Visakhapatnam

“ The head-quarters of the various taluks are at the places after which each is named except in the cases of Golgonda, Sarvasiddhi and Viravilli, the chief stations in which are Narasapatam, Yellamanchili and Chodavaram respectively. The chief towns in the district are the municipalities of Vizagapatam (with its European suburb of Waltair) , Vizianagram, Anakapalle and Bimlipatam, and the unions of Bobbili, Parvatipur, Salur, Palkonda and Narasapatam. Excepting these, there is no town of as many as 10,000 inhabitants. ”

“ Vizianagram, the second largest town in the district, is a rapidly growing municipality of 37,270 inhabitants, the head-quarters of the deputy tahsildar, the Divisional Officer and the Rája of Vizianagram, and a station on the Bengal-Nagpur railway which will probably be the point at which the railway from Raipur will join the coast system. A Native Infantry regiment used to be stationed there, but the cantonment was abolished at the end of 1905. ”

“ Vizianagram consists of two parts — the native town surrounding the fort on the east and the former cantonment and civil station on the west. These are separated from one another by the Pedda Cheruvu ('large tank') which never dries up, irrigates a considerable area of wet land, supplies numerous wells sunk on its shores and is a famous sanctuary for wildfowl.
The civil station and deserted cantonment are neatly and regularly laid out with shady roads running at right angles to one another leading past numerous (often empty) bungalows in pleasant compounds. ”

“ He appointed to the charge of it an officer called the Subadar of the Deccan and afterwards commonly known as the Nizam of Hyderabad under whom were a number of local subordinates in immediate control of the various smaller divisions of territory. The five 'Northern Circars' of Guntúr, Kondapalli, Ellore, Rajahmundry and Chicacole had Masulipatam for their chief town, and the northernmost of them, Chicacole, which included the present districts of Ganjám and Vizagapatam, continued to be ruled in the same manner as before by a Faujdar residing at the town after which it was named. ”

“ Drinking-water is obtained from the river and the cremation ground is up-stream. The shrine of the local goddess, a deification of a Bráhman woman who committed sati, is held in much local repute for the benefits it is supposed to grant to the devout, and a large annual festival is celebrated at it. Near it stand three slabs bearing ancient sculptures of goddesses. The cotton carpets made in the village are referred to on p. 123. Kásipuram, population 280, lies eight miles nearly north of Srungavarapukóta in a valley among the foot-hills. ”

“ They are now among the most careful of all the hill cultivators, being especially skilful at raising garden crops. They speak Uriya and drink very little liquor. The caste is said to be split into six endogamous subdivisions which chiefly reside in six different parts of the Agency; namely, Bodo in Pottangi and Koraput, Pondra (which has often been wrongly treated as a separate caste) in Naurangpur and Kótapád, Kosalya in Parlákimedi in Ganjám, Pannara in Jeypore, Sonkuva in Gunupur, and Dongrudiya round Nandapuram. ”

“ The subsequent history of the Vizagapatam settlement — its seizure from the French by the Rája of Vizianagram in 1758, the expulsion of that nation from the Circars by Colonel Forde's expedition in the next year, the eventual cession of the country to the English in 1765, and the elevation of Vizagapatam from the position of an isolated factory to that of the capital of a district in 1769 — all these events have already been shortly sketched above. ”

“ In 1794, accordingly, the Chiefs and Councils were abolished by a proclamation (which, after the fashion of those times, improved the occasion by a lengthy homily on the reciprocal duties of Collectors and zamindars) and Vizagapatam was arranged into three 'divisions' each under a Collector.
Meanwhile, in 1793, the Vizianagram estate, which comprised almost all the present district except the havíli land, had been sequestrated for arrears (see p. 50) , and in 1794 the Rája of Vizianagram had been killed at the battle of Padmanábham. ”

“ She eventually married, and one day she begged her husband not to go to his field, as she was sure he would be killed by a tiger if he did. Her husband went notwithstanding, and was slain as she had foreseen. She committed sati on the spot where her shrine still stands, and at this there is a festival at Sivaratri.
Two miles west of the town, at the foot of an outlying spur of the hills called Punyagiri, is a garden belonging to the Vizianagram estate. ”

