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240 RAJAHMUNDRY TALUK.

RAJAHMUNDRY taluk lies along the left bank of the Gódávari just above the head of the delta. Most of it is not a particularly fertile upland, and as much as 71 per cent, of the soil is ferruginous. Nearly all the rest is regar. The taluk is irrigated chiefly by tanks, of which 28 of fair size are in charge of the Public Works department. The largest are those at Kottapalli (ayacut 970 acres) and Kápavaram (823 acres). Rice is the most widely grown crop, but the areas under tobacco and castor are considerable. Nine per cent, of the cultivable land is unoccupied, and the incidence of the land revenue per head is only Rs. I-IO-II. The number of educational institutions in Rajahmundry town results in the people being more literate than in any other taluk, and over ten per cent, of the male population can read and write. The industries of Rajahmundry town and Dowlaishweram are referred to below. At Rájánagaram and Káteru a fair amount of weaving is done, at Duppalapúdi black bangles are made by twenty Kápus, and the stone-carving of Jégurupádu is well known. Large taluk board chattrams have been established at Rájánagaram and Dowlaishweram.

Nearly the whole of the taluk is Government land. It includes nine villages of the Pithápuram zamindari and also nine other small proprietary estates, but of these latter all but one consist of only one village. The exception is Vangalapúdi, which comprises three villages.

Dowlaishweram: Four and a half miles south of Rajahmundry. Population 10,304. It appears to have been a place of importance during the early struggles between the Hindus and Muhammadans and is now widely known as the site of Sir Arthur Cotton's great anient across the Gódávari, referred to in Chapter IV, is the head-quarters of two Executive Engineers, and contains the Public Works department's workshops mentioned in Chapter VI. The town is a union and contains a local fund dispensary (established 1892), a large local fund choultry, a fair-sized market, an English lower secondary school for boys, and a Sanskrit school. The choultry (called, after the house-name of the donor, the Kruttivantivári choultry) is endowed with land bringing in an income of Rs. 2,100 annually, and was bequeathed to the taluk board. The income is devoted to feeding Bráhmans. There