Peddápuram taluk.
Peddápuram taluk lies in the north-east of the district, south of the Yellavaram Agency and west of Pithápuram and Tuni. The northern part of it is very like the Agency in character, and is, in particular, exceedingly malarious. The greater part of the taluk, as well as the Pithápuram country, is known to the natives as the Porlunádu. Very little of Peddápuram is irrigated. More than half the wet area is under the Yeléru river, and over 4,600 acres under the large Lingamparti tank. Eighty per cent. of the soil is red ferruginous, eleven per cent. black regar, and only six per cent. alluvial. The average rainfall is 36 80 inches a year. The comparative barrenness of the taluk results in many contrasts to the delta tracts: the incidence of the land revenue, for example, is only Rs. 1-13-7 per head; the density of the population (331 per square mile) is unusually low for this district; education is more backward than in any other taluk on the plains; and only 5 per cent. of the male population can read and write.
Of the few industries in the taluk, the most important is the manufacture of jaggery, which is exported in large quantites to the refinery at Samalkot.
The taluk was originally a part of the large zamindari of Peddápuram, the history of which is sketched below. It is now nearly all Government land. The small estates of Kirlampúdi, Víravaram, Dontamúru and Ráyavaram, one village of the Pithápuram zamindari and the Jagammapéta estate are the only areas that are still zamindari land.
Annavaram: Twenty-five miles north-east of Peddápuram. Population 605. Possesses a small choultry and a temple of some local fame. The latter contains an image of Satya Náráyanasvámi which was discovered on a hill near by as the result of a vision seen in a dream by a local Brahman, and many people, especially those desirous of children, go on pilgrimages to it.
Dháramallápuram: Forty miles north by east of Peddápuram among the hills. Population 86. Contains the ruins of an old mud fort, oval in shape and half a mile in diameter, which is declared by local tradition to have been built by Bussy after his expedition against Bobbili.