“ Perhaps the most picturesque of all the coast districts of the Madras Presidency is Vizagapatam—the land of the Hindoo Mars, which is the meaning of the word—lying along the north-west shore of the Bay of Bengal. Here, in the chief native town of the district, lived in former days a wealthy Zemindar, G. V. Juggarow Esq., who, to the many acts of benevolence he practised among the people* around him, added a great taste for scientific enquiry, especially in the subject of Meteorology; for the furtherance of which, he established there in 1841 the excellent observatory which bears his name. ”

“ Near the top of the north side of it, in a wooded hollow surrounded by a wide circle of higher ground, is the temple to Narasimha, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, which gives the hill its name. This is the most famous, richest, and best sculptured shrine in Vizagapatam, and in its honour numbers of the people of the district are named Simháchalam, Simhádri, Narasimha and so on. ”

“ Irrigation — The protected area — Wells — Tanks — Channels — From the Varaha — From the Sarada — From the Nagavali — The Nagavali project. Economic Condition of Agriculturists.
More than nine-tenths of Vizagapatam consists of zamindari land, and of the remaining- tenth a fifth is whole inam. Conse- quently agricultural statistics are available for only about eight per cent, of the area of the district, namely for the ryotwari and minor inam land in the three Grovernment taluks of Golgonda, Palkonda and Sarvasiddhi. ”

“ Including the Agency, Vizagapatam is almost the least litigious area in Madras. The number of suits filed is only one for every 275 of the population against one for every 117 in the Presidency as a whole, and Anantapur is the only district in which the proportion is lower. This result is due partly to the poverty of the mass of the population, partly to the fact that the numerous inhabitants of the hills have not yet acquired the taste for squabbling over their rights in the courts, and partly to the marked infrequency of suits under the Tenancy Act. ”

“ The Hlndus—Villages—Houses—Dress—Food—Amusements—Superstitions—Village, caste, and family gods—Marriage rules and ceremonies—Funerals. Principal Castes— Telugu Brahmans—Razus—Komatis—Kapus—Kammas—Perikes—Idigas—Gamallas—Karnabattus—Sanis—Malas—Madigas—Koyas—Hill Reddis.
The Godavari district contained, in 1901, 1,445,961 inhabitants, or 257 to the square mile. The density of the population in the various taluks and divisions varies greatly. In the Agency as a whole it averages only 51 persons to the square mile, while in the rest of the district it is as high as 516. ”

“ For every marriage, representatives of the four towns Peddapatnam, Vizagapatam, Bimlipatam, and Revalpatnam, should be invited, and should be the first to receive pān-supāri (betel leaves and areca nuts) after the pandal has been set up. ”

“ Merchants who have brought their goods by cart all the way to Vizianagram naturally send them on by cart to the nearest port at Bimlipatam rather than transfer them to the railway to be railed to Vizagapatam. When the Vizianagram-Raipur line runs past the foot of the Jeypore ghát and on to Párvatípur, produce will travel by it direct to Vizagapatam port and Bimlipatam will no longer be able to obtain the lion's share of the export trade. ”

“ There is not an artisan in the place, save one carpenter, and he a Telugu man and not a native of the country.' The palace was then 'a paltry collection of tiled buildings in bad repair in a court-yard surrounded by a mud wall.'
Since the opening of the Pottangi ghát road and the roads to Naurangpur and to Bastar through Borigummaand Kótapád (see pp. 139 and 141) , the town has risen in importance, as nearly all the produce of the 2,000 feet plateau passes through it on the way to the coast. In the busy part of the export season hundreds of carts enter and leave it every day. ”

“ The Sabari is the principal tributary of the Godavari within the district. The Godavari often rises in destructive floods. The population of the present area in 1901 was 1,445,961. In the old district the increase during the last decade was 11%. The chief towns are Cocanada and Rajahmundry. The forests are of great value; coal is known, and graphite is worked. The population is principally occupied in agriculture, the principal crops being rice, oil-seeds, tobacco and sugar. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown on lankas or islands in the river Godavari. ”

