# Gódávari/Chapter 1

GAZETTEER
OF THE
GÓDÁVARI DISTRICT.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION.
General description—Chief towns—Etymology of the name—Natural divisions. Hills—The Ghats. Rivers—The Godavari-Its sanctity-Its islands and encroachments—The season of its floods—Its tributaries-The Yeleru. Soils. Geology—Physical changes now in progress. Minerals—Coal—The Gauridevipeta field—Bedadanuru—Gold—Iron-Graphite—Mica-Building stone—Rock-crystals, garnets, sapphires. Climate—Rainfall—Temperature—Wind and weather. Flora. Fauna-Cattle—Buffaloes—Sheep and goats—Cattle-breeding—Feeding methods-Cattle diseases—Cattle fairs—Game—Fish—Native sportsmen.
The Godavari district lies on the north-east coast of the Madras Presidency. CHAP. I. General description. It has an area of 5,634 square miles and extends from 16° 20' to 18° 4' N. and from 80° 52' to 82^ 36' E. It is bounded on the north-east by Vizagapatam, on the north by the same district and the Bastar State of the Central Provinces, and on the west and south-west by the Godavari river, which separates it from the Nizam's Dominions and Kistna. The district, however, extends across this river at one point to include the Polavaram division. Godavari is roughly triangular in shape, its base being formed by the line of the coast from the western mouth of the Godavari river to the Vizagapatam border, one side by the Godavari river itself, and the other by the irregular frontier of Vizagapatam and the Central Provinces.
The district is made up of ten taluks and two deputy tahsildars' divisions; namely, the taluks of Nagaram, Amalapuram, Ramachandrapuram and Cocanada, which make up the fertile delta of the Godavari river; the upland taluks of ​CHAP. I. General description. Rajahmundry and Peddapuram;1 the hilly divisions of Yellavaram, Chodavaram and Polavaram; the taluk of Bhadrachalam beyond the Eastern Ghats; and the two zamindari deputy tahsildars' divisions of Pithapuram and Tuni in the north-eastern corner of the district, the former of which resembles in character the upland taluks and the latter the three hilly divisions. Statistical particulars of each of these areas will be found in the separate Appendix to this volume, and some account of each and of its chief towns and villages is given in Chapter XV below. Yellavaram, Chodavaram, Polavaram and Bhadrachalam are tracts covered with hill and jungle and inhabited by uncivilized tribes to whom it is inexpedient to apply the whole of the ordinary law of the land. Under the Scheduled Districts Act of 1874, these have been formed (see p. 190) into an Agency in which civil justice is administered under special rules and the Collector has special powers in his capacity of 'Government Agent.' They are consequently always known as 'the Agency' or 'the Agency tracts.'
Chief towns. The capital of the district is the busy seaport and municipality of Cocanada, and with the exception of Nagaram taluk and Yellavaram division, the head-quarters of the various taluks and divisions are the towns or villages from which they are named. The head-quarters of Nagaram taluk is Rajavolu (Razole); and of Yellavaram, Addatigela. Besides the tahsildars' stations, both Samalkot in the Cocanada taluk and Dowlaishweram near Rajahmundry are towns of importance and interest.
Many places in the delta, such as Coringa, Georgepet, Nilapalli, and Injaram in the Cocanada taluk and Bendamurlanka in Amalapuram, were notable ports or settlements of the East India Company at the beginning of the nineteenth century. All these have now sunk into insignificance. The little village of Chandurti in the Pithapuram division has given its name, under the distorted form of Condore,2 to the decisive battle by which the sovereignty of the whole of the Northern Circars was wrested by the British from the French. Yanam in the Cocanada taluk is one of the few French settlements in India.
Etymology of the name. Godavari takes its name from the great river which forms its western boundary and the delta of which is its richest and most fertile portion. Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, M.A., the ​Government Epigraphist, considers that the word means literally either 'streams giving water' (sometimes in old writings abbreviated to Gódá or 'giving water') or 'streams giving kine.' Another Sanskrit authority *interprets the word in a somewhat similar way as meaning 'the best (vari) [of those that] give water'; and adds the alternative 'the chief [of those that] give heaven' with reference to the sanctifying power of the river. The local and popular etymology of the name says that it means 'the expiation for killing a cow,' and a well-known story relates how the rishi Gautama brought the Gódávari to the district to expiate the sin of having killed a cow in a moment of anger. Kovvur in Yernagúdem taluk, Kistna district, the name of which is said to mean 'the village of the cow,' is pointed out as the place where the cow was slain and the water was first made to flow.
