Gandikota’s timeless landscape faces modern-day pressures

In 1968, a radio engineer and his wife walked through the shallow waters of the Penna River, deep inside the Gandikota gorge. Standing before its towering cliffs, they offered prayers at the nearby Vijayanagara temples, hoping for a child. A year later, they welcomed a baby boy.

Decades later, that family memory continues to draw their son, A. Kumaraswamy, back to Gandikota, connecting a man who now lives in Austin, the United States, to the rugged landscape of Rayalaseema.

A native of Tirupati, Mr. Kumaraswamy first visited Gandikota, in Jammalamadugu mandal of Kadapa district, in 1995, the year he moved to the U.S. to work as an IT professional. “Though I have visited America’s Grand Canyon several times, our Rayalaseema gorge is what truly pulls me back. Gandikota isn’t just a picturesque landscape. It’s a sacred ground my father believed brought me into the world,” he says.

While personal anecdotes lend the place an intimate significance, Gandikota’s legacy extends far beyond individual lives. Its landscape bears the imprint of geological processes spanning an estimated 1.2 billion years.

About 300 feet below the rim, the Penna River winds its way through rugged walls of deep red sandstone and quartzite. Widely known as the Grand Canyon of India, Gandikota is among Andhra Pradesh’s distinctive natural landmarks.

Nestled within the ancient Cuddapah Basin, the magnificent gorge tells a story of sedimentation and tectonic shifts spanning hundreds of millions of years. Over vast eras, ancient sands accumulated and slowly compacted into stone, while centuries of relentless erosion widened the fractures as the river steadily carved its path. The resulting cliffs expose millions of years of Earth’s history. The colours shift constantly throughout the day, particularly around sunrise and sunset, when the glowing red rock strikes a vivid contrast against the river below.