1883. The latter then succeeded to the estate; but she died in CHAP. XV. Anakapalle. 1892 and the property passed to her minor son, the present proprietor, Márella Chinna Venkatáchalam. The estates were at first managed by the minor's father and uncle, but in 1896 were placed under the care of the Court of Wards until the minor attained his majority in October 1903.
The Rámayamma mentioned above purchased in 1883 (from her stridhanam property, she said) the proprietary estate of Mámidiváda in the Sarvasiddhi taluk, which consists (see p. 310) of one village subdivided off from the Chipurupalle estate. Her daughter Mahálakshmamma, the late proprietrix of Kasimkóta and Mélupáka, inherited this property and, at her wish, it was assigned to her two minor daughters, Nedunúri Ráma Lakshmamma and Vallúri Chinna Ammáyi. Their brother, the present proprietor of Kasimkóta and Mélupáka, has been appointed their guardian under section 59 of Act I of 1902.
Sankaram: A village of 441 inhabitants about 1½ miles north by east of the Anakápalle travellers' bungalow. In the fields belonging to it are two low, contiguous, rocky hills, running east and west, which are locally known as the Bojjanakonda and contain some of the most remarkable Buddhist remains in the Presidency. The more western of these hills is formed of a series of rock strata which have been thrust over into a vertical position, and along its crest these crop out in four or five low, parallel, walls of rock which have weathered into parallel rows of pinnacles. Each of these pinnacles, some scores in number and of all sizes, has been fashioned into a Buddhist stúpa of the usual pattern. The villagers, not recognizing what they are, call them the Kotilingam, or 'crore of lingams'. In three places the strata have compacted to form a solid mass of rock on the crest of the hill, and this has been cut, with immense labour, into three huge stúpas, the biggest of which is about 30 ft. in diameter and of corresponding height. On the southern side, these are weathered out of all shape, but on the north they are almost as sharp as the day they were cut. The villagers call them 'the heaps of grain.' To make these three great stúpas, cuttings have been driven right through the solid rock of the hill, and in the case of the largest of the three the excavation is some 6 feet wide and 20 deep. It contains, at the bottom, a porch about 27 feet long by 5 wide and feet in height, also excavated in the solid rock, out of which opens a small, plain, shrine some 7 feet square.