# Vizagapatam/Gazetteer/Bimlipatam Taluk

BIMLIPATAM TALUK.
BIMLiPATAM taluk lies on the coast next north of Vizagapatam. In appearance it resembles the rest of the low country of the district, the soil being red, palmyras the commonest trees, and low hills frequent. The chief places of interest in it are the following: —
Bimlipatam, the head- quarters of the deputy tahsildar and of an ámin of the Vizianagram zamindari, is a municipality of 10,212 inhabitants and the busiest sea-port in the district. The town is most picturesquely situated at the mouth of the Chitti- valasa river, close under the big laterite-topped Narasimha hill, which is formed of deep-red soil scored with brown and purple streaks of rock and is well known to mariners from the prominent Narasimha temple half way up it.
Bimlipatam first came into notice as a settlement of the Dutch, who built a fort and factory here in the seventeenth century. The early records of the English factory at Vizagapatam are full of references to 'our neighbours the Dutch.'
The place played no prominent part in history. According to paragraphs 12 and 13 of Hodgson's Short description of the Dutch Settlements in the Madras records, 1 it was 'represented to beheld under Fermans granted by the Nizam and confirmed by the Mogul or Emperor of Delhi, bearing various dates from A.D. 1628 to A.D. 1713, and by a Cowle granted by Hajee Housson in A.D. 1734 and A.D. 1752 by Jaffur Ally Khan. The two last men- tioned persons were Naibs or deputies of the Nizam in the Circars. The Dutch are stated to have first occupied these factories about the year A.D. 1628.' In 1754, the factory was burnt by the Maráthas under Ragoji Bhonsla (see p. 31) and robbed of several chests of treasure. In the same year, say other old records, the then zamindar of Vizianagram granted pattas to the Dutch renewing permission formerly given to build a fort, possess a washing-green for bleaching cloth and establish a mint. Hodgson's report says that he is satisfied with the evidence ​showing that the Dutch did actually coin copper there, but states that no territorial jurisdiction was attached to the factory (the only appendages to which were three washing-greens) and that it was 'merely a commercial factory or lodge with certain privileges.' On the outbreak in 1781 of the war between the English and the Dutch it (with the rest of the latter's possessions in India) was seized by the English East India Company and, under orders received from England, was destroyed. In accordance with the peace of 1784, it was restored in 1785. Ten years later war again broke out between the two powers and the place surrendered to the English. In 1819 it was restored by Mr, John Smith, the Collector, to the representative of the Netherlands Government in consequence of the convention of the allied powers in 1814; and was held by the Dutch until 1st June 1825, when, under the operation of the treaty of March 1824 between England and Holland, it was made over (with the other Dutch possessions in India) to the East India Company. The Collector, Mr. Robert Bayard, gave a receipt for 'the ruins of the Fort and Factory, with three bleaching grounds of Bimlipatam, with the Boundaries, according to the limits thereof.' Since then the place has been British territory and Government property. The three washing-greens (which are still known locally as Valanda bhimúlu, or 'the Hollanders' lands') have been rented since 1826 to the Rájas of Vizianagram, who pay Rs. 50 annually for them.
Little now remains of the fort except its flagstaff bastion, facing the sea, on which the existing flagstaff stands, and some massive brick-work (in the Mála quarter of the town, about 50 yards east of the clock-tower) which was perhaps once a magazine. The land between these is still known as Kota dibba,or 'the fort mound.' An old plan of 1819 shows that the fort was then a rectangular construction, about 135 yards from east to west and 145 from north to south, containing a circular bastion at each corner and the ruins of certain ' ammunition godowns' and of the mint.
Some of the Dutch who manned this little outpost left their bones in the half-forgotten cemetery which lies hidden away among the plantain gardens and palm groves of Kummaripálem, near the 'Hollanders' lands' and about half a mile off the fort, in the angle formed by the two roads running to Vizianagram and Vizagapatam. This contains thirteen tombstones, made of the local garnetiferous gneiss, bearing Dutch inscriptions and coats-of-arms and ranging in date from 1661 (the oldest tomb in the Northern Circars) to 1720. In the other cemetery on the beach ​between the flagstaff and the sea, are several more Dutch tombs of later date.
