INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

(ii) History and Administrative Set-up of the District

(i) Brief History of the District : General: Guntur district in its present form was constituted only in 1904 out of the areas of Ongole taluk of Nellore district and portions of the Krishna District. Prior to 1859 there was 'Guntur district' with headquarters at Guntur but with a different jurisdiction. In 1859 this district was abolished and was divided up between Masulipatam and Rajahmundry districts, which were renamed as Krishna and Godavari. In 1904 Krishna district was bifurcated and Guntur district with its present jurisdiction was constituted into a separate independent district. The early history of the district is briefly given below. Political History: The earliest known rulers of the district were the Buddhist dynasty of the Andhras who built the stupa at Amaravathi and whose curious old leaden coins are still occasionally found. The Buddhist remains at Amaravathi on the right bank of the Krishna nearly seventy miles (110 Kms.) from its mouth, bear inscriptions in the Gupta character; which refer to the second century after Christ and may possibly be older than that. The Buddhist stupa, discovered on the north bank of the river near Jaggayyapet, is said to be the date as remote as B.C.200, or only half a century later than the Asoka edicts. It may therefore be inferred that for some time before and after the Christian Era, Buddhism was firmly established on the banks of the Krishna. This religion seems to have given way before the Brahmans and a sect of Buddhist dissenters known as the Jains. The Brahmans are said to have been invited by the King of Dharanikota, Mukkanti Pallava, in the third century A.D. or by a King named Sudakshana about the same date to Srikakulam, a shrine lower down the Krishna. Both legends are current, but the history of this period is very obscure. The Pallava dynastry may be the line of Kings which is shown, by two copper plates, to have reigned in the fourth century A.D. over "Vengi desha" but this kingdom is not mentioned by Ptolemy or in the Periplus of the Red Sea. In 640 A.D. there is an account written by the Chinese Pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, who travelled through India to see the Buddhist monasteries. He speaks of the Kingdom of Anta-lo (Andhra) with its capital pingkilo (Vengi) and in Dhanakacheka (Dhanyakataka or Dharani Kota) describes two very extensive Buddhist monasteries, the eastern and western. The Chinese traveller describes the monasteries as surrounded by trees and gushing fountains, which may indicate a great clearance of forest and lessening of rainfall in the last twelve centuries. He mourns over the decay of Buddhism, decay caused perhaps as much by the opposition of the Jains as by the advent of the Brahmans, for the Jains did not disappear from the Krishna district until six centuries after Hiuen Tsang's visit. By A.D. 640, the Pallava dynasty of Vengi had been conquered by the Chalukya Kings of Kalyanpur. Some would place this conquest as far back as the time of Vishnu Vardhana, great grandfather of Satyasraya Vallabhendra in the fourth century, but at all events, the territory was divided about A.D. 605 and Vengi was given to Kubja Vishnuvardhana, the younger brother of Satyasraya Vallabhendra, King of Kalyanpur. The Kubja Vishnuvardhana founded a dynasty, known as the Eastern Chalukya Kings, who reigned for four centuries, and who excavated the cave temple at Undavalli and other rock cut shrines. About A.D. 999 they in their turn were supplanted by the Cholas. The latter after some two centuries gave place to the Ganapathis of Warangal. Ganapati Deva, who reigned at Warangal (A.D. 1190-1258), and built around Warangal the single stone wall, which is given the name Ekasilanagaram, or, in its Tamil form, 'Orukkal', whence Warangal, was an active persecutor of the Jains and throughout his wide dominions which included the seacoast from Divi to Nellore, erected Brahmanical temples. Possibly he might have married his only daughter to the Jain King of Dharanikota for political reasons, to absorb in his

DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK : GUNTUR

Kingdom the territory of this petty ruler, and Pratapa Rudra, the son born of this mixed marriage, would naturally follow his mother's faith. After the death of Ganapathi Deva, the grandfather of Pratapa Rudra, in A.D. 1258, the Government was assumed by his daughter, Rudramma, one of the most illustrious and famous women in Indian history who have left behind a reputation as the most skilful ruler. It was during the regency of this widowed queen that the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, visited this country, about the year A.D. 1290. He seems to have landed at Motupalle, now an obscure fishing village near Chirala. This queen Rudramma transferred the royal authority to her daughter's son, Pratapa Rudra, in the year A.D. 1295. There are numerous grants of Pratapa Rudra in Krishna district and in the Palnad taluk. In A.D.1323 he was taken captive by the Muslims and carried away to Delhi and this was an irretrievable disaster, for although his son Virabhadraya asserted his independence in A.D.1344 he failed to regain the lost dominions of his father and the Muslim kingdom of Gulbarga steadily advanced until in A.D.1425 when Warangal was included within its limits. After the captivity of Pratapa Rudra in A.D. 1323 his kingdom was left without a ruler. This district then came under a dual sway, the king of Orissa ruling the northern part while the south fell into the hands of a line of cultivators who rose to considerable power and are known as the Reddi Kings of Kondaveedu. A brief account of the Reddi Kings of Kondaveedu is given below: The founder of the family of Reddi Kings of Kondaveedu was Donti Aliya Reddi, a cultivator of Hanumakonda, who amassed enormous wealth, tradition says by discovering the alchemists' secret of the process of transmuting metals into gold, and migrated to Kondaveedu. On the downfall of Pratapa Rudra, the eldest son, Pulayya Vema Reddi declared himself as independent ruler of the hill fort of Kondaveedu. He also possessed himself of the fortresses of Bellamkonda, Vinukonda, and Nagarjunakonda in Palnad taluk. His brother Anavema Reddi extended his dominions as far as Rajahmundry in the north, Kanchi in the south and Srisailam in the west. Kondapalle hill fort is said to have been built in his reign. An inscription at Amaresvaram dated A.D. 1361 states that Anavema
6

Reddi was in possession of Kondaveedu, Addanki and Raichur, that he repaired the temple at Amaravati and the causeway at Srisailam and that he defeated various Rajas including the kings of Warangal. This last boast probably relates to the unsuccessful efforts of Virabhadraya in A.D. 1344 and later to regain his father's territories from the Muslims on the one hand and the Orissa Rajas and Kondaveedu Reddies on the other. Anavema Reddi was succeeded by his brother, Aliya Vema Reddi who was succeeded by the fourth brother, Komaragiri Reddi, a ruler of bad reputation, who was followed by his sons Komati Venka Reddi, and Racha Vema Reddi, the last of the line, who after an evil reign of four years was assassinated by a person named Chowdari Yellappa in A.D. 1428. The dates of these six Reddi kings are as follows: Pulayya Vema Reddi Ana Vema Reddi Aliya Vema Reddi Komaragiri Reddi Komati Venka Reddi Racha Vema Reddi A.D. 1328 A.D. 1340 .A.D. 1370 A.D. 1382 .A.D. 1396 .A.D. 1424

These Kondaveedu Reddis were great patrons of Telugu literature. The poet Srinadha with his brother-in-law, Bammera Pothana flourished, at their court and sang their praise. The ruins of their fortresses at Kondaveedu, Bellamkonda and Kondapalle are still to be seen. On the extinction of the Reddi dynasty the Ganapathi King of Orissa extended his power. In A.D. 1515, King Krishna Deva Raya of vijayanagar conquered the whole of the country and left many inscriptions to perpetuate the memory of his victories. He restored Kondapalle to the Orissa Raja but retained Kondaveedu. On the fall of Vijayanagar Empire in A.D. 1565 this region was conquered by the Muslims and the Hindu rule came to an end in A.D. 1579 in this district. On the fall of the Vijayanagar Empire in A.D. 1565 it passed on to the Kutub Shahi line of Golconda, and was eventually absorbed (on the destruction of that dynasty in 1687) in the empire of Emperor Aurangazeb. In A.D. 1611 the English founded their second settlement in India at Masulipatam, which continued to be their headquarters until it was finally moved it to Madras in A.D. 1641. Three years after the

