Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/28

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10
VIZAGAPATAM.

The names Nagavali and Langulya are derivod from words meaning ' plough,' CHAP. I. Rivers. and the local legends say that, the river was made by Balarama with that implement. Five shrines have been built upon its banks; namely, those to Patalesvara at Payakapad in the Rayagada taluk; to Somesvara at Gumpa, where the Janjhavati joins it; to Sangamesvara ('the Siva of the confluence') at Sangam, where the Suvarnamukhi flows into it; to Kotesvara at Chicacole; and to Maninagesvara where it enters the sea. At all of these, largely-attended festivals are held at Sivaratri, The Gumpa temple was in great danger in the flood caused by the storm at the end of 1905. The pujari offered incessant and unwearying oblations, and at last the river fell.

The Vamsadhdra, The Vamsadhara. so called from the bamboo (vamsa) which fringes its banks, rises in the extreme north of the Bissamkatak taluk and passes southwards, through the centre of Gunupur, into Ganjam. It belongs rather to the latter district than to Vizagapatam.

Of the second group of the rivers of the district, The T61. namely those which drain the Ghats and the country west of them, the northern-most of all, the Tel, similarly belongs rather to Bengal than to Madras. It merely receives the drainage of the northern corner of Naurangpur taluk and forms for some distance its northern boundary. The river dries up in the hot weather, but in the rains it would probably serve for timber- floating if the falls at the point where it drops down from the 2,000 feet plateau could be somewhat improved.

The next river to the south, the Indravati, The Indravati. rises in the jungles of Kalahandi, winds in a very zig-zag course from east to west across the Naurangpur taluk a couple of miles south of Naurangpur village, and thence runs into Bastar State (receiving at the boundary the Bhaskel, which drains part of north Naurangpur),passes to the north of Jagdalpur, the capital of Bastar, over the beautiful Chittrakota falls 25 miles further west, and so eventually into the Godavari. In the Naurangpur taluk it flows in a deep silent stream which, at the point where it is crossed by the main road northwards from Jeypore, is in flood time 465 feet wide and 24 feet deep. Though a ferry is maintained here, the river (which is never dry) is at present a most formidable obstacle to all traffic passing north and south. In Bastar the current is also quiet up to the Chittrakota falls, but thereafter the bed is full of rocks and a succession of rapids, and navigation and timber-floating are alike almost impossible.