The district consists of four very dissimilar natural divisions; namely (beginning in the north-west), the undulating taluk of Bhadráchalam above the Eastern Gháts; the hilly agency divisions which really form a part of that range; the upland taluks which divide the agency hills from the low lands of the delta; and the delta of the Gódávari itself.
The delta presents a vast expanse of rice fields dotted with gardens of plantains, betel and cocoanut and with innumerable palmyras; the uplands form a gently undulating and fairly wooded plain; the Agency consists of broken, forest-clad hills; and the Bhadráchalam taluk above the gháts resembles the uplands except that its undulations are sharper and its woods much more dense. It is broken up by the clusters of the Bodugúdem and Rékapalle hills, which are not unlike the gháts themselves.
The only hills in the district are the Eastern Gháts, which rise by gentle gradations from the level of the coast. The scenery of these mountains, particularly in the neighbourhood of the Gódávari river, is exceedingly picturesque. Their sides are clothed with luxuriant forests, interspersed with bamboo and a thick undergrowth of forest shrubs. Their highest point is Dumkonda, 4,478 feet, and another prominent peak stands to the south of the fine gorge through which the Gódávari passes them, and is called Pápikonda or Bison Hill. A hill in the range which runs from that peak across the river into the Pólavaram division is locally known as Biraiya Konda, and is regarded as the haunt of a demon called Biraiya who is worshipped by the native navigators of the Gódávari.† ​ Among the great rivers of India the Gōdávari takes rank next after the Ganges and Indus. It runs nearly across the peninsula, its course is 900 miles long, and it receives the drainage from 115,000 square miles, an area greater than that of England and Scotland combined. Its maximum discharge is calculated to be one and a half million cubic feet per second, more than 200 times that of the Thames at Staines and about three times that of the Nile at Cairo.*
It rises at Trimbak, a village about seventy miles north-east of Bombay and only fifty miles from the Arabian Sea. The place traditionally regarded as the source of the river is a reservoir on a hill behind the village. This is approached by a flight of 690 stone steps, and the water trickles into it drop by drop from the lips of a carven image, shrouded by a canopy of stone.† From thence the river flows in a south-easterly direction until, after it has completed a course of 650 miles, it receives from the north at Siróncha the waters of the Wardha, the Painganga and the Wainganga united in the single noble stream of the Pránhita, From this point the river has some 200 miles to run to the Bay of Bengal. It is soon joined by the Indrávati, also from the north, and before long skirts the Bhadráchalam taluk of this district. A few miles below the Bhadráchalam border is the Dummagúdem anicut, almost the sole relic of the great scheme conceived by Sir Arthur Cotton (see p. 80) for the navigation of the upper waters of the river. Next the beautiful Saveri (or Sabari) flows in from the north, skirting the edge of the forest-clad Rékapalle hills. From there the Eastern Ghats come into view, some 2,500 feet in average height, bounding the whole horizon and towering above the lesser and detached hills that flank the river.
The Gódávari has by this time assumed imposing proportions, being generally a mile, and sometimes two and a half miles, broad. After its junction with the Saveri, however, its bed is suddenly contracted by spurs of the gháts till at length it forces a passage between them, penetrating by an almost precipitous gorge to the very heart of the range- The scenery of this gorge is famous for its beauty. The steep wooded slopes of the mountains which overhang it approach at one place to within 200 yards of each other; and they constantly recede and advance and form a succession of beautiful little lakes from which there is apparently no outlet. Here and there a faint line of smoke indicates the ​existence of a Kóya or Reddi village, but the hills are very sparsely inhabited.
