tradition locates in this taluk. It is supposed that the wings of the bird Jatáyu, who tried to oppose Rávana's flight but was killed by him, fell here.
Rékapalle is still important as the chief village of the most considerable of the inferior proprietors of this part of the country. The Rékapalle estate formed only a part of the large possessions of the Ashwa Raos of Palavancha and Bhadráchalam referred to in the account of the latter place above, and it was leased in 1574 to a family of Kórukonda (in Rajahmundry taluk) who enjoyed it for nearly two and a half centuries. In 1814 the then holder was murdered by his four díwáns, who seem to have enjoyed the estate thereafter either jointly or successively. Three of the four having died, the survivor, Venkayya, became for a time the sole proprietor; but in 1857 he was compelled to hand over a portion of the estate, then known as the Marrigúdem taluk, to one Rájaji, the son of one of his deceased accomplices. Rájaji misconducted himself, and his share was given over to the Bhadráchalam zamindar's direct control by the Central Provinces Government in 1862. The present proprietor of Rékapalle is the son of Venkayya. The relations of the inferior to the superior proprietors in this taluk are referred to in Chapter XL Rékapalle was formerly the head-quarters of a taluk which comprised that part of the Bhadráchalam taluk which lies to the east of a line running due north from a point a little to the east of Gaurldévipéta.
This country joined in the Rampa rebellion of 1879, and at one time gave a great deal of trouble to the authorities. The causes of the rising were quite different from those which operated in Rampa. Under the Central Provinces administration, podú cultivation had been almost unrestricted, and the assessment on it had been only four annas an axe. The Madras Government almost trebled the assessment, excluded the cultivators from certain tracts, and levied a tax on the felling of certain species of reserved trees. These new taxes and restrictions were considered a grievance, and it was for this reason that the Rampa leaders found adherents in the Rékapalle country. On the tenth of July some Rampa insurgents under Ambul Reddi, aided by a number of Rékapalle people, attacked the Vaddigúdem police-station. They were driven back, and a party of armed police was directed to proceed up to the river from Rajahmundry in a steamer and launch. The steamer which was without a guard or arms, incautiously went on ahead, was attacked a little above the gorge, and was taken by the insurgents. A
