will of Mahárája Sir Gajapati Rao executed in August 1896; one (Kuppili) was similarly bequeathed to the three children of his second daughter, wife of the Rája of Kurupám, named respectively V. Súrya Náráyana Rázu, V. N. Gajapati Rázu, and V. J. Ratnayamma, who now reside at Waltair; while the last of the estates (Shérmuhammadpuram) is the property of M.R.Ry. A. V. Jagga Eao.
The largest of these properties, as has been said, is Anakápalle. It comprises 22 villages, mucli of the land in which is watered by three channels from the Sárada which are supplied from two anicuts and equipped with head-sluices.
Kasimkóta: A crowded and untidy union of 7,450 inhabitants, lying amid level cultivation 3½ miles south-west of Anakápalle, just off the trunk road and on the bank of the Sárada river. Contains a railway-station. No traces survive of the fort after which it is named. During the Muhammadans' rule of the country it was 'y*' chiefest Fort in the Country' and the head-quarters of a command in the Chicacole Circar (it still contains the descendants of the many Musalmans who received inam lands in those days); and it continued to be the chief town of a division for some time after the British acquired the district in 1768, and the doings of its Rája frequently figure in the old correspondence. Col. Forde's troops here joined those of Vizianagram previous to their march southwards against the French at Rajahmundry and Masulipatam in 1758 (p. 33). Glass bangles and coarse white cloths are made in the village.
The place is the residence of the Bráhman owner of the proprietary estates of Kasimkóta and Mélupáka, the latter of which lies in Sarvasiddhi taluk. The^e were two of the properties which were formed in 1802 out of the havili lands and put up to auction at a permanent assessment. Mr. Carmichael says that they were then bought by the Rája of Vizianagram for Rs. 4,343 and Rs. 5,265, respectively; that two years later, the Rája sold them to Kárumanchi Venkatáchalam, at whose death in 1837 they passed to his maternal grandson, Mantripragada Venkata Rao; that on the latter's demise in 1845 his brother Chiranjivi Rao and his posthumous son Venkatáchalam jointly succeeded and, being minors, were put under the Court of Wards; and that the former died in 1851, while the latter attained his majority in 1863 and died in May 1865 leaving a minor widow, Rámayamma, and an infant daughter Mahálakshmamma. The former was made h ward of court until her majority in 1867, and died in
