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JUNE 7, 1872.)
ANCIENT REMAINS IN THE KRISHNA DISTRICT.
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rows of stone-pillars, but the two upper stories king died childless, and his seventy-two chiefs have fallen down. The third was in existence could not agree upon the selection of a successor. within the memory of those still living. The other Krishna Deva Royalu, the most illustrious ruler of gate known as pedda durwaja is on the north-West his rece, heard of this state of things, and at once side towards Narsaraupet. It became the princi- conceived the idea of acquiring for himself the old pal gate in later times, but there is reason to sup- Reddi's kingdom and fort. His strong idea was to pose that the other was originally the main gate. make religion the support of the throne, and his This fort is said to have been built by the Reddis. pious memory is still revered throughout the On entering the fort by the kattol diddi, there face Northern Sarkars and Ceded Provinces, as the one the two bangalas erected by Messrs. Rohde and founder or restorer of many Hindu temples and Newill, which, however, are both considerably di- Pagodas. Krishna Deva Royalu's idea on the sublapidated.
ject of a union between Church and State was a The area of this higher fort is very extensive. worldly-wise policy, and for the protection affordThere are high towers and battlements, ramparts ed by the sovereigns to religion, he expected as a loop-holed for musketry along every commanding return that the priesthood, whom he endowed with etninence, overhanging the edge of deep precipices. wealth, should use all their influence to carry out The views from many of these forts looking over his political views. Accordingly, it is said on the the low country is very fine. One of these points present occasion, he selected a wily and unscrupulof vantage has been availed of for the erection of ous member of the sacerdotal fraternity, as his tool & colonade or long mantapam known as miriyala for the accomplishment of his ambitious designs. takhta. Tradition says that this was the favourite The Brahman was furnished with money, and di. resort of one of the old Reddi Chieftain who held the rected to restore a magnificent temple of Gopinafort. There are the remains of the old treasury, thaswaini at the foot of Kondavid. A new irr.age magazines, granaries, and all sorts of store- was to be consecrated and set up, and for the celegodowns. One of these is a bombproof building, the bration of these rites, the presiding priest invited interior of which is a well cut in the rock eleven the seventy-two Chiefs to descend from their hill feet by seven and four feet six inches deep. This fortress. They came—the three score and twelvewas the receptacle used for the storing of ghee. and were all seated in the great hall. From thence Everywhere may be seen the foundations of dwell- one by one the officiating priest led them to the ing houses, and the number of rice-pounding stone inner shrine to view the new representation of deity, mortars is very great, giving evidence that a large and to bow before the image that the great Krishnumber of persons must have at one time been na Deva Royalu had set up. As they stepped into quartered in this hill fort. There are many springs the antaralikam or inner hall, and bowed at the on the top of the hill, and three large tanks, one threshold, two ruffians, who were concealed in the leading into the other, so that when the first is chamber, stepped forward, and before the victim filled, the second begins to receive its supply, and had time to raise a cry, precipitated him into & similarly again the third. There is also the re- deep well whose mouth it was impossible to discover mains of a pekota showing that this was the method amid the surrounding gloom. One by one each of raising water then employed. There are on the Reddi Chieftain approached the shrine, and all hill a number of temples, but all the images have shared one cominon fate, one common grave, and been broken, or had their features chipped off then all was easy for Krishna Deva Royalu to seize through the iconoclastic zeal of the Muhammadans, the fort. He preferred the plain, however, to the who have also turned several of the temples into hill, and the third fort, as has been said, owes its Mosques. One of these Mosques was transformed origin to him. It has two entrances known as the in this way by one Gulab Ghazi, and close beside it Kolepelli Darwaja and the Nadelle Darwaja. The is his dargah or tomb, for the repairs of which there ramparts of the fort still remain to a considerable is an endowment of four Kuchelas of land in a extent, with the gates and streets paved with stone. village in Bapatla Taluq. The holder of the Inam . There are a number of modern houses in the fort, is bound to look after the repairs of the Mosque and ruins, and blocks of cut stone, scattered all and tomb, and ascends the hill every Friday to light round. The chief feature of interest, however, a lamp, as well as on the occasion of the principal in this fort is Gopnathaswami's temple. It is a festivals.
very large building of stone, and the pillars But the time when the Muhammadans gained are very fine, in some cases a cluster of five pile possession of this fort was subsequent to the date lars carved out of a single block. The Muhamwhen the third or lower fort on the north side was madans, however, have destroyed all the images, built. This is known as simply Kota, and owes its and converted the great hall into a Mosque. It origin to the dynasty of Bijayanagar, better known remains as such to this day. To enter the hinder as the Royalu. Tradition goes that about the be- portion one has to go round to the other side. The ginning of the sixteenth century the race of the autaralikam is to be seen where the well is said to Reddi sovereigns came to an end. The last old I have been dug which received the Reddi Chiefs.
