Vizagapatam/Gazetteer/Golgonda Taluk
GOLGONDA TALUK.
This is one of the three Government taluks in the district. It consists of two widely differing portions — the low coautry and the hills.
The former resembles oenerally the rest of the coastal plain of the district, sloping towards the sea and being covered with undulating red land broken up by low hills. The southern boundary of the taluk runs along a fairly continuous line of the latter, the highest point in which is the striking Sanjívikonda, 2,145 feet, so named because it is supposed to produce medicinal herbs good for many ailments. Near Kottakóta is the Komaravólu áva, one of the few natural lakes in the Presidency.
The hill portion of the taluk is all within the Agency and forms the southernmost corner of the '3,000 feet plateau' already several times referred to. It drains northwards, mainly through the Gureprau or Páléru river, which is full of fish, into the Siléru. It consists of a jumble of steep and broken hills which average about 2,500 feet, contain some fair plateaus at about that level, run up in many places to 4,000 feet and over, and produce the heaviest jungle of any part of the plateau. Some of this (round Gúdem, for instance) is moist evergreen growth and includes (see p. 114) tree-ferns, orchids, and many varieties of the smaller ferns. The maddi (Terminalia tomentosa) and gallnut (T. chebula) trees are especially numerous. The tops of the higher hills are usually bare, their sides and the lower hills carrying most of the forest, while the more level country is often covered with large stretches of grass land dotted with scattered trees gnarled and twisted by the annual jungle fires. The outer southern slopes are clothed with good forest which is seldom burnt, and at the foot of them, especially round Kondasanta, are masses of splendid bamboos.
The principal ghát is from Koudasanta to Lammasingi, nine miles, part of which is just practicable for carts. Rougher tracks lead up from Krishnadévipet and Koyyúr to Peddavalasa. From Lammasingi two jungle paths lead northwards across the hills to Kondakambéru in Malkanagiri taluk, one viá Lótugedda and Kórukonda and thence alongside the Gureprau river down a bad ghát to Kondakambéru; and the other through Chintapalle, Peddavalasa, Gúdem and Dárakonda, and thence down an even worse ghát. There is not a cart-road in the whole of the hills, and even horses are almost useless in such rough country. Officers do most of their marches on foot.
The people, who all speak Telugu, consist chiefly of Bagatas (immigrants from the plains and the aristocracy to which belong the muttadars referred to below) Konda Doras, and Konda Málas or 'hill Paraiyans.' The last are a pushing set of traders who are rapidly acquiring wealth and exalted notions. In 1901 certain envious Bagatas looted one of their villages on the ground that they were becoming unduly arrogant. The immediate cause of the trouble was the fact that at a cockfight the Málas' birds had defeated the Bagatas'. The Konda Doras, and to a less extent the Bagatas, are the cultivators. Ragi is their favourite crop. Their methods are very casual. The soil is undoubtedly rich (the luxuriance of the grasses proves it) but the people go in for pódu cultivation (mainly on the southern side of the plateau, less further inland, and not at all on the southern slopes) or till the ground carelessly, making scant use of the irrigation possible from the numerous hill streams. Rather than toil at cultivation, they prefer to live by the sale of the natural products of the hills. These are very numerous and include limes, particularly sweet oranges, guavas, mangoes (the kernels and stones of which are pounded and made into porridge), tamarinds, jack-fruit, gall-nuts, turmeric, long pepper, mustard, wax, horns, honey and so on. At Peddavalasa are some coffee trees, grown from seed sent up by the Captain Owen referred to below, which have flourished immensely and are surrounded with self-sown seedlings.
The people seem happy and contented as a class and in the ten years ending 1901 increased by nearly 16 per cent. They still, however, number only 46 to the square mile; and in the plateaus inland the only cultivation to be seen is small scattered patches hidden away among the almost continuous sheet of jungle. In days gone by, tigers, fever and rebellion did much to thin their numbers. Almost every one eats opium.