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

founding of the English settlement came the Dutch and in A.D. 1669 the French followed. It was not, however, till the year A.D. 1750 that any of the European powers exerted any political influence in this district. Two years after that date the Subedar of the Deccan granted the whole of the Northern Circars to the French, and it was from them that this tract finally passed to the English. On the outbreak of hostilities in A.D. 1758 Colonel Forde, who was sent by Clive from Bengal to attack the French in the Northern circars, defeated them at Condore in Godavari District, and following them to Masulipatam besieged them there. Faced by a strong garrison in front and hemmed in behind by the Subedar of the Deccan, the ally of the French, his ranks rapidly thinned with disease, Forde, as a counsel of despair, at length made an almost desperate night attack upon the Masulipatam fort and captured it. As a consequence of this victory, first the divisions of Masulipatam, Nizampatam and part of Kondaveedu, and later the whole of the Circars, passed by a grant from the Subedar of the Deccan (confirmed by the emperor Shah Alam in 1765), to the Company. With the cession of the Palnad in 1801 by the Nawab of Arcot, the entire district finally became a British territory. At first it was administered by a Chief and Council at Masulipatam, but in A.D. 1794 Collectors directly responsible to the Board of Revenue were appointed at Guntur and Masulipatam. In A.D. 1859 these two Collectorates (except two taluks of the latter) were amalgamated into one district. This amalgamation did not continue for long. With the construction of the anicuts across Godavari and Krishna rivers the irrigation facilities increased. This resulted in the increase in work of all kinds in the methods of administration and rendered the task of efficiently controlling these two wealthy areas more difficult for one Collector to compass. Hence readjustment of these two districts was necessitated and in 1904 a separate district was constituted with Guntur as headquarters. Ongole taluk of Nellore district, Tenali, Guntur, Sattenapalle, Palnad, Bapatla, Narasaraopet and Vinukonda taluks of Krishna district were included in the newly formed Guntur District. In 1909 Tenali Taluk was split up into Tenali and Repalle taluks. The jurisdiction of the district did not undergo any major change from that time and continued as part of the Madras State till 1953. This district has played a very important role in the National struggle for independence. It produced
7

patriots like Desabhakta Konda Venkatappaiah, Parvathaneni Veeraiah Chowdary, leader of the great Pedanandipadu No-Tax-Campaign of 1923, Vunnava Lakshminarayana Panthulu, Andhra Ratna Duggirala Gopala Krishnaiah, Andhra Kesari Tanguturi Prakasam Panthulu (the latter two belong to Chirala and Ongole respectively, which now belong to Prakasam district), whose services to the Nation are unforgettable. Rythu Bandhava prof. N.G.Ranga, popularly known as Acharya Ranga rendered yeomen services during the freedom struggle in arousing the rural masses throughout the country. The district also had the fortune of being the venue of the All India Congress Committee Sessions twice. In 1953 when the Andhra State was formed, this was also transferred to Andhra State along with the other Telugu speaking districts of the composite Madras State. After the Reorganization of States in 1956, this district along with the other districts of Andhra State became part of Andhra Pradesh in which it now continues. It may be worth mentioning in this connection that Guntur city, the headquarters of this district was the seat of the Andhra High Court for a period of over 3 years from 1st October 1953, i.e. from the inception of the Andhra State till the formation of Andhra Pradesh on 1-11-1956. India attained independence on August 15, 1947 as the largest democracy in the world. The British rulers handed over the reins of the Government to the various State Governments and to the Government of India. In 1950 the constitution was promulgated and India became a Democratic Republic. The first General Elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assembly were conducted in January, 1952 in the constituencies delimited in 1951 by an order of the President under Sections 6 and 9 of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1950. The tenure of office of both the House of the People and the Legislative Assembly was to be for five years. But due to the collapse of the State Government, midterm elections were conducted in 1955 for only the State Legislature. The country again went to polls during 1957. Due to mid-term elections for the State Legislative Assembly conducted during 1955, the Government extended the term of office of the M.L.As., of the State Legislature for a further period of five years from 1957 and hence the members elected for the State Legislative Assembly during 1955 continued as M.L.As. upto 1962. Therefore, the elections conducted during 1957 were confined only

DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK : GUNTUR

to Parliamentary constituencies in Andhra region of Andhra Pradesh. The third General Elections to the House of the people and the State Legislative Assembly were simultaneously conducted in February,1962 under the marking system of vote. Revenue History: Very little is known about the system of administration followed by the Hindu rulers of this country prior to the Muslim invasion. The numerous allusions in ancient inscription to royal grants of entire villages or a group of villages show that in former centuries as now, all revenue administration was based upon the village as a unit. When the Muslims took this part of the country, in the sixteenth century, they appear to have made but little change in the existing Hindu system. They occupied certain posts with military garrisons under Muslim officers, and sometimes a tract of country might be granted to a Muslim Officer as a Jagir, but for the most part the revenues were collected and accounted for to the central authority by the Hindu officials. As is usual in India these offices became hereditary and when the Muslim power became lax the Hindu hereditary officials began to call themselves Zamindars and acted as if they were independent princes, but through all these changes the villages remained unaltered. In addition to the land revenue, the Sovereign's share of the produce of the fields, there were other sources of revenue. The Imperial Firmans granted in 1689 and 1712 to the Dutch at Masulipatam show that import and export duties at the seaport were a considerable item in the Hyderabad receipts and there were various other inland customs lines also. In the neighbourhood of each military post or headquarter station were certain lands, intended for the maintenance of the troops or Muslim officers, which were under the direct management of the Faujdar or the Khilladar. These Haveli lands, as they were termed, were not supposed to be under the Desmukhs and Deshpandes who were responsible for the collections of the rest of the country. At first the Hindu Desmukhs and Deshpandes were paid by a percentage upon collections, by certain fees and by a limited portion of land in each village, these modes of payment being supposed to ensure their attention to the amount of collections, their procuring the goodwill of the populace who paid fees
8

and their actual residence among the villages where their plots of land were situated. In course of time, however, we find that these Desmukhs and Deshpandes themselves rented villages and even districts, or, as it may better be expressed, formed the revenues of certain districts or compounded the revenue demand against them or a fixed sum. The French Commandant, M.De Bussi, had a survey made of these Northern Circars and evidently contemplated the institution of a better revenue system, but he fell from power before he had an opportunity of carrying out these plans and when the English Company took possession of the Kondapalle Circar in 1766 and the Kondaveedu Circar in 1788 the Hindu hereditary officials, calling themselves Zamindars, were still in possession of the country. The English Officials at Masulipatam did not quite understand the legal position of these Zamindars. The first Chief in Council after the English took Kondapalle was in favour of settling every year, according to the harvest, the amount to be paid by each Zamindar to the Company, but in 1771 the Chief in Council wrote that Zamindaris were feudal estates, of which the Zamindars were the proprietors, paying a tribute to Government and furnishing troops in times of war. This idea gained ground, the payment made by the Zamindars was constantly termed tribute, the territory they held was called their hereditary estate and the inhabitants were entirely subject to their oppressions. When the Company took the Kondapalle Circar in A.D. 1766 it was given along with the Ellore and Rajahmundry Circars on a three years' rental to the Nizam's Faujdar, Hasan Ali Khan. This arrangement came to an end in 1769, and after that an attempt was made to make a separate arrangement with each Zamindar, while the Haveli lands were for some time given on a ten years' lease to Condregula Jaggappa, son of the Dubash. The Guntur or Kondaveedu Circar was also under the control of the Masulipatam Council, but when that Council was abolished in 1794 Guntur formed a separate Zilla under a Collector who reported direct to the Board as did the Collector of Masulipatam. In pursuance of the orders issued by the Bengal Government the Permanent Settlement was introduced in Masulipatam and Guntur Districts in 1802. The amount to be paid by each Zamindar was calculated at two-thirds of half the gross produce of the lands, this half being supposed to be the share

