SALUR TALUK.
Lies next west of Bobbili, under the 3,000 feet plateau, the slopes of which, up to the main crest, belong to it but are included in the Agency. In the plains, four-fifths of the people are Telugus, but in the Agency nearly two-thirds of them are Játapus, Konda Doras and the more civilized classes of Khonds, amongst whom are a considerable sprinkling of Gadabas, who often occupy whole hamlets by themselves.
Korravanivalasa, an insignificant hamlet under the hills near Páchipenta, was the scene, in May 1900, of a riot attended with unusual and interesting circumstances. A Konda Dora of this place named Korra Mallayya pretended that he was inspired; and gradually gathered round him a camp of four or five thousand people, mostly hill men, from various parts of the Agency.
At first his proceedings were harmless enough, but in April he gave out that he was a re-incarnation of one of the five Pándava brothers; that his infant son was the god Krishna; that he would drive out the English and rule the country himself; and that to effect this he would arm his followers with bamboos which should be turned by magic into guns and would change the weapons of the authorities into water. Bamboos were cut and rudely fashioned to resemble guns, and armed with these the camp was drilled by 'the svámi,' as Mallayya had come to be called. The assembly next sent word that they were going to loot Páchipenta, and when, on the 1st May, two constables came to see how matters stood, the fanatics fell upon them and beat them to death. The local police endeavoured to recover the bodies, but owing to the threatening attitude of the svámi's followers had to abandon the attempt.
The District Magistrate then went to the place in person, collected reserve police from Vizagapatam, Párvatípur and Jeypore, and at dawn on the 7th May rushed the camp to arrest the svámi and the other leaders of the movement. The police were resisted by the mob and obliged to fire. Eleven of the rioters were killed, others wounded or arrested and the rest dispersed. Sixty of them were tried for rioting (of whom 57 were convicted) and three, including the svámi, for murdering the constables. Of the latter, the svámi died in jail and the other two were convicted and hanged. The svámi's infant son,