After the Dutch finally relinquished the place it rapidly decayed, and up to 1846 it was 'a miserable fishing village.' About that time, Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co., having obtained (see p. 289) the lease of the Pálkonda estate, built a factory at Chittivalasa, about three miles to the north, for making jaggery from sugar-cane, the cultivation of which they set themselves to develop. This factory at one time turned out 6,000 tons of sugar annually. At about the same period the firm set on foot an export business in local produce, principally oil-seeds. The factory was afterwards (in 1867) converted into a mill for spinning and weaving by steam the local 'jute' referred to on p. 101. It is the only jute mill in the Presidency and is now a flourishing concern belonging to Arbuthnot's Industrials, Ltd., containing 98 looms (50 more are being added) and over 2,000 spindles, employing 800 hands, and turning out about 26 lakhs of gunny bags annually.
The export trade originated by Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co. quickly attracted other European firms, and the town took a fresh lease of life. The ruins of the residences erected by the merchants both during this period and at the end of the eighteenth century when the exports of the hand-woven fabrics of the place was still a profitable business, stand along the road running to Chittivalasa,and are still known by their names. Dawson Méda, Lawson Méda and ' Malkan' (Malcolm) Méda are instances, and the last of these is now the property of the Vizianagram estate and is kept up as a halting-place. That estate also owns a large house (now much out of repair) near the clock-tower. The most favourite bungalows at present are those facing the sea, alongside the flagstaff bastion and the Club.
The European community thus established did much for the town. They supported the voluntary municipal association started in 1861 and referred to on p. 214 above and organized subscriptions for a hospital, school and church. This last was opened for worship in November 1863 and consecrated by the Bishop of Madras in the following March. The people of the place subscribed Rs. 3,011 towards the cost of the building and Government gave a similar sum on condition that it was handed over to them. The voluntary association is also responsible for the clock-tower already mentioned, a quaint erection with Gothie embellishments and buttresses, resembling the belfry of an English village church, which was put up to carry a clock presented to the community by one of its members, Mr. John Young. ​By 1868 the total value of the imports and exports, including treasure, had risen to nearly 43 lakhs. But thirty-five years later, in 1902—03, the figure was still about the same, and the town cannot now be said to be in a flourishing condition. In the thirty years between the census of 1871 and that of 1901 its population only increased by 1,468 persons and the advance was relatively smaller than in any other town in the district except Rázám. The imports consist chiefly of cotton twist and piece goods and the exports (to give them in order of value) of gingelly seed (sent mainly to Marseilles), other seeds, tanued hides and skins, raw and manufactured jute (sent to Dundee and Hamburg, chiefly), gingelly oil, and the produce of the neighbouring hill-tracts, such as myrabolams, horns, etc. The town owes its present importance to the fact that it is the nearest port to Vizianagram through which all the hill-produce comes, but when the railway runs from the hills to Vizagapatam it will probably dwindle rapidly. Seven European firms have export agencies in the place at present, and there are two steam, and two hand, presses for baling the raw jute of the district. The Clau Line steamers call regularly and the Bank of Madras has a branch in the town. The new port light erected in 1903 consists of a white dioptric light of the fourth order of 750 candle-power flashing four times a minute, and is visible eleven miles out at sea in clear weather.
The port consists of the mouth of the Chittivalasa river, which is almost silted up for much of the year but has been known to be scoured out to a depth of 16 ft., and a bight or bay protected on the south by a hill which runs a short distance out from the line of the coast and terminates seawards in a reef of rocks. The anchorage is in five fathoms about half a mile from the shore and cargo is landed and shipped by means of masúla boats.