In flood time the water flows with terrific force. 'Through the gorge,' writes Dr. King, 'the pent-up waters tear their way with, I have been told, a surface so strangely concave on the cross section that adventurous boatmen glide along the bottom of a trough whose sides rise up to a good height and hide away the immediate banks; and out of this gorge away towards the open country of the Gódávari district the river has such a fall that the sensation produced on the mind of the traveller is said to be that of sliding down an inclined plane.'* Native boatmen are much afraid of navigating the river at such times; and none of them, of whatever creed, omit to break a number of cocoanuts at the mouth of the gorge to appease the dangerous demon Biraiya already mentioned, who will dash on a rock or drown in a whirlpool the navigator who omits this homage. So great is the action of the stream during floods that the rocky bed has been scoured out to depths popularly supposed to be unfathomable, but which really vary normally from 100 to nearly 200 feet. High floods rise quite 50 feet above the normal level, so that the gorge then encloses a torrent of waters from 150 to 250 feet in depth.†
After passing this point and entering the open country, the river widens out and flows by the old zamindari strongholds of Pólavaram and Gútála and the picturesque and sacred islands of Mahánandisvaram and Pattisam.‡ At Rajahmundry it is nearly two miles wide, and some five miles further down, at Dowlaishweram, at the head of the delta, it is crossed by the celebrated anicut which renders its waters at last available for irrigation. At this point the river is nearly four miles broad, though about a third of this width is taken up by three islands, and the spot is more fully described in Chapter IV. At Dowlaishweram the Gódávari divides into two main streams— the eastern or Gautami Gódávari flowing past Injaram, the little French settlement of Yanam, and Nīlapalli, and entering the sea near Point Gódávari, and the western or Vasishta Gódávari flowing nearly due south and entering the sea at Point Narasapur. A few miles above this latter mouth another large branch, the Vainatéyam, breaks off to the east of the Vasishta Gódávari (forming the island of Nagaram between itself and the latter river) and reaches the ​sea near Bendamúrlanka. The three factories of the old East India Company at Injaram, Bendamúrlanka and Madapollam were situated near these three principal mouths of the Gódávari. Part of Madapollam village has been swept away by the river.
Seven traditional mouths are recognized as sacred by Hindus. The holy waters of the Gódávari are said to have been brought from the head of Siva * by the saint Gautama, and the seven branches by which it is traditionally supposed to have reached the sea are said lo have been made by seven great rishis. The mouths of these are considered especially holy, and to bathe in the sea at any one of them is considered an act of great religious efficacy. It is customary for the pious (especially childless persons desirous of offspring) to make a pilgrimage to each in turn and bathe there, thus performing the sapta-ságara-yátrá or 'pilgrimage of the seven confluences.' The Vainatéyam is not one of these traditional mouths, but is supposed to have been created afterwards by a rishi of that name who stole a part of the Vasishta for the purpose.† The traditional seven are the Kasyapa or Tulya (the Tulya Bhága drain), the Atri (the Coringa river), the Gautami, the Bháradvája, the Visvámitra or Kausika, the Jamadagni and the Vasishta. The Bháradvája, Visvámitra and Jamadagni no longer exist; but pilgrims bathe in the sea at the spots where they are supposed to have been.‡ Several other sacred bathing-places in the delta are noticed in Chapter XV. The most important of them is Kótipalli in the Rámachandrapuram taluk. But a bath in the river anywhere along its course has great sancti- fying virtue. Every thirteenth year this virtue is supposed to be much increased, and the pushkaram festival which then takes place is performed all along the stream in recognition of the fact.
Several islands of a permanent character stand in various parts of the Gódávari; but the river constantly forms new temporary islands and modifies old ones. Islands liable to these changes are called lankas. They are rendered extraordinarily fertile by the silt deposited upon them by the river, and the rich tobacco grown on them is known as lanka tobacco. Other physical changes are produced by the force of the stream. Its encroachments upon the banks are noticeable in ​more than one place. At Tallapúdi above Rajahmundry it presses hard against the right bank, which is in many places cut down precipitously by the action of the stream, and Tallapúdi and other villages, which used to be some distance from the river, now stand on its bank. In 1679 the encroachments of the river at Narasapur on the Vasishta Gódávari forced many of the English merchants to leave their houses.*
The greater portion of the area drained by the Gōdávari The season of receives more rain in the south-west than in the north-east I's floods. monsoon, and it is during the former, therefore, that the river brings down most water. It begins to rise at Dowlaishweram some ten days after the south-west rains set in at Bombay — usually about the middle of June — and it is almost always high till October. The season for floods is then over; but during the next two months or so occasional freshes are caused by the north-east monsoon rains. When these have ceased the river gets lower and lower, till about the middle of May (its lowest stage) its discharge is at times as little as 1,500 cubic feet per second.
The navigation on the river and on the delta canals is referred to in Chapter VII.
