Tanguturi Prakasam popularly known as Prakasam Pantulu, was an Indian jurist, political leader, social reformer, and anti-colonial nationalist who served as the Prime Minister of the Madras Presidency. Prakasam subsequently became the first chief minister of the erstwhile Andhra State, created by the partition of Madras State along the linguistic lines. Prakasam was known as "Andhra Kesari" which translates to "Lion of Andhra". The Andhra Pradesh government issued G.O RT-2500 on 10 August 2014 declaring his birth anniversary a State holiday.

The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including all of present-day Andhra Pradesh, almost all of Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana in the modern day. The city of Madras was the winter capital of the presidency and Ooty was the summer capital.