The community of Kammas is believed to have originated from agriculturists of the Kammanadu region of the erstwhile Guntur district and Ongole division in Andhra Pradesh.
[13][14][15] The migration was apparently quite extensive, and was made by possible by the Kammanadu's strategic location with access to the Deccan plateau as well as to the regions in the south and southwest.
[21][non-primary source needed] Krishnadevaraya's court had a significant presence of Kamma officers, and they entered into matrimonial alliances with the royal family.
The Sayapaneni Nayaks started in service of Vijayanagara when Krishnadevaraya granted administrative control of the Dupadu Region to Shayappanayadu, a twenty-year old from the family.
[32] The exploits of this clan are described by the poet Ratnakaram Gopala Kavi in Sovgandhika Prasavapaharanamu, including mentions of defeating the Qutb Shahis, Gajapatis, and recapturing forts like Adoni.
It took another 90 years to consolidate the Muslim power in Andhra country with the capture of Gandikota in 1652 and the defeat of Pemmasani Timmanayudu by Mir Jumla.
[36] During the reign of the Qutb Shahis and Nizams, the Sayapaneni Nayaks (1626–1802) ruled a block of territory between the Krishna River and Nellore as vassals.
Vasireddy Venkatadri Nayudu, a Kamma zamindar, controlled 551 towns and villages in the Guntur and Krishna Districts, had a retinue of several thousand men, and became known for his patronization of Hindu religious rituals, festivals, temples, and Brahmins.
[41] The Kamma Yarlagadda zamindars of Challapalli obtained their zamindari in 1596 and deshmukhi jurisdiction in 1640, and they assisted the Muslim rulers in their military expeditions and collection of land taxes.
[43] In the 1600–1800s, Kammas acquired land in the interior Deccan Plateau due to grants that were given by the Nizam of Hyderabad to encourage cultivation in uncultivated areas of Telangana.
[54] Kammas constituted 6 per cent of the population in the Telugu-speaking areas of the Madras Presidency in 1921, a figure slightly higher than Brahmins, but lagging far behind the 'Kapu or Reddi'.
[55] Construction of dams and barrages and establishment of an irrigation system in Godavari and Krishna River deltas by Arthur Cotton was a great boon to the Kamma farmers.
[46] The Kammas of Tamil Nadu, who speak Telugu at home,[58] have also excelled in the cultivation of black cotton soils and later diversified into various industrial enterprises, particularly in Coimbatore and Kovilpatti.
[59][60] Coimbatore was known as the ‘Manchester of South India’ and its textile industry, which is the main economic sector in the city, is almost entirely controlled by affluent Kamma families that were the landed aristocracy of Kongu Nadu.
Many of these were high-fee private educational institutes also formed by wealthy members of the dominant castes who often gave preference to students from their community in admissions.
Today they are regarded as the wealthiest group in Andhra Pradesh[4] and an entrepreneurial community influential in various industries, such as information technology, real estate, media and Telugu cinema.
[69][70][71] Selig Harrison said in 1956 that Kamma lore nurtures the image of a once-proud warrior clan reduced by Reddi chicanery to its present peasant status.
Reddi duplicity, recounted by Kamma historian K. Bhavaiah Choudary, was first apparent in 1323 AD at the downfall of Andhra's Kakatiya dynasty.
[73] During the 1980s, they played a key role in state and national politics with the inception of the Telugu Desam Party by its then President N. T. Rama Rao also called as NTR.