The taluk has a romantic history. An early Rája of Jeypore, says Mr. Carmichael, had two of his cousins for umbrella-bearers and was pleased to promote them to the dignity of feudatories, placing one at Golgonda and the other at Mádgole and honouring both with the title of Bhúpati or 'lord of the earth.' This Golgonda is a village ten miles west of Narasapatam. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Golla konda 'the hill of the Gollas,' a race of shepherd-kings of whom (see p. 28) misty traditions survive in this corner of the district. The Golgonda chieftains afterwards became tributary to the Rájas of Vizianagram, but when the English were established at Vizagapatam they required the Rájas to resign this supremacy. In 1776, however, Bhairava Bhúpati sheltered two refractory subjects of the Company (the zamindars of Parlákimedi and Mádgole) and he was again subordinated to the Púsapátis, who raised his tribute from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 23,000 and also made him keep up a large body of paiks. After the death of Viziaráma Rázu at the battle of Padmanábham in 1794, the Golgonda zamindar paid the Company a peshkash of Rs. 10,000 and this was the figure entered in his sanad at the permanent settlement in 1802. In 1836 the incapacity of the then zamindar, Ananta Bhúpati, brought the estate to the verge of ruin; and he was persuaded by the district officers to resign in favour of Jamma Dévamma, the widow of a predecessor.The hill sirdars or muttadars, however, objected that they had not been consulted and that no woman had ever ruled them before; and they carried off the unfortunate lady and murdered her. Mr. Freese, the Collector, moved up troops and confiscated the estate. Ananta Bhúpati was convicted of complicity in the murder and was confined in the fort at Gooty in Anantapur, where he subsequently died. In 1837 the zamindari was sold in, auction for arrears and bought in by Government for Rs.100.
The hill sirdars were not disturbed in their tenures, and were given pattas for their muttasdum se bene gesserint; but they found their status seriously lowered by their being subordinated to an ordinary ámin, and they grew discontented and finally united to restore the Bhúpati family by force. They withheld their rents, barricaded the hills, and made constant excursions with fire and sword against the villages in the plains. They set up one Chinna Bhúpati, a lad of nineteen, as their 'Rája,' and for three years, from 1845 to 1848, they successfully held their jungles against the troops employed against them, only abandoning their enterprise at last on the promise of an amnesty to all concerned. Chinna Bhúpati gave himself up and was granted villages worth Rs. 4,000 annually as maintenance for himself and his three brothers, the representatives of the ancient zamindars of Golgonda.
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In 1857-58, during the excitement of the Mutiny, another insurrection, having a similar object to the last, broke out under the leadership of Chinna Bhúpati' s nephew Sanyási Bhúpati. The Sibbandi corps under its Commandant, Captain Owen, assisted by some of the leading hill sirdars, promptly put it down; and Sanyási Bhúpati and his uncle were tried by the Agent, convicted, and sentenced to transportation for life. Subsequently, however, Government directed that they should merely be kept as State detenus under surveillance, and that their share in the maintenance villages should be continued to them. At his death in 1886 Sanyási Bhúpati was drawing no less than Rs. 913 per annum.1[1]
In 1864-65 police-stations were posted in the hill muttas and for a time the country was quiet. The unrest caused by the Rampa rebellion in the neighbouring Gódávari Agency in 1879-80 spread, however, to this tract and Captain Blaxland, who had come down from Jeypore with 50 police and some of the Rája's paiks, was attacked by a party of insurgents on 3rd June 1879 in a densely-wooded valley and driven back. The next year the sirdar (muttadar) of Gúdem Pátavídi, Tagi Vírayya Dora, joined another party of rebels. The leaders of this bound themselves by an oath, solemnly taken at the sacrifice of five human victims, to attack the police-station at Kondakambéru. The enterprise, however, was never undertaken: chased by sepoys and constabulary in every direction, the band was broken up into insignificant parties; and on the 7th October Vírayya Dora was shot. His last message to his pursuers was that he would never surrender unless his Rája, Chinna Bhúpati, bade him do so.2[2]
It was in consequence of this rebellion that the Dutsarti and Guditéru muttas of Golgonda were transferred in 1881 to Gódávari, from which they were more accessible. The other Golgonda muttadars were given sanads stating that they held their muttas (which were declared inalienable by sale, gift or otherwise) on service tenure, subject to the payment of an annual kattubadi and to the conditions that the grantee was to capture and hand over to the authorities offenders who were in the mutta , or came into it, and was to give immediate information of fituris or other offences. As long as these conditions were fulfilled the grantee, and such of his heirs as Government might appoint,was to enjoy the mutta under the protection of Government. The penalty for non-fulfilment was the forfeiture of the mutta, Government reserving the right to do as seemed proper with the muttadar. These terms, which were re-affirmed and added to in 1888,1[3] are of much importance, and deserve to be borne in mind in all dealings with these men.
