VIZAGAPATAM.
these, in a rounded above formed by the weathering of the rock is a third and smaller slab on which is cut a seated Jain figure.
These sculptures form the only Jain relics which have so far been brought to notice in the plains of this district. No local legends connect the Jains with the place, and the village is chiefly known nowadays for its modern temple to Ráma and the sacred Rámatírtham, fed by a spring, which lies close by this.
Vizianagram, the second largest town in the district, is a rapidly growing municipality of 37,270 inhabitants, the head-quarters of the deputy tahsildar, the Divisional Officer and the Rája of Vizianagram, and a station on the Bengal-Nagpur railway which will probably be the point at which the railway from Raipur will join the coast system. A Native Infantry regiment used to be stationed there, but the cantonment was abolished at the end of 1905. The town does much trade with the hill tracts to the west and with the port of Bimlipatam, and between 1871 and 1901 its population increased by no less than 84 per cent. The improvements in the place effected by the municipal council and the Vizianagram zamindars have been mentioned in Chapter XIV, the principal medical and educational institutions in Chapters IX and X respectively, and the climate in Chapter 1.
Vizianagram consists of two parts — the native town surrounding the fort on the east and the former cantonment and civil station on the west. These are separated from one another by the Pedda Cheruvu ('large tank') which never dries up, irrigates a considerable area of wet land, supplies numerous wells sunk on its shores and is a famous sanctuary for wildfowl.
The civil station and deserted cantonment are neatly and regularly laid out with shady roads running at right angles to one another leading past numerous (often empty) bungalows in pleasant compounds. On high ground to the west of them, stands the old parade-ground, bounded on one side by ancient trees and a line of bungalows, and faced by the buildings formerly used for the unmarried lines (the married lines were to the east, near the railway) and the military hospital. The last regiment to occupy the cantonment before its abolition was the 63rd Palam-cottah Light Infantry, formerly the 3rd M.L.I. Just before it left, its meas-house was burnt to the ground and most of the regimental plate destroyed.
An avenue of fine trees running parallel to one side of the parade-ground leads past the Roman Catholic church of St.Maurice, built in 1882-83, and the small Church of England place of worship, erected in 1902 at a cost of Rs. 5,000. The
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