Vizagapatam/Gazetteer/Srungavarapukota Taluk
SRUNGAVARAPUKOTA TALUK.
Lies west of Vizianagram and includes a considerable area in the Agency from the foot of the lower slopes of the 3,000 feet plateau up to its main crest round about the great Gálikonda hill (p. 6). This part of it is reached by the Anantagiri ghát (p. 137) and drains southwards into the Sárada river, while the low country is included in the basin of the Chittivalasa river. The appearance and inhabitants of the latter area resemble those of the rest of the plains.
The undermentioned places deserve a note: —
Dharmávaram: A thriving trading village of 3,317 inhabitants lying three miles east by north of Srungavarapukóta. In its hamlet Sanyásipálem is a shrine to a sanyási which is known all over the low country and resorted to by people of all castes. This ascetic, say the legends, came to the village centuries ago at a time when the local goddess, Paiditalli, insisted on having a meal of human flesh every day. At the earnest prayer of the people, he pronounced powerful spells which bound her down to her temple and prevented her from getting out to seize her victims. She complained bitterly of the pangs of hunger she suffered in consequence, but he told her she must do the best she could on the offerings which were voluntarily brought to her. When the sanyási eventually died, the greatful villagers put up a shrine to him and under his image tlierein they buried some magical emblems he had made. These are now declared to make the cattle give milk in plenty, to care those possessed of devils and to grant offspring to the childless. Children born after vows to the shrine are called Sanyáasi, and the name is astonishingly common round about this village. When any worshipper supplicates for a boon, the pújári puts a bilva leaf on the head of the sanyási's image, and if it shortly falls off this is taken as a favourable sign.
Jámi, on the south hank of the Chittivalasa river, is the most populous village in the taluk, possessing 5,967 inhabitants. It is a union, and contains many Bráhmans. 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. Its Wednesday market is well known as a mart for hill produce.
It is the chief village of the inalienable and impartible estate of the same name, which comprises all the agency portion of the taluk. This, says Mr. Carmichael, formed part of the ancient barony of Srungavarapukóta, belonging to the Mukki family. Like other petty chiefs, the Mukkis were evicted by Vizianagram, bat in the general confusion consequent on the sequestration of that zamindari in 1798 (p. 50), one of the old family, Mukki Rájabhúpála Rázu, took forcible possession of Kásipuram.
In 1794, however, burying the old animosities, he was one of the most active protectors of Náráyana Rázu, the young son of the Rája of Vizianagram who had been slain in that year (p. 53) at Padmanábham. When the Vizianagram zamindari was restored in 1790, the Collector, unwilling to give its chiefs any footing in the hills, kept the Kásipuram estate under his own management and leased it first to the zamindar of Andra and afterwards to one Sági Tirapati Rázu. The latter was avowedly a servant or dependent of Vizianagram, and seeing this and that the property was too small to be made into a separate zamindari estate, the Collector eventually assigned it, on a separate sanad, to the Vizianagram family, whose property it still remains. At Anantagirion the hills here, the Rája of Vizianagram possesses a coffee estate under European management.
After his restoration to his estate in 1796, Rája Náráyana Rázu mentioned above took Vírabhadra Rázu, the son of his old protector Rájábhúpala Rázu, under his care, making him one of his principal retainers and giving him an allowance of Rs. 200 a month. When, however, he went to Benares in 1827 (p. 339) and handed over his estate to the Collector, he by some mischance omitted to include this allowance in the list of stipends due to retainers. The omission was subsequently rectified, but Vírabhadra Rázu cherished a grievance against the authorities, and set himself to create disturbances with such energy that in 1882, when Mr. Russell arrived in the district on his special commission, there was a reward of Rs. 5,000 on his head and the residents in Waltair thought it necessary to post guards at their houses, 'f he troops sent after him by Mr. Russell burnt Kásipuram and chased Vírabhadra Rázu so relentlessly about the hills that time after time he only escaped by his superior knowledge of the country and was often reduced to living on jungle fruits. He was at last betrayed in January 1833 by one of his own gang, tried by court martial and sentenced to death as a rebel. Government, however, reduced the sentence to one of imprisonment for life, and sent him to the fort of Gooty in the Anantapur district,1[1] where so many of the rebels of the Northern Circars ended their days.
Srungavarapukota, the taluk liead-quarters, is a union of 5,862 inhabitauts, most uf wliom live in indifferent huts. It was once the residence of the Mukki family referred to just above and the remains of their old fort are still visible.
The local goddess, Yerakamma, is another deification of a woman who committed sati. Ballads are sung about her which say that she was the child of Dasari parents and that her birth was foretold by a Terukala woman (whence her name) who prophesied that she would have the gift of second sight. 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. A fliglit of steps said to have been built by one of the Rajas leads up the hill to a wooded gully in which is a quaint shrine to Dhara Gangamma consisting of a boulder poised on two others between which trickles a small stream. A festival takes place here at Sivaratri and the people then crowd to bathe in this. Further up, the stream tumbles over a little fall which is held sacred and under which the bones of the dead are placed.
- ↑ 1 Asiatic Journal (1833), xii, 172-3.