Mr. W. Parkes, an expert sent by Government in 1882 to report on the capabilities of the port, gave it as his opinion that the existence of the river mouth so close to it was a great objection to the undertaking of any permanent works for the protection of the anchorage. He said 1 —
'The river is insignificant at ordinary times, but in floods it fills the eleven arches of a bridge, each 30 feet span and 15 feet high, with a torrent of silt-laden water. The solid matter thus carried to the sea is dispersed by the waves and currents over a large area, so that its effects are imperceptable upon the coast; but if those dispersing forces were interfered with, which it is the very object of a ​harbour to do, the movement of the solid matter would be arrested and it would remain as an accumulation possibly extensive enough to neutralize in a couple of days the effects of several years' work.'
PADMANÁBHAM: Village of 711 inhabitants ten miles north-west of Bimlipatam on the bank of the Chittivalasa river. Known in local history as the place where Viziaráma Rázu, Rája of Vizianagram, was slain in 1794 in the fight with the Company's troops referred to on p. 53. The spot where he fell is pointed out in a tope just north-north-east of the village and is marked by a small masonry erection which is cared for by the villagers. On the top of the hill which overlooks the place is a small Vishnu shrine reached by a flight of some 1,300 steps, and at the foot of it is another larger temple to the same deity. Tradition says that both were improved and endowed by Ananda Rázu, the predecessor of Viziaráma Rázu as Rája of Vizianagram, and that a Kápu who was previously in charge of the former was induced to relinquish his claims by the grant of a hamlet (which is still called Archakapálem or. 'the priest's hamlet') and on the condition (still carried out by his descendants) that he should do worship every Saturday to the image on the slab which stands by the dhvaja stamhhaon the top of the hill.
Potnuru : Twelve miles from Bimlipatam, on the bank of the Chittivalasa river; population 2,834. At present insignificant enough, it was formerly of importance. Krishna Déva Ráya, the Vijayanagar king who conquered Orissa about 1515 (see p. 28),chose it as the place in which to plant the pillar of victory recounting his conquests. Allasáni Peddana, the then poet laureate of Vijayanagar, says in his poemManucharitra (stanzas 36 and 38 of canto the first) that the 'fire-like prowess of Krishna Ráya destroyed Jámi, Kottam, Vaddádi and Pottunúru' and that the king planted in this last a pillar 'as high as a palm-tree' on which were inscribed stories of his victories over the Kalinga ruler which filled the eyes of the gods with tears when they read them. Another inscription recounting his successes is in the Simháchalam temple, see p. 29,
The tale is confirmed by a passage in the poem Ámuktha mályada (verse 290, canto the fourth), which is attributed to Krishna Déva himself, and by an inscription1 ' of that king's at Séndamangalam in South Arcot. The pillar has now disappeared, but frequent discoveries in Potnúru of fragments of sculptured stones and gold coins bearing a bull upon them strengthen the traditions regarding its departed importance. ​Santapilly (properly Chintapalle) is a small village 18 miles up the coast from Bimlipatam which gives its name to a dangerous ridge of rocks and the light erected to warn ships off them.
The rocks are about six miles from the shore, right in the track of coasting vessels; and as they give no indication of their presence in fine weather and are not visible until a ship is almost on them, they form one of the most dangerous reefs on the whole Madras seaboard. They are steep on all sides, surrounded with deep water. Between them and the land is a clear channel four miles in width and having a minimum depth of five fathoms, through which ships can pass safely.
The light was first erected in 1847, at the recommendation of Captain Biden, Master Attendant at Madras, who surveyed the Santapilly rock in September 1846, and it is a great boon to ships making Bimlipatam. In 1902 the old light was moved to Yizagapatam and a new light-house was erected in a position nearer the shore and the power of its light was increased. This now stands 140 feet above the sea and is a white light, hashing twice every ten seconds, of 45,000 candle-power. Three ships have grounded on the rocks since the light was first exhibited in 1847. Two of them floated off immediately, but the third, the Jules Rose (see p. 154) became a total wreck.
* ↑ 1 See Mr. A. Rea's Monumental Remains of the Dutch East India Co., Madras, 1897.
* ↑ 1 G.O., No. 1718 W., Public Works, dated 8th July 1882.
* ↑ 1 No. 74 of 1903 in the Government Epigraphist's lists.