It consisted of a narrow slip of territory lying along the western side of the Bay of Bengal from 15° 40′ to 20° 17′ north latitude,[1] in the present-day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

[3] Circar was an English spelling of sarkar, a Mughal term for district (a subdivision of a subah or province), which had been in use since the time of Sher Shah Suri (1486–1545).

[7] The Northern Circars were five in number: Chicacole (Srikakulam), Rajmandri (Rajahmundry), Ellore (Eluru), Mustaphanagar (Kondapalli) and Murtuzanagar (Guntur), with a total area, was about 30,000 square miles (78,000 km2)[1] when Nizam initially lost control of them to the European Colonizers.

[1] In 1674, Vishwambhar Dev of Jeypore kingdom defeated the Faujdar of Chicacole, appointed by the Qutb Shahi Sultans and claimed an independent semi-monarchy over the Circars.

[1] However, the first two Faujdars appointed by the Mughals were defeated and slain in the battlefield by the Maharaja of Jeypore, Raghunath Krishna Dev, who continued to rule claiming independent control over the region until he died in 1708.

In 1759, through the conquest of the fortress of Masulipatnam, the maritime provinces from the river Gundlakamma to the Chilka Lake were transferred from the French to the British.

Guntur, as the personal estate of the Nizam's brother Basalat Jang, was excepted from British rule during his lifetime under both treaties.