GAZETTEER.
Malkanagiri also differs from the rest of Vizagapatam in its inhabitants. In the north and north-west the people are largely Mattiyas; on the hills to the east, on either side of the Machéru, live the Banda (or 'naked') Porojas, whose women wear the irreducible minimum of clothing; round Malkanagiri and Korukonda are colonies of Ronas, who came here as paiks; while south of Malkanagiri village the prevailing caste are the easy-going Kóyas, who have pushed their way up from the Gódávari district and speak a language of their own. These various communities have already been referred to in Chapter III. They are even more nomadic in their ways than the rest of the agency population,and a Malkanagiri village is here to-day and gone to-morrow.
The dry crops are much the same as elsewhere. A little paddy is raised in the lower hollows, along the banks of the Siléru is a good deal of tobacco, and particularly sweet oranges are grown in places. Exceptional facilities for irrigation exist in the many streams which run from the hills on the east into the Saveri, but they are quite neglected.
Not much is known of the taluk's early history. Local tradition carries it back to the times of one 'Orjon Malik' who was set upon by a confederacy which included the Jeypore Rája and was slain in a fort near Kórukonda. Jeypore obtained the taluk, and granted it on service tenure to the Uriya paik who had shot Orjon Malik in the fight, whose family held it hereditarily until comparatively recently. They were called Tát Rájas and apparently did much for the country, old tamarind groves, deserted tanks and forgotten forts testifying to their efforts. About 1835 1[1] the last of the line, Paramánando, died; and his widow's díwán, Erramma Rázu, being overthrown by a faction, procured the aid of some Rohillas from Hyderabad, regained the upper hand, and cut off the noses of four of his chief opponents. These gentlemen went and complained to Mr. Reade, the Agent (who happened to be at Narasapatam), and he sent up a party of sibbandis who captured Erramma Rázu. The latter was sentenced to transportation for life, but died suddenly in the Vizagapatam jail in 1859.
Soon afterwards Paramánando's widow died, and her daughter Bangára Dévi succeeded. But all authority vested in one Sanyási Pátro, a very turbulent character, who gave trouble by refusing to pay any kattubadi to Jeypore and by insisting on collecting moturpha and sayar in spite of the Agent's orders to the contrary. He was eventually imprisoned in 1865, and about 1869
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- ↑ 1 See Mr. Carmichael's Manual, 17.
