quit-rent of 1,000 pagodas on the property was one of the assets of the Peddáápuram zamindari on which the peshkash payable to the Company was assessed at the permanent settlement. That settlement did not recognize the mansabdar save as a subordinate of the Peddápuram zamindar, nor deal with him direct. In 1847 the Peddápuram zamindari was sold for arrears of peshkash and bought in on behalf of Government, and from that date the feudal service of the mansabdar was due to Government and was occasionally demanded. In 1859 a money payment of Rs. 6,500 per annum, being one fourth of the assumed rental of the villages, was substituted for this service. The estate thus became an unenfranchised inam from which no service was required. Subsequently the mansabdar ran into debt and alienated a number of his villages. Government accordingly decided in 1881 1[1] to assess the whole estate fully and take it under their own management, and, while remitting the demand fixed in substitution of the former military service, to pay the mansabdar annually the difference between the estimated cost of that service and the estimated value of the estate, or Rs. 19,500. The ruins of the mansabdar's fort still exist in Tótapalli. It was built of mud and stone, was oval in shape, and covered some 200 acres. The land inside it is now under cultivation.
Víravaram: Eight miles north of Peddápuram. The chief village of a small estate which previously formed part of the Peddápuram zamindari and was purchased at a sale for arrears by a certain Rao Bhanayyamma, from whom the present holder has inherited it. It contains eleven villages and pays a peshkash of Rs. 26,759.
Yelésvaram: Fifteen miles north of Peddápuram on the border of the Yellavaram division. Population 5,180. It is the chief village of a union which also includes Appanapálaiyam, Ráyavaram, Lingamparti and Náráyanapatnam, and the population of which is 8,531. The village contains a local fund dispensary (established 1882), a travellers' bungalow and a local fund market. This last is much used by the hill tribes, and the village has been appropriately called the gate of the Agency. It is the scene of a large festival in honour of the village goddess Núkálamma in Vaisáka (May-June), which is also largely attended by the agency people.
- ↑ 1 G.O. No. 559, Judicial, dated 19th March 1881.
