Why Shatavahanas preferred Kotilingala as capital?

It is believed that Shatavahanas are natives of Luxetipet and they chose to rule from the Kotilingala. Kotilingala and Luxetipet is divided by the river Godavari. In the last week of the October, I visited the Kotilingala, while I was returning from the Gudemgutta visit.

On the Bank of the river Godavari, they established their capital. The advantages of having Kotilingala as capital  is that The river flow of Godavari for the most of the period  made it as Jaladurga (fort surrounded by water . There by protection of the capital became easier for the king.Luxetipet is easily accessible from the maharastra and northern India.

On one side , Kotilingala is surrounded by a hill . Protection becomes easier in case of attack by the enemies.Luxetipet is the easily accessible plain area to enemies.

Accessing of telugu areas such as karimnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal districts is easy from the Kotilingala than Luxetipet. In olden days, the communication between these areas was only through ships,due to full flow of Godavari. As per my observation, the width of the river at Kotilingala is almost one kilometre. Such a huge width and full flow of water makes the accessibility, near impossible.

More importantly, there is abundance of Iron ore on the  neighboring areas of the Kotilingala, which is a source  for making the weapons. Where as there are no such resources in Luxetipet. 

As per the information available in the numismatic studies available, some other kings were already ruling from the Kotilingala. Thus, it would have become their natural choice.

References :

This article is written on the basis of the information available in the Adilabad district Gazette available at Osmania University Library and my personal visit to Kotilingala and Luxetipet..