“ Viewed from the plains, these outer hills lend the main plateau a charm which is lacking in ranges not thus attended. It does not stand boldly forth to be appraised at a single glance; only its higher peaks can be seen, peering over the shoulders of their lesser vanguard and across the mysterious-looking valleys which divide the ranks of this latter.
Except a narrow strip on its high eastern side which falls away to the plains, the whole of this 3,000 feet plateau drains westwards into the basin of the Godavari through the Indravati, Kolab,Macheru and other tributaries of that great river. ”

“ What remained of the march to Masulipatnam, even in the shortest road, was more than 200 miles; and through a very embarrassed and inhospitable country. Sickness prevailed amongst the Europeans, the stores of ammunition were not sufficient for any long continuation of service, provisions failed, money was still more scarce, the Sepoys began to murmur and desert for want of pay and Mr. Bussy knowing that these distresses could no where be so well redressed, as by means of the connexions which he maintained at Hyderabad, turned his march to this city, and arrived there on the 14th of June. ”

“ Vizagapatam is the smallest taluk in the district and, next to the ordinary tracts in Pálkonda, the most densely populated. Its inhabitants increased at a relatively higher rate than those of any other taluk both in the decade 1891-1901 and in the thirty years ending with 1901. It contains more Musalmans and Christians than any other taluk, and its people are also better educated than those of any other. ”

“ The advantage formerly urged in favour of opening up Jeypore — that it would serve as a granary to Vizagapatam in times of scarcity — has been already sufficiently secured by the Pottangi ghát and the extension of the road thence to the Bastar frontier.
The country carts of the Vizagapatam district are somewhat smaller and lighter than those of the south and usually have only wooden axles. The oxen hardly ever have nose-strings, or even ropes to their horns, as in the south, and if they shy or bolt the driver is powerless. ”

“ The cost of the groin he estimates roughly at Rs. 1,000 per foot run, or 30 lakhs for 3,000 feet. The probability of the completion in the near future of the line from Vizianagram to Raipur has brought the proposals for a harbour into the field of practical politics, and the question of the action which should be taken is now under consideration.
The chief of the attempted reclamations in the swamp above referred to was undertaken by a Roman Catholic Bishop of Vizagapatam who obtained . ,000 acres of the swamp on certain conditions regarding the extent to be periodically reclaimed. ”

“ I have never seen a larger or better shaped room outside Madras in the Presidency, and I have no doubt whatever that it will be of the greatest profit and mutual advantage to the people of Vizagapatam, when they meet here for every sort and kind of occasion in the future. ”

“ Ichabod is indeed writ large all about the cantonment. Nowadays it leads only a subdued existence, but forty years ago things were very different. In 1862 the Collector strenuously opposed a suggestion that Vizianagram should be made the head-quarters of the district, on the ground that it would be impossible for the Collector to do any work in so frivolous a spot. ”

“ The Committee considered it necessary in the interests of the people at large that the power of Vizianagram should be curbed; and recommended that all his troops except some 2,000 sibbandis for service in the malarious hills and a body-guard of 767 peons and 50 horse should be ordered to be disbanded, the cost of their upkeep (four lakhs) being added to the peshkash (five lakhs) which the Rája now paid; suggested that the Jeypore, Pálkonda and Golgonda chiefs should be given separate cowles and rendered independent of Vizianagram, and that the imprisoned zamindars should be set at liberty ”

“ Waltair is cooler than Vizianagram, and far cooler than either Purvatipur or Narasapatam, both of which are shut off from the sea-breoze by low hills; but in the more relaxing months it is a less healthy place of residence than the drier stations further inland, such as Vizianagram or Bobbili.
The climate and temperature of the hilly parts of the district naturally differ altogether from those of the plains. Statistics are not available, but in the cold months on the 8,000 feet plateau fires and two blankets are required at night and the days are never really hot. ”