The town was part of the empire of the Western Chalukyas from the 10th to 12th centuries. The name Yadgir (historically Yetagiri) is derived from its early medieval rulers, 'Yadavas', who ruled with their establishments on a mountain known as 'giri' in Kannada. Yadavs from the present-day Andhra Pradesh. A certain Mohammed Kasim was said to be a strong chieftain who ruled Yadgir for a long period after defeating the Yadavs, though there is no historical evidence to support it. Later, it came under the reign of the Bahamani Sultanate, the Bijapur Sultanate and finally, the Nizams of Hyderabad. A major economic development of the city took place under Philip Meadows Taylor, the administrator of the principality of Shorapur