In 1886, excited by the preachings of several Konda Dora priests who had been travelling round the hills for months declaring that the hill gods had directed a fitúri, a gang of about 30 men got together, went to Gúdem, burnt and looted the police-station (the police all fled) and the rest-house there, came to Chintapalle next day and burnt the rest-house there, and were moving on Lammasingi when they were dispersed by the police and eventually all captured. The muttadar of Lammasingi Pátávídi had shown sympathy with the outbreak and his mutta was forfeited. The police were shortly afterwards all concentrated at Chintapalle where is now stationed one of the four reserves of the district.
The last Golgonda fitúri occurred in 1891. Santa Bhúpati,son of the Chinna Bhúpati already mentioned, discontented with the allowance granted him by Government, encouraged no doubt by the extreme leniency with which his father had twice been treated, and aided by a man who had taken part in the Rampa rising and been too gently dealt with, got together a party of some 200 men. On 23rd May these looted the house of the constable who had shot Tagi Vírayya Dora eleven years before, and rushed the Krishnadévipet police-station at night, killing five constables, carrying off all the arms and ammunition, and setting fire to the building. They then made for the hills and eluded pursuit for a month. On the 24th June their leader Santa Bhúpati died of fever and dysentery and they dispersed. Thirty-three of them were eventually arrested. Santa "Bhúpati left a mother, widow and daughter, and a compassionate allowance was granted them.
Not one of the muttadars gave any information or assistance to the authorities either before or during this fitúri, and as a consequence Koyyúr and Chittampád Bandavalasa were resumed; the muttadars of Lammasingi Kottavídi and Lótugedda were deposed and their heirs appointed in their places; and Sobilan Dora, muttadar of Gúdem Kottavídi, was arrested under an agency warrant and deported, and his mutta eventually taken under management on behalf of his minor son. He now resides in Vizagapatam under surveillance and the mutta has been, restored to his son.
Including the two thus resumed, the Golgonda hills now comprise ten muttas. It has already been mentioned that Lammasingi Pátavidi was resumed after the 1886 fitúri. Lótugedda was also attached in 1895, the muttadar resigning his position.1[4] Antáda mutta has just been resumed for mismanagement and violations of the sanad.2[5] The remaining five (Lammasingi-Kottavídi, Mákáram, Gúdem Pátavídi, Gúdem Kottavídi and Dárakonda) are still held by their muttadars. Parts of the resumed muttas are managed on the ryotwari system by village establishments under a revenue inspector. In the rest of them and in the unresumed muttas, joint-renting is in vogue, each village paying to Government or the muttadar a lump sum assessed on the number of houses (or of ploughs) ,within it, which is collected by the village head at customary rates and seldom varies.
The chief places of interest in the taluk — plains as well as hills — are the following : —
Balighattam: A small village two miles south-west of Narasapatam on the bank of the Varáhanadi. It is known throughout the district for its temple to Brahmalingésvara, which stands at the foot of a small hill on the other side of the river and at which there is a large festival at Sivarátri. The shrine,like that of Visvésvara at Benares, faces west, instead of east as usual, and this peculiarity and the fact that the river for a short distance here flows north and south have led to the spot being considered peculiarly sacred. The local pandits quote with unction the sloka which says ' where a lingam faces west and a river runs north, that place is equal to Kási (Benares), and there one will surely obtain celestial bliss.'
The shrine is almost all quite modern and is not interesting architecturally. It is supposed to have been built by Brahma; the river is declared to have been made by Vishnu, during his incarnation as a boar (varáha) — whence its name; and some deposits of white clay in the river bank are supposed to be the ashes of a sacrifice performed here by Bali, the demon-king from whom the village takes its name.
