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The Nuzvid Zemindari family is perhaps the oldest of the families of Zemindars in the Krishna District, and in olden days some of the members distinguished themselves in battle, attained great successes in the field and thus rose to prominence. The present representative Sri Rajah Venkata Rangiah Appa Rao Bahadur, a member of the Nuzvid family, and the Zemindar of Kapileswar Muttah, has had the benefit of Western education, and having travelled to most of the important places in India, accompanied by his tutors while he was under the management of the Court of Wards some years ago, has been able to manage his estate without any difficulty.

The first member of the family of whom anything is known was Meka Basavanna who hailed from the south, and established himself on the left bank of the river Krishna some two hundred years ago. It is said that he built a small fort near Gollapalli, which was then a debatable land and a battle field for the armies of the Orissa Rajahs, of the King of Vijianagar, and of the Nawab of Golconda. The fort must have been an insignificant one, or else it would have drawn the attention of those powerful chiefs. In 1667, Appanna, generally known as Vijaya or "victorious" added much to his ancestral estate, and received from the Nawab of Golconda the titles of Thahavar va zalalat and dastugaha with some insignia of royalty. He was further given the titles of