founded it. This sage was turned into a woman by Vishnu and married a Pithápuram Rája who was killed in battle with all his children. Thereupon Vishnu pitied him and turned him back into a man. Both transformations were effected by bathing in tanks at Sarpavaram, the former in the Nárada Gundam, the latter in the Muktika Sarasu tank. To bathe in the Nárada Gundam is considered a holy act. The name of the town is locally said to be derived from the fact that it was in this place that, as the Mahábhárata relates, Paríkshit the son of Arjuna was bitten by a snake and died. His son performed the sarpa yágam (serpent sacrifice) to effect the destruction of all those reptiles, but one snake was spared by Indra's mercy.
The temple is a plain building of no beauty. A late Rája of Pithápuram built its gópuram at a great cost. Eight inscriptions in it (Nos. 452-59 of 1893) have been copied by the Government Epigraphist. The oldest of these, on a pillar in the mantapam in front of it, is in Tamil and is dated in the 46th year of Kulóttunga Chóla Déva — apparently Kulóttunga I (A.D. 1070-1118)— or 1116 A.D. One, dated A.D. 1414, is a record of Véma Reddi, and several others of the early part of the thirteenth century are grants of a Vishnuvardhana Mahárája, who is probably the same person as the local chieftain Mallapa III.
Tállaréu : Two miles south of Coringa on the east bank of the river of that name. This village, like so many on this river, appears to have once been an important trading centre. It is now only interesting as the scene of a small indigenous ship-building industry.
Yanam (French, Yanaon) is a small French Settlement which is entirely surrounded by British territory. It is situated about twelve miles from the mouth of the Gautami Gódávari, at the point where the Coringa river branches off from the main stream. The Settlement extends along the banks of these rivers for seven or eight miles, and its area is returned at 2,258 acres. Besides Yanam, it includes the four hamlets of Adivipálem, Kánakalapéta, Mettakúru, and Kursammapéta. Its population in 1901 was 5,005 against 5,327 in 1891. The town contains a few handsome European buildings, including a fine church: and there is a spacious walled parade on the south side facing the Gódávari.
Yanam is a comparatively modern town, and was not in existence in 1706. The French established a factory there about 1750, and the place was formally ceded to them in 1752. It shared the vicissitudes of their other possessions on this