Two tributaries of the Gódávari flow through this district. The Saveri rises in the hills in the Vizagapatam Agency, and afterwards runs in a south-westerly course, forming for some distance the boundary between that tract and the Bastar State. It receives several tributaries on the way, and, at the point where Bastar, Vizagapatam and Gódávari meet, is joined by the Siléru river from the hills of Jeypore. The latter forms for many miles the boundary between the Rampa country of this district and the Jeypore zamindari. The united waters of these two rivers are much used for floating timber from the Rékapalle hills, which are enclosed between the Saveri and the Godavari.
One or two insignificant streams run down from the north into the Gódávari, and from the Tuni hills into the sea; but the only other noteworthy river in the district is the Yeléru. This is formed by the union of three streams which take their rise in the hills of Rampa, Golgonda and Jaddangi respectively and unite a little to the north-east of Yellavaram. It flows through Peddápuram taluk to a point a little above Viravaram, where it again separates into several streams. The western-most of these continues its course, still under the name of the parent stream, along the boundary of Pithápuram division into Cocanada taluk; passes under the Samalkot canal, which ​crosses it by an aqueduct near that town, and finally drops into the Bikkavólu drain and the Cocanada tidal creek, and so into the Cocanada bay. Meanwhile the two other branches have both flowed into the Pithápuram division, where, united again under the name of the Górikanadi, they distribute their waters to numerous works of irrigation, and finally reach the sea near Uppáda.
The following table gives the classification of the soils in the Government land in the district excluding the taluk of Bhadráchalam, which has not yet been settled by the Madras Government:—
| Taluk or division. | Total area | Area classified | Percentage of area classified which is | | | | |
| | (in sq.miles) | (in sq. miles) | Alluvial. | permanently improved | Black regar. | Red ferruginous. | Arena. ceous. |
| Plains. | | | | | | | |
| Amalápuram | 506 | 235 | 86.78 | -- | -- | -- | 13.22 |
| Cocanada | 294 | 84 | 86.45 | -- | 5.93 | 7.41 | 0.21 |
| Nagaram | 137 | 120 | 60.64 | -- | -- | -- | 39.36 |
| Peddápuram | 504 | 203 | 6.19 | 0.21 | 11.53 | 82.07 | -- |
| Rajahmundry | 350 | 230 | 0.20 | 0.23 | 28.36 | 71.21 | -- |
| Rámachandrapuram | 296 | 194 | 91.08 | 0.02 | 0.22 | 8.68 | -- |
| Total Plains | 2,087 | 1,066 | 50.56 | 0.09 | 8.82 | 33.17 | 7.36 |
| Agency (excluding Bhadráchalam) | | | | | | | |
| Chódavaram | 715 | 2 | -- | -- | -- | 100.00 | -- |
| Pólavaram | 564 | 67 | -- | -- | 0.19 | 99.81 | -- |
| Yellavaram | 950 | 25 | -- | -- | 4.33 | 95.67 | -- |
| Total, Agency | 2,229 | 94 | -- | -- | 1.26 | 98.74 | -- |
| Grand total | 4,316 | 1,160 | 46.48 | 0.09 | 8.21 | 38.46 | 6.76 |
It will be seen that the delta taluks are mainly covered with alluvial soil, though there are sandy areas along their coasts, while the uplands are chiefly made up of red ferruginous earths varied by small areas of the black regar.
The ultimate foundation of the country above the gháts, as of most of peninsular India, is gneiss. Various other kinds of rock of less but varying antiquity have been superimposed upon different parts of the district. The gneiss is usually ​ uppermost throughout Bhadráchalam, Chódavaram and the eastern portion of Pólavaram, and, in the form of what is called Bezwáda gneiss, throughout Yellavaram and much of Tuni as well as in the north of Rajahmundry and Peddápuram taluks.
After the gneiss, the next most ancient formation is three groups of the Lower Gondwána rocks. The Tálchir group is found in very small and scattered tracts in the Nizam's Dominions and also near Dummagúdem, between Dummagúdem and Bhadráchalam, and between Bhadráchalam and Rékapalle; the Kámthi group stretches all along the river on the Hyderabad side, but only reaches into this district at the south-western corner of the Pólavaram division; and the Barákar group occurs in small and scattered areas in two places in the district, namely Bedadanúru in the south-west corner of Pólavaram, and Gauridévipéta sixteen miles down the river from Bhadráchalam. This group is of particular interest, because coal is found in it.*
Among still more recent geological formations, a few small outcrops of the older Tirupati sandstones occur between the gneiss and the alluvium of Peddápuram and Tuni. A broad belt of the Cuddalore sandstone also stretches, like an island in the middle of the alluvium, from Rajahmundry to Samalkot with a narrow strip of Deccan trap and some isolated patches of gneiss on its north-western edge. The whole of the rest of the district is formed of fluviatile alluvium. This occupies nearly the whole of the delta, and above the gháts stretches in some places a long way from the river on either side.