Gúdem: A village of 501 inhabitants 43 miles by the hill paths north-west of Narasapatam among the Golgonda hills. It was once one of the chief places of the Golgonda Bhúpatis and the Golgonda hills are often called 'the Gúdem hills.' It stands 2,580 feet above the sea on one side of an open valley and is divided into Kottavídi and Patavídi (new and old streets) between which lie the remains of a rude fort. One of the hills above it, Bodakonda, rises to about 1,000 feet. No native will go up this. A goddess named Sambari lives there and animal sacrifices are made to her. One day, says the story, a man went to her temple just after the sacrifice to fetch a brass pot which he had forgotten, and came upon the goddess drinking the blood of the offerings. She was furious at being seen, and flung his pot two miles away, where it made a deep hole (still shown) in a piece of rock. Since then no native has ventured up the hill. A survey party of Europeans, it is locally declared, laughed at the superstition and set out one fine day to take bearings from the top of the hill. But they had hardly got half way up when they were surrounded by a forest fire which burnt up much of their kit and so frightened a horse they had with them that it bolted over a precipice and was killed.
Krishnadévipet; Sixteen miles west of Narasapatam and close under the hills. A thriving little place of 493 inhabitants which, like Kondasanta at the foot of the Lammasingi ghát, does a busy trade in the produce of the hills, such as tamarind, saffron, gall-nuts, long pepper, honey, bees' wax, soap-nut, horns, mustard and kamela dye. It is full of money-lenders, who have obtained possession on mortgage of much land in the Antáda mutta. Water is difficult to get, as the village is perched high above a river-bed.
Lótugedda ('deep stream') stands about 26 miles in a direct line north-north-west of Narasapatam among the Golgonda hills.It contains the ruins of three or four old granite temples dedicated to Siva, in the largest of which the sculpture is elaborate. One odd group depicts 1 [6]four men with long pointed beards and long pigtails, carrying pickaxes on their shoulders, holding out their hands to receive a reward which a king, sitting on a throne with three ladies behind him, is in the act of bestowing. The villagers say the men are the builders of the temple, and are content to account for the long beards by the conjecture that barbers were probably rare on the hills in those days. On three sides of a pillar here are Telugu inscriptions.
Narasapatam: Head-quarters of the Divisional Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police and tahsildar, and a union of 10,589 inhabitants. It is 19 miles north-west of the railway-station called Narasapatam Road and in wet weather the journey thence is unpleasant, as the road crosses several unbridged streams and in one place shares a narrow gorge with the Varáha river. An estimate for diverting the road awaits allotment of funds. The town stands amid the palmyra-dotted red land usual to this corner of Vizagapatam, in a wide valley bounded on one side by the Golgonda hills and on the other by rising ground and smaller elevations which are just high enough to cut off the sea breeze. It is consequently one of quite the hottest spots in the district.
The Divisional Officer's bungalow and office and the new taluk cutcherry (the latter of which is surrounded by a high wall provided with loop-holed bastions at the corners, intended to render it secure from attack by fitúridars) stand in a row beside the road east of the town. The house of the Assistant Superintendent, however, is built off the road to Kondasanta, at the other end of the place. Nearly opposite this last are the old parade- ground and magazine of the former Sibbandi corps which was stationed hero to check fitúris in the Golgonda hills and was amalgamated with the ordinary police force in 1861. An old race-course may be traced not far off on the same side of the road. The cemetery next the Divisional Officer's bungalow contains the grave of Captain Gibson of the 26th N.I. who died in 1849 and was apparently an officer employed in the outbreak of that date referred to above. The name of Captain W. G. Owen, 11th N.I., who commanded the Sibbandi force from 1851 until it was reconstituted, was thanked for his services in the 1857-58 fitúri (see p. 249) and in 1859 was made Assistant Agent at Narasapatam, is still remembered. He was a great tiger-slayer and he built the Divisional Officer's house (and also, it is said, the bungalows at Kondakarla áva and on the shore at Pólavaram)and handed it on to his successor, C. T. Longley, who in 1865 sold it to its present owner, the Rája of Vizianagram.
Narasapatam contains the remains of an old mud fort which is'said to have been built by one of the Golgonda Bhúpatis above referred to. Enough of the walls remains to screen the public latrine which has now been established within it.
