Kásipuram, population 280, lies eight miles nearly north of Srungavarapukóta in a valley among the foot-hills. Its Wednesday market is well known as a mart for hill produce.
It is the chief village of the inalienable and impartible estate of the same name, which comprises all the agency portion of the taluk. This, says Mr. Carmichael, formed part of the ancient barony of Srungavarapukóta, belonging to the Mukki family. Like other petty chiefs, the Mukkis were evicted by Vizianagram, bat in the general confusion consequent on the sequestration of that zamindari in 1798 (p. 50), one of the old family, Mukki Rájabhúpála Rázu, took forcible possession of Kásipuram.
In 1794, however, burying the old animosities, he was one of the most active protectors of Náráyana Rázu, the young son of the Rája of Vizianagram who had been slain in that year (p. 53) at Padmanábham. When the Vizianagram zamindari was restored in 1790, the Collector, unwilling to give its chiefs any footing in the hills, kept the Kásipuram estate under his own management and leased it first to the zamindar of Andra and afterwards to one Sági Tirapati Rázu. The latter was avowedly a servant or dependent of Vizianagram, and seeing this and that the property was too small to be made into a separate zamindari estate, the Collector eventually assigned it, on a separate sanad, to the Vizianagram family, whose property it still remains. At Anantagirion the hills here, the Rája of Vizianagram possesses a coffee estate under European management.
After his restoration to his estate in 1796, Rája Náráyana Rázu mentioned above took Vírabhadra Rázu, the son of his old protector Rájábhúpala Rázu, under his care, making him one of his principal retainers and giving him an allowance of Rs. 200 a month. When, however, he went to Benares in 1827 (p. 339) and handed over his estate to the Collector, he by some mischance omitted to include this allowance in the list of stipends due to retainers. The omission was subsequently rectified, but Vírabhadra Rázu cherished a grievance against the authorities, and set himself to create disturbances with such energy that in 1882, when Mr. Russell arrived in the district on his special commission, there was a reward of Rs. 5,000 on his head and the residents in Waltair thought it necessary to post guards at their houses, 'f he troops sent after him by Mr. Russell burnt Kásipuram and chased Vírabhadra Rázu so relentlessly about the hills that time after time he only escaped by his superior knowledge of the country and was often reduced to living on jungle fruits. He was at last betrayed in January 1833 by one of his own gang, tried by court martial and sentenced to death as a rebel. Government, however, reduced the sentence to one of
