POLAVARAM DIVISION.
The Pólavaram division is the south-westernmost portion of the Gódávari Agency, and is the only part of the district which lies on the right bank of the river. The density of its population ({103 to the square mile) is far above that of any of the other agency tracts. At the permanent settlement of 1802-03 it was all included in the Pólavaram estate. At present only 24 of its villages are zamindari land, of which twelve belong to the so-called Pólavaram and Pattisam estates, which are really one property in the possession of the present Pólavaram proprietor; five belong to the Gútála estate and four to the estate of Gangólu; and one village belongs to each of the muttas of Bayyanagúdem, Billumilli and Jangareddigúdem, which three form one estate. The fortunes of these various properties are referred to below.
Pólavaram is more fertile and more civilized than the other parts of the Agency. On the west and south it is as flat as the adjacent Yernagúdem taluk, though more covered with jungle. It possesses no industries worth mention. The attempts made to discover coal at Bedadanúru, the mica and plumbago of the division, and the chances of finding gold in its south-west corner, are referred to in Chapter I.
The Pattisam and Táduváyi temples are well known in the surrounding country.
Gangólu: Eight miles west-south-west of Pólavaram. Population 1,784. Its hamlet Hukumpéta is the head-quarters of a zamindari which was acquired from the Gútála estate by purchase about 40 years ago, and is still held by the descendants of the purchasers. It comprises four villages and pays a peshkash of Rs. 1,240.
Gútála: Five miles south of Pólavaram. Population 3,300. Contains a vernacular lower secondary school for boys and a Sanskrit school. It was once the chief place of one of the 'pergunnas' of the ancient Pólavaram zamindari, and its history is sketched in the account of this latter below. In the circumstances there narrated, it was put up to auction in 1810. In 1812 and 1813 it was sold for arrears of revenue, and in 1827 it passed by private sale to one Maniyam Venkataratnam, an ancestor of the present holder. Since then various purchases and sales have much modified the extent of the
