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 RAMACHANDRAPURAM TALUK.

RÁMACHANDRAPURAM taluk lies along the left bank of the Gautami Gódávari just below the head of the delta.

Almost all its soil (91 per cent.) is alluvial, it is irrigated by the Gódávari water, nearly the whole of it is cultivated, and the density of its population is second only to that of Nagaram island. Paddy is naturally the chief crop, but tobacco is grown in fair quantities, and the area under sugarcane is greater than in any other taluk in the district. Detailed statistics regarding the crops and other matters will be found in the separate Appendix.

Local industries are few. Kótipalli and Drákshárámam are sacred places, and the temple in the latter contains many ancient inscriptions.

Nearly the whole of the taluk is now Government land. Eight villages belong to the Pithápuram zamindari, eight others to the Végayammapéta estate, and five more each make up a small estate.

Bikkavolu: Nine miles north of Rámachandrapuram. Population 7,994. It is a union, and containts a sub-registrar's office and a small local fund market. Two Múchi wood-carvers do good work. The village is said in one of the Mackenzie MSS.1 to have been the capital of the earlier Eastern Chálukya kings before they moved to Rajahmundry. It is said to contain extensive ruins and some deserted temples.2

The place is now famous as a centre of snake-worship. The snake-god Subbaráyadu has a three days' festival there in the sashti (sixth day) following the new moon in Margasira (December-January), which goes by the name of the Subbaráyadi sashti. People attend this in the hope of obtaining relief from small bodily ailments (such as boils and pains in the ears, eyes, etc.) and in order to get children. Childless women spend a night fasting in the temple clothed in a particular kind of cloth (called nágula kókalu) in which the colours are mixed in a peculiar way. All castes appear to resort to the temple for the purpose. In former times a cobra was supposed to come out and show itself on one of the days of the festival.