man who committed the same offence was at once seized with fever and died within the week ; and some ryots of Yerravaram who removed one of the idols to their village were struck with blindness.
Ragampeta : Eight miles north-west of Peddapuram ; population 865. Is included in the Jagammapeta union. Some ten Linga Balijas make bangles and ' glass ' bottles here, an industry not common in this district. Brass vessels are made by a few Kamsalas.
Rangampeta : Ten miles west of Peddapuram, population 2,017. Contains a large choultry called the Nallacheruvu choultry (from the tank on the bank of which it is situated) which has an income of Rs. 5,500 from land, and in which travellers of all classes are fed. There is a travellers' bungalow close to it.
Talluru : Eleven miles north-west of Peddapuram; population 1,768, Is called Taidoor in old maps. The present Vaishnavite temple in the village is said to have been originally built above a rock-cut cave, by a saint called Bhargava, as a shrine to Siva. The local chief, a Dudeku named Sitab Khan, who was a Saivite, was afterwards converted to the Vaishnavite faith by the famous Ramanujachari, and in consequence overthrew the Saivite lingams (which now lie buried in a mound known as the lingala dibba) and turned the temple into a Vaishnava place of worship.
Totapalli, eighteen miles north-east of Peddapuram, population 94, was the former capital of one of the three ancient mansabdaris of the Godavari district. The original holder of this was a mokhasadar under the zamindar of Peddapuram, who was bound to pay his suzerain a quit-rent of 1,000 pagodas a year and attend on him when required with a body of 700 peons. It was this military service which caused him to be denominated a mansabdar.1[1]
His estate comprised lOO villages, of which 37 were held by inferior mokhasadars.2[2] Mr. Grant (writing about 1785) speaks of the property as a region of tigers, and mentions that in 1771, at the instigation of the Peddapuram zamindar, this little territory, with the sacrifice of almost the whole detachment to the unhealthiness of the climate, was reduced by the English to pay a future tribute to the zamindar.3[3] As this quit-rent was not punctually paid, the Peddapuram zamindar in later times resumed certain of the Totapalli villages. The