At some remote period the great plain which is now covered with alluvial soils must have been occupied by the sea, the sandstone 'island' between Rajahmundry and Samalkot must have been an island in fact, and the salt water must have stretched to the edge of the northern hills. This plain was gradually raised above tidal level by the deltaic deposits of the Gôdávari and the minor streams in the north-east of the district, and the process still continues. It is particularly noticeable in the constant extension of the shore round Point Gódávari and the gradual silting up of Coringa bay. In Pliny's time the village of Coringa, now miles inland, stood apparently upon a cape, and even within the memory of man great changes have taken place. The map of 1842 had to be much modified in 1891 and already needs further alteration. A spit of land is extending to the north from the old Point Gódávari at an estimated rate of one ​mile in 20 years and is gradually enclosing the Coringa bay; and the anchorage in the bay is said to be shallowing at the rate of a foot every ten years. But a compensating process of erosion is taking place elsewhere. At Uppáda on the Pithápuram coast the land has been much encroached upon by the sea. Since 1900 over fifty yards have been swept away and the process must have been going on for many years. A ruin about half a mile out at sea still catches the fishermen's nets, and children hunt the beach at spring tides for coins which are occasionally washed up from what must be a submerged town.
As above remarked, there are two places in the district where the coal-bearing Barákar strata are found, viz., near Bedadanúru in Pólavaram division, and at Gauridévipéta in the Bhadráchalam taluk.
The Gauridévipéta field was first reported on in 1871 by Mr. W. T. Blanford, who summarized the position as follows:* 'Just below Bhadráchalam the Gódávari traverses a small field of Barákar rocks about seven miles across from east to west and five miles, where broadest, from north to south. The whole area is about 24 square miles, the greater portion of which lies on the right bank of the river in the Nizam's territory. The portion of this field on the north (left) bank of the river has been thoroughly explored by boring and some coal has been found, but the quality is altogether inferior and the quantity small, the seams being thin and much mixed with shale.' An attempt to work this field was made by the Gódávari Coal Company, Limited, in 1891. The operations were not successful, as coal was not found in paying quantities, and soon after the commencement of the work a fault was encountered which made it impossible to recover the seam. The seam, moreover, was of poor quality and contained a quantity of shale.† It is thought possible that better and more plentiful supplies might be found on the southern bank of the river.
The Bedadanúru field ‡ is the most southerly outcrop of Barákar rocks known in the Madras Presidency. It was once hoped that good coal would be found there, and extensive borings were undertaken under the superintendence of the Executive Engineer at Dummagúdem in 1874; but these resulted only in the discovery of some thin seams of very poor coaly shales, and the exploration was abandoned. The field ​is about five and a quarter square miles in extent and is situated near the head waters of a large feeder of the Yerra Kálwa with the small village of Bedadanúru in its midst. Further prospecting was undertaken about six years ago. Some eight square miles near the village were thoroughly explored by borings, but the only discovery was a one-inch seam.
The existence of gold in the bed of the Gódávari is mentioned in several works published about the beginning of the last century. The Gazetteer of the Central Provinces * says that the metal used to be washed at the point where the Kinarsáni river falls into the Gódávari just below Bhadráchalam. Local enquiries at Bhadráchalam vaguely substantiate the former existence of the industry there.
Iron is smelted from scattered ore in several villages in the Bhadráchalam taluk.
Graphite or plumbago is distributed in small quantities among the gneissic rocks in the north-west of the district, notably near Velagapalli and Yerrametla in the Chódavaram division and at Gullapúdi in Pólavaram. The South Indian Export Company has been prospecting recently at the last-named place. The Gódávari Coal Company possesses a graphite mine at Pedakonda in Bhadráchalam taluk, and has prospected for the mineral in several parts of the surrounding country. Outcrops are said to be plentiful and the samples obtained to be of fair quality but not so good as those from Ceylon. A good average quality fetches from £13 to £15 per ton in the London market at present.†
Mica is said to exist in parts of the Agency and is being prospected for near Pólavaram by the South Indian Export Company.
