CHAP. I.
General description. Rajahmundry and Peddapuram;1[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[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