GAZETTEER.
was similarly removed on the motion of the Agent, who introduced a new three-years settlement. Of late years matters have gone on quietly, and in the decade 1891-1901 the increase of population in Malkanagiri (26.8 per cent.) was proportionately higher than in any other taluk in the district.
Three places in it deserve a note : —
Kondakambéru, a village of 122 souls containing a police-station and a travellers' bungalow, is most picturesquely placed among heavy bamboo jungle on a spit of land between the Machéru and the Páléru, which here unite. Through it runs the track from Malkanagiri (25 miles to the north-west) to the Golgonda hills. It is the chief place in the mutta of the same name, the muttadar of which was hanged for joining the 1880 fituri. About a mile to the north-east, amid the jungle, is a dilapidated stone shrine to Siva with an inscription in it, where worship is still maintained and into which every passer by tosses a flower. Tradition says it was once the centre of a flourishing village. Stone temples and inscriptions are rare things in this taluk.
Malkanagiri, the deputy tahsildar's and ámin's station, contains a dispensary and a bungalow and 1,025 inhabitants, most of whom live in thatched huts. Déva Dóngar, the hill about two miles to the east, contains remains of old ramparts; and other heights to the north-east are supposed to resemble an old man, his bundle of fried mohwa flower, his dog, and a hare the latter is chasing, and bear appropriate names.
Fifty years ago the village was described as 'a hot-bed of Meriah sacrifices'. Four victims were annually offered up at the four gates of the fort; six were killed triennially in the four dwáros; and other sacrifices were made on special occasions — the ráni, for example, slaying a girl of ten in May 1854, in fulfilment of a vow, on her recovery from illness. As many as one hundred meriahs were surrendered on one occasion to the authorities.
Mótu, which lies at the junction of the Saveri and Siléru in the southern corner of the taluk, contains only 163 inhabitants. Facing it, across the river, is Kunta, the head-quarters of a tahsildar of Bastar. The place has the advantage of being in communication, by the Saveri and the Gódávari, with Rajahmundry. Timber used to be exported by this route, but all that goes down now is a certain amount of minor forest produce. About 1890 a colony of Patháns settled in this village and began bullying the people round. In 1898 their leader, Róza Khát:(since dead), was put in jail for six weeks under an agency warrant, and since then they have given no trouble.
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