Good building stone is obtained from the different sand-stone and trap groups in the alluvial plains of the Gódávari. A locality particularly mentioned by Dr. King is Peddápuram. A little cutstone is also obtained in the Chódavaram division.
Very pure rock-crystal, inferior garnets and some sapphires occur in the neighbourhood of Bhadráchalam. The crystals are kept as curiosities or used in native medicines. The garnets are said to be found in the beds of the Gódávari and Kinarsáni rivers, especially near Gauridévipéta.
Detailed statistics of the rainfall in Gódávari are given in Chapter VIII below. The average annual fall for the district is 40.26 inches. ​
| | Temperature | Temperature | Temperature |
| Month | Average maximum | Average maximum | Mean. |
| January | 81.0 | 65.3 | 73.2 |
| February | 85.8 | 69.6 | 77.7 |
| March | 91.7 | 73.5 | 82.6 |
| April | 95.6 | 78.3 | 86.9 |
| May | 100.7 | 82.8 | 91.8 |
| June | 95.2 | 81.0 | 88.1 |
| July | 91.7 | 79.3 | 85.5 |
| August | 89.7 | 78.5 | 84.1 |
| September | 89.2 | 78.1 | 83.7 |
| October | 87.9 | 75.8 | 81.9 |
| November | 83.5 | 70.5 | 77.0 |
| December | 80.7 | 65.7 | 73.2 |
| The year | 89.4 | 74.9 | 82.1 |
The only station in the district at which systematic meteorological observations (other than the registration of rainfall) are made is Cocanada. There a daily record of the temperature is kept, and the results are telegraphed to the Meteorological Reporter at Madras. The marginal statement gives the average maxima and minima and the mean for each month in degrees Fahrenheit deduced from the figures of a series of years. It will be seen that the weather is very hot from April to June and that the mean temperature does not fall below 80 degrees till after October. The climate in December and January is cool, the average maximum temperature not exceeding 81 degrees and the average mxinimum being as low as 65. Along the coast the effect of the heat is much enhanced by the dampness of the air. The hill tracts and the country above the ghats are both cooler and drier than Cocanada.
Light north-easterly breezes in January and February, the driest months of the year, are followed in March and April by light south and south-east winds which blow during the day but die down at sunset. This south breeze is called by the natives payiru gáli, or the 'crop wind.' By May the wind, which is still light, has veered round to the south-west, but north-westerly squalls frequently occur, generally in the early part of the night, and sometimes blow with great violence. The south-west monsoon arrives in June and continues for some three months. In September and October land and sea breezes alternate, and the weather becomes calm and sultry as the north-east monsoon approaches. The latter sets in with light or moderate currents of air about the beginning of November, and brings bright and cool weather with it. Cyclones (see Chapter VIII) are apt to occur in this month. In December the wind blows from the east during the day and from the north during the night. The latter is called the hill (konda) wind.
The botany of Gódávari is interesting from several points of view. The physical geography of the district permits the ​existence of several distinct floras, while the residence of the great Indian botanist, Roxburgh, at Samalkot has caused the native plants to be more carefully studied than elsewhere. The irrigated delta teems with weeds of cultivation, the uplands yield the plants of the dry scrub forest, while the hill tracts of Rampa present an entirely different series. The latter are most easily studied where the Gódávari pierces the back- bone of the Eastern Gháts, and the deep ravines near Bison Hill afford the nearest approach to a moist evergreen forest to be met with in this part of India. Among the interesting plants of the Gódávari gorges may be noted the beautiful blue Barleria strigosa, Oldenlandia nudicaulis, Sauropus quadrangularis, Bauhinia Vahlii, Euphorbia elegans and Payllanthus suhcrosus. Bordering the stream and in the rapids Euphorbia Lawii appears to be at home, while on the banks such exotic ferns as Luffa echinata and Melilotus parviflora may be found. Many Gódávari plants are illustrated and described in the magnificent Coromandel Plants prepared by Roxburgh while he was Carnatic Botanist to the Hon. East India Company.*
Five kinds of cattle are locally recognized; viz., the désaváli (or country), the paramati (western), the turpu (eastern), the Kóya and the Sugáli. The désaváli are found both in the plains and in the Agency; in the latter they are called also gommu (riverside) cattle and are generally stronger than in the plains. The western cattle are easily recognized by their peculiar and plentiful branding and by the shortness of their horns. They are not found in the Agency and are imported in small numbers from Nellore and Guntúr. The cows give better milk than the country animals. The eastern cattle come from Vizagapatam, but are apparently merely animals bought as calves from Guntúr and Nellore and reared in that district. The Kóya cattle are inferior animals raised by the hill tribe of that name. The Sugáli breed are brought by Sugális (Lambádis) of the Nizam's Dominions to this district and are especially common in the Rajahmundry and Rámachandrapuram taluks. These Sugális are wandering traders and use the cattle to transport forest produce from the upper reaches of the river and to carry grain for the ryots.
