GAZETTEER
Vátáda (alias Révu vátáda): Now a hamlet of Vákapádu but better known formerly. It lies on the coast at the point where the Sárada and Varáha rivers unite and enter the sea. It used to be a port, but this was closed at the same time, and for the same reasons, as Pólavaram.
Yellamanchili: Head-quarters of the taluk and a union of 6,536 inhabitants; contains a railway-station, a district munsif's court, a station of the Canadian Baptist Mission and a travellers' bungalow. Dominating the whole place rises a hill on the top of which are many broken stones and bricks of the ancient pattern, and — a landmark for miles round — the two stone posts and lintel of a doorway. These are locally declared to be the remains of a palace and fort of the Golla kings and the hill is called Núki Pápa's hillock after, it is said, the sister of one of these rulers. On this hill two lots of ancient coins have been found. Mr. Sewell1[1] says the first find was made in 1863 and consisted of cast copper coins bearing the device of a bull couchant and the legend Sri Chanda Dé (va). The second find was in 1895 and comprised a number of copper coins identified by Dr. Hultzsch as being those of the Eastern Chálukya king Vishnuvardhana (A.D. 663-72).2[2] That the place was anciently of much importance is shown by the fact that whenever any considerable excavations are made the ruins of old temples and buildings are unearthed.
Close under the south face of Núki Pápa's hillock is the shrine to the village goddess, Rámachandramma. She is declared to appear to her worshippers at her annual festival (when a buffalo is sacrificed to her) in the form of flashes of lightning in the sky. Paiditalli of Mámidiváda does the same.
Yellamanchili lies on the trunk road and the spacious military encamping-ground (still called by the natives 'the cantonment') shows that it was once an important halting-station. On one side of this stand the taluk office and the bomb-proof hospital, formerly a travellers' bungalow. Near one corner of it is the shrine of Achayamma Pérantalu, which affords a good instance of the genesis of local deities and their shrines. Achayamma, a
Kápu woman, committed sati on this spot some 60 years ago (her sister is still alive) and the reverence which would in any case have been paid to the place in consequence was increased a hundred-fold by the eventual appearance of an ant-hill over it. The hill was duly protected by a small thatched building; and now an annual festival is held, vows are paid to the lady, and her resting-place is covered with ex roto offerings.
315
