last is endowed with an income of Rs. 3,400 from land, and was bequeathed to the taluk board. The town also contains a high school belonging to the American mission and a vernacular lower secondary school for girls.
It was for nearly three centuries the capital of a great zamindari estate which seems at one time to have extended from north of Tótapalli to Nagaram island. About 1785 it 'comprised nearly one-half of the whole Circar of Rajahmundry, both in extent and value, and contained 585 villages.'1[1]
The old zamindars of Peddápuram are said to be descended from Vachchavaya Musali, the perfidious minister of Vidiádri, the last Gajapati ruler of Rajahmundry, whose treachery is said to have been one of the factors which facilitated the Muhammadan conquest in 1571. The line of descent was unbroken till 1734, when the estate was apparently in the hands of a woman, the zamindarni Vachchavaya Rágamma who was defeated near Peddápuram by the Muhammadans for joining in the rebellion of the chiefs of Ellore, Mogalturru and Pithápuram. 2[2] The Muhammadan general then enticed the sons of Rágamma into his camp and tortured them to death 'by drizzling on them hot-boiled oil with brushes.'3[3] Rágamma burnt herself alive when she heard the news. 'Challa Peddy, a faithful servant, made haste to the palace and took permission from the Ranee to set the palace on fire to prevent the ladies being maltreated by the barbarous soldiers of the Sirlushkar.'4[4] Her grandson was sent for safety to Vizianagram. In 1749 the family was re-established by the amildar, Nimat Ali, who for a bribe of Rs. 90,000 appointed one Ráyappa Rázu, a grandson of Rágamma, as zamindar. Ráyappa Rázu, like most of the other zamindars, hated the Vizianagram Rája and so opposed the English in their advance in 1758. He was either killed at Condore,' 5[5] or was deposed by Ananda Rázu of Vizianagram in the following year, and his son Timma Rázu, then a boy only seven years old, succeeded to the estate. Timma Rázu ruled till 1797 and was followed by Ráya Jagapati Rázu, with whom the permanent settlement was made. He died in 1804 without issue, and left the estate to a minor child adopted by him.6[6]
- ↑ 1 Grant's Political Survey of the Northern Circars already several times cited.
- ↑ 2 See p. 235.
- ↑ 3 MS. history of Pithápuram (Cocanada, 1851), p. 30.
- ↑ 4 Ibid.
- ↑ 5 Grant's Political Survey.
- ↑ 6 Selections from the Records of the Gódávari district (Cocanada, 1891); Mr. Hodgson's report, dated 23rd November 1805, para. 3.