The town boasts no noteworthy products unless it be the mango pickle its Kómatis make.
Uratla: A dirty village of 3,196 inhabitants, nine miles south-east of Narasapatam, off the road to the railway-station. Is only noteworthy as the chief place of the estate of the same name, which was one of those formed out of the havíli land and sold by auction at a fixed peshkash in 1802. It was then bought by the Rája of Vizianagram, who sold it in 1810 to one Sági Rámachandra Rázu. In 1832 it was sold for arrears and bought by a lady named Dantalúri Achayya, who in 1843 gave it to her daughter Sági Subhadrayya. She died in 1867 and the property descended to her adopted son, S. Venkata' Súrya Náráyana Jagaánnátha Rázu, the present nominal owner. He mismanaged the estate, the peshkash fell into arrears, and the property was attached and taken under Government management for a time. Subsequently the owner alienated seven different portions of it, and these have been separately registered.
In 1875 he alienated Chouduváda, for services received, to one of his uncles, Kákarlapúdi Narasa Rázu, who had it registered in the name of his minor son, K. Rámachandra Rázu, the present proprietor.
In the same year he also granted Pondúru and Mallavaram to another uncle, K. Chinna Narasa Rázu. This man died in. 1876 leaving a minor son, and the estate was taken under the Court of Wards. The present holder is Kákarlapúdi Venkata Rámayya.
In 1877 the village of Bayyavaram was sold to Dátla Rámachandra Rázu, who disposed of it to J. Rangáchári, who ten years later sold it to a dancing-girl named K. Simháchalam. She died in 1896 and the estate devolved on her adopted daughters, K. Kannamma and B. Rámayamma, the present holders.
In the same year 1877,1[7] Tangédu and Gotiváda were transferred by a rázináma decree to Sági Sitaráma Rázu whose brother, S. Buchchi Rájagópála Rázu, and his three nephews now hold them.
In 1879 Kondala agraháram was disposed of to Púsapáti Súrya Náráyana, whose daughter-in-law, P. B. Bangárayya and granddaughter, Chitti Ammanna alias Venkata Narasayya, are now the proprietors.
In 1884 Jaggampéta, Tadaparti and Timmapuram were sold to Lolla Sanyási Rázu, who in 1888 transferred them to the present proprietrix, a dancing-girl named Pilla Gangu alias Chamanti.
This lady had already obtained the seventh of the subdivisions Peddapálem, in 1884.
In 1898 the zamindar of Tuni, in the Gódávari district obtained possession of what was left of the estate under a mortgage and through process of the civil courts.2[8] It is now registered in his name.
Vajragada :('diamond fort') is a small place of 1,247 inhabitants, lying six miles from Narasapatam off the road to Anakápalle. The ruins of a very large fortress, built at the base of two hills and now all cultivated, are still to be seen in it, and local tradition gives the names of seven forts with which it was once defended. These are said to have been constructed by the Golla kings already referred to. A tale is told of their having kidnapped a daughter of the ruler of Mádgole and held out here against his attacks for months until they were betrayed by a woman of their own caste who showed the enemy how to cut off their water-supply. They then slew their womenkind, says the story, dashed out against the besiegers, and fell to a man, fighting to the last. Small gold coins of two kinds, neither of which have yet been satisfactorily identified, are found round about the fort after heavy rain, and a small square stone with old Telugu inscriptions on all four sides is to be seen near the middle of its eastern wall.
- ↑ 1 Note in G.O., No. 30, Political, dated I7th January 1891, which. gives an account of the complicated history of the many Golgonda pensions.
- ↑ 2 For further details, see Minute by Mr. Carmichael, Special Commissioner, in connection with these outbreaks, dated 1st November 1881.
- ↑ 1 G.O., No.. 744,Judicial, dated 26th March 1888,
- ↑ 1 G.O., No. 1685, Judicial, dated 10th August 1895.
- ↑ 2 G.O., No. 1747, Judicial, dated 4th November 1905.
- ↑ 1 G.O.,No. 1941, Judicial, dated 23rd November 1882.
- ↑ 1 B.P., No. 201, dated 24th January 1878.
- ↑ 2 O.S. No. 9 of 1894 on the file of the Vizagapatam District Court,