is known as the vantaváradi system of land tenure has been enforced by the estate. This is, in effect, the joint-rent system in vogue in ryotwari lands prior to l866 and described in Chapter XI. It included the 'challenging' there referred to. This undesirable method was practically abandoned under the Court of Wards. Rentals were fixed, whenever complaints were made about them, by holding a kind of public auction and giving the land to the man who offered the highest figure. When once thus settled, they were not altered until the holding changed hands by succession or otherwise, and the successful bidder was not interfered with in his possession. The estate has now been surveyed; and it may be hoped that the Rája will introduce a regular settlement on the basis of the survey.
The town of Pithápuram is one of the least attractive places imaginable. The streets are narrow, winding, uneven and dusty, and the houses are poor in appearance. The Rája's residence is in striking contrast, being an imposing building of great size.
The town possesses some religious and archæological interest. It is known throughout the Northern Circars as a place of pilgrimage. The particular point of sanctity is the páda gaya pool in front of the Kukkutésvara-svámi temple. According to the legend, a giant named Gayásura, who was so big that when he lay down his body stretched from Gaya to Pithápuram, once ruled southern India. He was killed by Siva while his feet were resting in Pithápuram near this pool. The pool is accordingly called the páda ('foot') gaya. The local Hindus speak of three gayas, where different parts of the dead giant were found. One of these is the place of that name in Bengal, and it is held throughout this district that any one who bathes there ought also to bathe in the páda gaya pool at Pithápuram. Three large images of Buddhist or Jain origin, sitting cross-legged in the usual contemplative attitude, stand at the side of one of the main streets of the town. They are known as sanyási devúlu ('ascetic gods') and a festival is held in honour of them in times of drought; by which means, it is supposed, they are induced to send rain. Four interesting inscriptions have been found in the Kuntimádhava temple. These give some historical information and the genealogies of three lines of chieftains who ruled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.1[1] A small mosque in the bazaar street has evidently been built with the materials of
- ↑ 1 See Government Epigraphist's annual report for 1894, pp. 2 ff., and inscriptions Nos. 490 to 493 of 1893.
