Gulbarga was known as Kaliburgi in former days which means stony land in Kannada. Recorded history of this district dates back to the 6th century when the Rashtrakutas gained control over the area, but the Chalukyas regained their domain within a short period and reigned supreme for over two hundred years. The Kalachuris who succeeded them ruled till the 12th century. Around the close of the 12th century the Yadavas of Devagiri and the Hoysalas of Dwarasamadra destroyed the supremacy of lthe Chalukyas and Kalachuris. About the same period the Kakatiya kings of Warangal came into prominence. The present Gulbarga and Raichur districts formed part of their domain.

The Kakatiya power was subdued in 1321, and the northern Deccan, including the district of Gulbarga, passed under the control of the Muslim Sultanate of Delhi. The revolt of the Muslim officers appointed from Delhi resulted in founding of the Bahmani Sultanate in 1347 by Hassan Gangu, who chose Gulbarga to be his capital. When the Bahmani dynasty came to an end, the kingdom broke up into the five independent Deccan sultanates, Bijapur, Bidar, Berar, Ahmednagar and Golconda. The present Gulbarga district came partly under Bidar and partly under Bijapur. With the conquest of the Deccan by Aurangezeb in the 17th Century, control of Gulbarga passed to the Mughal Empire. In the early part of the 18th Century, when Mughal Empire was declining, Asaf Jah, a general of Aurangzeb, became independent and formed state of Hyderabad in which a major part of Gulbarga area was also included.

In 1948 Hyderabad state was annexed to the newly-independent Indian Union, and in 1956 the Indian state of Hyderabad was partitoned among neighboring states along linguistic lines. Most of Gulbarga district became part of Mysore state, later renamed Karnataka, excluding two taluks which were annexed to Andhra Pradesh.