Gulbarga is a district in Karnataka State.city, northeastern Karnataka formerly Mysore. Originally included in the territory of the Kakatiyas of Warangal, the city was annexed to the sultanate of Delhi in the early fourteenth century, first by General Ulugh Khan and then by Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq. After the sultan's death, it fell to the Bahmani kingdom of which it was the capital between 1347 and c. 1424 and, upon the break-up of that power, to Bijapur. With the conquest of the Deccan by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the seventeenth century, it was again included in the sultanate of Delhi, but it was separated from Delhi by the establishment of Hyderabad state in the early eighteenth century. Dotting the city are many ancient monuments. In the eastern quarter are the tombs of the Bahmani kings; the most notable building is a mosque modelled upon that of Córdoba in Spain. Its colleges of arts, commerce, education, engineering, law, medicine, and science, and the women's college are all affiliated with Gulbarga University. Situated along the main rail line from Mumbai to Chennai, Gulbarga is a centre of the cotton trade, with ginning and pressing factories, and spinning and weaving mills. It also has flour and oil mills and paint factories. The majority of the population in the surrounding area is engaged in agriculture. The chief crops are millet, pulses legumes, cotton, and linseed. Population 2001 430,265.
