas, the Rashtrakutas and the Kalyani Chalukyas, and by the Rattas, who governed the Gokak region as their subordinates from about 850 to 1250 CE. Temples and basadis were built at Konnur, Gokak Falls, Gokak and Mamadapur during this period. The Yadavas of Devagiri later took the area from the Rattas and were in turn defeated by the Delhi Sultanate. Later rulers included the Vijayanagara Empire, the Bahmani Sultanate, the Bijapur Sultanate, the Mughals, Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, the Ghorpades and the Peshwas. The British took Gokak from the Peshwas in 1818, and it became a municipality in 1853.

During British rule, the Forbes Gokak spinning mill, now owned by Gokak Textiles of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, was established in 1887 at Gokak Falls, about 6 km (3.7 mi) north-west of the town. A hydroelectric power plant was built at the falls in the same year. After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, government employees in Gokak taluka donated a day's salary to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, and workers at the Forbes-Gokak textile mill contributed about ₹700,000.

From the History section of Gokak on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.