Four kinds of buffaloes occur in the district. In the plains 'country buffaloes' and 'eastern buffaloes' from Vizagapatam district are the usual breeds. They are much alike in appearance. A larger kind, called the Bobbili or Gauvada buffalo, is less common. In Bhadráchalam a fine animal ​called the northern (uttarádi) buffalo is used. It generally has white patches on the forehead and just above the hoofs.
There are three kinds of sheep; namely, the country sheep, which give milk, manure and meat, but bear no wool; the kulam sheep, which are valued for their wool but are rare; and the síma (foreign) sheep, which have long tails, give no wool, and seem only to occur in Tuni.
Of goats the 'large' or 'country' kind and the 'small' or Kánchi breed are distinguished. The latter are also called the 'Calcutta' breed. They yield richer and more wholesome milk and are more prolific than the former. Some care is taken about the breeding of both sheep and goats. Most of the males are sold for meat, and only one or two superior animals are kept for breeding purposes.
Two local practices are of considerable importance to the improvement of the cattle. In almost every village a really good bull or two is set free to roam among the herds, and in the Agency the owners of cattle often set apart a superior animal, called the vittanam (seed) bull, to be used exclusively for crossing purposes. In many parts of the district, also, people castrate the inferior bulls.
Cattle are usually fed on paddy straw in the plains and cholam straw in the Agency. In the central delta and in Rajahmundry taluk they are also given sunn hemp (janumu), which is much grown there. In Amalápuram, where grazing is especially scarce, they are fed on rice husk, horse-gram and gingelly oil-cake. When the crops are on the ground and there is no particular work for the cattle, i.e., from August to December, they are sent from the plains to graze in the forests in the Yellavaram and Chódavaram hills. The Pithápuram ryots drive theirs to Tuni. The Amalápuram and Nagaram ryots do not as a rule send their animals away owing to the trouble of getting them across the rivers. The Bhadráchalam ryots drive theirs in the hot weather to Bastar and the Jeypore zamindari, where the grazing is better. The Pólavaram forests are resorted to by the cattle of the Kistna district.
Cattle mortality is said to be heavy in the delta (especially in the central delta and Rámachandrapuram), where fodder is scarce, the animals are crowded and the ground is saturated with moisture. 'They suffer from the absence of grazing and deficient food at one time and from feeding on rank, quickly-grown herbage at others.'* ​The chief diseases in the district are foot and mouth disease (góllu), anthrax (domma), rinderpest (peddajádyam), fever (kurama) and sugalirógam or malignant sore throat. Eruptions all over the body, an occasional symptom of rinderpest, are called by the natives kinka. Cattle are said to be not infrequently poisoned by Mádigas, who then eat their flesh and take their hides.
Generally speaking, the cattle are bought by merchants and ryots at the large weekly fairs at Tummapála (in Vizagapatam district), Pithápuram, Drákshárámam (in Rámachandrapuram), Ambájipéta (in Amalápuram) and PalokoUu in the Kistna district. Merchants go the round of these markets with their herds until they are all sold. The Pithápuram and Drákshárámam cattle fairs are famous. Sometimes drovers take their cattle round the country and sell them to the ryots in their own villages. This is what is usually done by the Sugális, who seem never to frequent the markets.
