covered with jungle and inhabited by backward people to whom CHAP. I. General Description. it is considered inexpedient to apply the whole of the ordinary law of the land. They are accordingly administered, under a special enactment passed in 1839 (see p. 196), by the Collector in his special capacity of 'Agent to the Governor' for these tracts, and are known aa 'the Agency.' The ordinary courts of justice have no jurisdiction within them (the Agent being the chief civil and criminal tribunal) and the Agent is moreover endowed with unusual powers there, such as authority to deport on warrant, without formal trial, persons whose presence is harmful to the cause of law and order.
The district is arranged for administrative purposes into the Vizagapatam division. Vizagapatam. * Srungavarapukota. Vizianagram division. Vizianagram. Bimlipatam. Chipurupalle. Gajapatinagaram. * Palkonda. Narasapatam division. * Golgonda. Anakapalle. Sarvasiddhi. * Viravilli. Parvatipur division. * Parvatipur. ** Bissamkatak. Bobbili. ** Gunupur. ** Rayagada. * Salur. Koraput division. ** Koraput. ** Jeypore. ** Padwa. ** Pottangi. ** Malkanagiri. ** Naurangpur. five divisions and twenty-three taluks shown in the margin. Those of the latter which are marked with one asterisk are partly in the Agency above referred to, while those with two asterisks are included wholly within that area. Only three of the taluks (Golgonda, Palkonda and Sarvasiddhi) are ryotwari land, the others (which make up nine-tenths of the whole district) baing zamindari. The head-quarters of the various taluks are at the places after which each is named except in the cases of Golgonda, Sarvasiddhi and Viravilli, the chief stations in which are Narasapatam, Yellamanchili and Chodavaram respectively. The chief towns in the district are the municipalities of Vizagapatam (with its European suburb of Waltair), Vizianagram, Anakapalle and Bimlipatam, and the unions of Bobbili, Parvatipur, Salur, Palkonda and Narasapatam. Excepting these, there is no town of as many as 10,000 inhabitants. Some account of them, and also of other places of interest in the district, will be found in Chapter XV below.
The name Vizagapatam is properly Vaisakhapattanam, Etymology of name. 'the town of Vaisakha' or Kartikeya, the Hindu Mars. Tradition has it that some centuries ago a king of the Andhra dynasty