TUNI DIVISION.
TUNI division lies in the north-east corner of the district. It is the most sparsely populated tract in the district outside the Agency, and education is very backward in it.
It is a hilly tract and contains little irrigated land. One large tank waters nearly 2,000 acres near Hamsavaram, and a few channels take off from the Tandananadi river. The local rainfall averages only 35.79 inches, which is low for this district. The incidence of land revenue per head of the population is only seven and a half annas. The weaving at Tuni is as good as is to be found anywhere in the district, and a considerable manufacture of oil is carried on at the same place. Bangles are made at Hamsavaram and Kottapalli.
The division contains the whole of the Kottam or Tuni estate and twelve villages belonging to the Pithápuram estate.
Bendapúdi : Twelve and a half miles south-west of Tuni. Population 1,477. It contains the ruins of what must at one time have been a very large fort. Old copper coins (and, more rarely, gold ones) are found there after rain. People believe that the philosopher's stone (parsavédi) is also to be found there. The ruins include many dilapidated temples. Popular legend ascribes the building of the fort to the Kákatiya king Pratápa Rudra, and the same account of it is given in one of the Mackenzie MSS.1[1] called the 'Kórukonda kyfeatwhich gives a description of that place. The fort at Bendapúdi is said in this to have been founded by two brothers, Pedda Malla Rázu and Chinna Malla Rázu, who ruled the country under Pratápa Rudra. They were an effeminate and tyrannical couple, if the account is to be credited. They drew upon themselves the vengeance of the king of Cuttack by abducting the bride of one of his relatives, who was passing through the district. An army came from Cuttack to exact vengeance, and the fort was besieged. It fell after a siege of six years, the water-supplies being cut off. The affair is described in some detail in the manuscript.
In the hamlet of Tirupati Agraháram is a temple to Venkatésvarasvámi, in honour of which a five days' festival is held every year in Chaitra (April-May). This is largely attended and is well known to people living north of Cocanada.
- ↑ 1 Wilson's Catalogue, 396, 8 (3).