Big game is plentiful in the hills of the Agency and less so in the uplands of Tuni and Peddápuram. Tigers and panthers are numerous; bears are fairly common; bison (gaur) occur; nílgai have been shot in the Bhadráchalam taluk; sambur, spotted deer, jungle sheep, black-buck and pig are all common. Dholes (wild dogs) are found in Bhadráchalam and Pólavaram. Small game exists in great abundance. Good snipe-shooting is to be had in the neighbourhood of Rajahmundry and in many other spots. Wild geese, duck and teal, are common on the river and its lankas, and the two latter swarm on many jhils and tanks and on the sea at the mouth of the creeks between Cocanada and Coringa, whence they fly inland to feed at night. Partridge, peafowl, jungle-fowl and the smaller quail are all fairly common. The larger quail, florican and sand-grouse are more rarely met with. Other uncommon birds found in the district are the imperial pigeon, pied mina, and bhímaráj. Hares and partridges are captured in quantities by native shikáris, the former with nets, the latter with the help of decoy birds. Crocodiles are found in the upper Gódávari in large numbers and people are afraid to enter the deep parts of the river even as far down as Rajahmundry.
Mahseer occur in the Gódávari, Saveri and Panniléru rivers. The large sable fish (clupea palasah or hilsa) are netted in very large quantities near the Dowlaishweram anient, when they come up the river to spawn. Fine carp and labeo are caught near Pólavaram and in the tanks, as the villagers will not allow the drinking-water tanks to be netted. The fishing in the tidal water near Cocanada and Coringa is ​said to be particularly good. A fine fish which the natives call pundikuppa and which runs up to lOO lb. comes up the creeks. The mango fish and the mullet may also be caught in large quantities near the sea.
Yerukalas are the commonest shikári caste. Ídigas, Kápus, Rázus, Musalmans and Málas also shoot. Nakkalas hunt jackals and foxes for food. In Bhadráchalam and Pólavaram the Kóyas, Reddis and Mutráchas are keen sportsmen. Some of the methods employed are interesting, if the accounts given by the natives are to be credited. Jackals and foxes are killed with assegais of split bamboo; antelope are caught by sending out a tame buck with nooses on his horns which entangle the wild ones when they try to eject him; some animals are shot from behind a trained cow which conceals the sportsman and provides a rest for his gun; and spring guns are sometimes placed in the tracks of game. Birds are caught in nooses placed near the cage of a decoy; and by limed twigs baited with worms. Waterfowl are driven, by a man concealed behind a trained cow, over a net spread under water.
* ↑ Nagaram taluk is also commonly known as the Tatipaka sima ('country') from the village of that name within it, and Amalapuram taluk as the Kona sima ('the end country').
* ↑ 1 The parts of Cocanada and Peddapuram taluks and of the Pithapuram division which are watered by the Yeleru river are often spoken of as Porlunadu. Cf. Chapter XV, p. 221.
* ↑ 2 See below Chapter II, p. 31 and Chapter XV, p. 227.
* ↑ * The Sabdakalpadruma by Sir Rájah Rádha Kántha Déva (Calcutta, 1856).
* ↑ † See below p. 5.
* ↑ * The Engineering Works of the Gódávari Delta, by Mr. G. T. Walch (Madras, 1896), p. 1.
* ↑ † Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer.
* ↑ * Memoirs, Geol. Surv., India, xviii, pt. 3, 5.
* ↑ † Mr. G. T. Walch in The Engineering Works of the Gódávari Delta (Madras, 1896), p. 1.
* ↑ ‡ See Chapter XV, p. 279.
* ↑ * Another account says they were brought from the Ganges. The Gódávari is frequently spoken of by the name of the Ganges in ancient writings.
* ↑ † See Chapter XV, p. 202.
* ↑ ‡ The traditional Bháradvája mouth is located at Tirtálamondi, a hamlet of Guttinádévi, and the Kausika mouth in Rámésvaram, a hamlet of Sámantakurru, both in the Amalápuram taluk.
* ↑ * Journa' of the tour of the Agent of Fort St. George to Madapollam in 1679.
* ↑ The geological formation of the country above the gháts is described in some detail by Dr. W King in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, xviii, pt. 3, and that of the area below the hills in Memoirs, xvi, pt. 3.
* ↑ * See below p. 10.
* ↑ * Records, Geol. Surv., India, iv, 59 fol'.
* ↑ † Information kindly supplied by Messrs. Binny & Co., Madras, the agents of the Company.
* ↑ ‡ See Memoirs, Geol. Surv., India, xviii, pt. 3, 29, 45.
* ↑ * Nagpur, 1870, 506.
* ↑ † Information furnished by Messrs. Binny & Co., Madras.
* ↑ * This paragraph was written by Mr. C. A. Barber (the Government Botanist) for the Imperial Gazetteer.
* ↑ * Mr Benson in G.O. No. 28, Revenue, dated 11th January 1884,p. 15 See also p. 13 of the same G.O.