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

paid to them by the cultivators. Thus the Zamindars were to retain for their own maintenance one-sixth of the gross produce of their territories. The amounts were obtained from an inspection of the accounts of the last thirteen years or of what papers the village karnams produced as accounts. In some cases, especially that of Charmahal, the Zamindar's Peshkush was fixed too high, but in some instances, especially that of Vasireddi Venkatadri Naidu, the Peshkush was not only fixed too low, being based on fictitious accounts, but was actually still further reduced by the Board of Revenue at Madras, which has anxious that the Permanent Settlement should be moderate. The Haveli lands, with the exception of Divi, were divided into mutahs, each calculated to bear an assessment of one thousand to ten thousand Pagodas as the Government demand, and these were sold and brought under the Permanent Settlement. Care was taken that all lands under one irrigation source should be included in one mutah and the purchasing proprietors were to be held responsible for the upkeep of these irrigation works, but might be assisted by loans from the treasury at 12 percent. This sale of the Haveli mutahs took place in December, 1802 and thus the whole of the present Krishna and Guntur Districts passed under the Permanent Settlement, except Divi, which in 1807 was given on Zamindari tenure to Condregula Gopala Rao, grandson of the Dubash. Palnad was acquired from the Nawab of Arcot and which, like the Nellore District, passed under triennial and decennial village rents, but did not become a Zamindari. This experiment of creating a class of territorial landlords and trusting to the magic of private property to make them improve the vast extents of the country thus placed in their hands was not successful. Many of the Zamindars assumed the position of petty princes and instead of contending themselves with moderate establishments, they kept up a number of elephants and horses at a cost wholly disproportionate to their means. The Collector of Guntur reported that the Zamindars in Guntur District spent on "Savari" a sum which would maintain eleven battalions of Company's sepoys. Moreover, their system of management was sometimes very bad. An energetic Zamindar like Vasireddi Venkatadri Naidu could personally keep order throughout his extensive villages and amass wealth, but his next neighbour, Malrazu Venkata Gunda Rao, was utterly unable to manage his estates,

and when Venkatadri Naidu died his riches were speedily dissipated by his heirs. Another cause of the failure of the Zamindari system in this District was the constant disputed successions and tedious litigation in almost every family. The Zamindaris were constantly attached for arrears and taken under the Court of wards and the Collectors managed them by means of cutcherry retainers in such a way that arrears sometimes accumulated rapidly while the estates were under management as they had done under the Zamindar. Some Collectors remained long enough to acquire local knowledge. Messrs. Oakes and Whish each held Guntur for ten years, but changes of Collectors were frequent and a newly arrived Collector could only appoint his Sheristadar's nominees to manage these attached estates. The terrible famine of 183233 rendered the Zamindars less able than before to pay the Government demand and in the Guntur Collectorate the mismanagement of the attached estates was increased by a bitter feud among the Revenue servants. The experiment had been tried of placing the Zamindars in charge of their own Zamindaris as Managers, but this also was a failure, the Zamindars fraudulently leasing villages on low rentals in consideration of sums paid down as "Nuzzerana". Under the provisions of the dispatch of the Court of Directors dated 21st June, 1842 the Guntur Zamindars surrendered their estates to Government on the understanding that they should receive a sufficient maintenance with the hope that estates may be eventually restored. Afterwards it was decided by Government to place beyond all doubt their power to deal with the estates by bringing them to sale and buying them. This was done in 1846. There were no purchasers and Government bought in the Guntur Zamindari estates by a bid of Rs.5,000 for each. After perusal of Mr. W. Elliott's report the Directors wrote a dispatch on 31st January, 1849 declaring the resumption of these estates to be final. The year 1849 is to be noticed as the date of the appointment of a Commissioner of the Northern Circars. The Court of Directors, upon perusal of Mr. Walter Elliott's report on Guntur affairs, sent out orders that all the Northern Circars should be placed under the immediate charge of one of the members of the Board of Revenue, with full powers of the Board. In accordance with this order Mr. Walter

DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK : GUNTUR

Elliott himself was appointed Commissioner of the Northern Circars in 1849 and soon afterwards came to Masulipatam. In 1854 the appointment of Commissioner of the Northern Circars was abolished and the Districts came again under the direct authority of the Board of Revenue. In December, 1859 the whole of the Guntur District and all the Masulipatam District except two Taluks was made into one district, the Krishna District. In 1862 the District was divided into eleven taluks with two Zamindari sub-divisions. Little seems to have been done, however, to introduce any improved system of land revenue at these opportunities and the faulty Zamindari system continued, with the 'Kailas' or actual measurements of the crop which lay heaped for weeks awaiting the measurer, with the "anchana"or estimate, made by a venal estimator, with the joint village rents giving rise to factions and oppression of the poorer villagers by their stronger neighbours. The first Collector, who made any attempt to grapple with the subject, was Mr. G.E. Russell, Collector of Masulipatam, 1812-21. He selected the village of Telaprolu in the Nuzvidu Zamindari and made a minute survey of the village fixing the amount to be paid by each individual cultivator according to the quality of the lands he held. Mr. Russell's report on Telaprolu is dated 20th September, 1818. Under the rental value thus fixed by the Collector the total amount paid by Telaprolu village was Rs.3,180 in Fasli 1228 and rose gradually to Rs.4,161 in Fasli 1241. While the ryots were prosperous and contented under the Collector's management, the young Zamindar who got possession of his estates in A.D. 1831, exacted no less than Rs.8,900 from Telaprolu in Fasli 1242 and Rs.5,895 in Fasli 1243. Then came the famine and in Fasli 1246, after the famine, the village paid only Rs.675; so all trace of the former prosperity had vanished. Mr.Russell's report on Telaprolu contains a deeply interesting account of the rack rents and extra collections by the Zamindar's retainers which left to the wretched cultivators barely enough for the support of life. Another Collector, Mr. P. Grant, made a similar survey of the village of Caitupalle, but no general action was taken upon the date furnished by these two isolated surveys. Mr. H. Stokes in 1844 attempted to introduce an improved Revenue system in the resumed Zamindari estates of the Guntur District but was restrained by
10

the conservative ideas of his Sheristadar, Nyapati Seshagiri Rao, who was supported in his cautious views by the then Board of Revenue. Mr. W. Elliott supported Mr. Stokes in his advanced policy and by 1850 the Guntur District had been brought under the system which in the old records is termed makta, and is sometimes called Ryotwari, but in truth differed very little from the joint village rents of the Masulipatam District. There was a fixed total demand on each village and the individual cultivators were left to apportion this demand. If remissions were necessary they were given in lumpsums to villages. The influential ryots secured their own interests at the expense of their weaker neighbours and all sorts of curiously old fashioned ideas of Revenue Administration, such as takids permitting cultivators to reap their crops and notion that no English-speaking native could be an efficient Sheristadar, survived in the Guntur Collectorate. The old system of Revenue practice passed away with the introduction of Survey and Settlement rates of assessment. The work in the Guntur District was undertaken after that in Masulipatam it was laid before the Board towards the close of the year 1868, only after the completion of the survey operations in Palnad, the last taluk of the District by the Survey Department. The report of Mr. W. Wilson on the Guntur portion of the district is printed in the Board's Proceedings No.1628, dated 9th March, 1870. In Mr. Wilson's classification of the Guntur part of the district, as much as 90 per cent of the whole area was placed under varieties of the 'Regar' or black cotton soil and red soils were only 2 per cent. The highest class is the alluvial along the margin of the river. 60 villages with lands amounting to 6.6 per cent of the whole area were placed in the first or alluvial group. 200 villages with lands amounting to 21.3 per cent of the whole area, comprising the sand of the coast and the stony uplands of the interior, were placed in the third or the poorest class and the second or the principal group numbered 465 villages with lands amounting to 72.1 per cent of the whole area. This second group comprised the land in Repalle and Bapatla taluks, irrigated by the anicut, and the heavy loams near Prathipadu which bear good crops when the rainfall is timely. The rates on irrigated land varied from Rs.1-75 p .to Rs.7-50p. and on unirrigated lands from 25p. to Rs.4-50p. per acre.

INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS

One point upon which the Board of Revenue did not agree with Mr. Wilson was his proposal to regard as unirrigated, about 2,000 acres of land irrigated through the perennial springs in the great sand ridge running from Bapatla to Chinna Ganjam and these lands accordingly pay irrigated rates of assessment. Another point under discussion was the levy of threefourth water rate on the lands irrigated from wells on the banks of the Gundlakamma and Nagileru streams in Vinukonda and the Palnad taluks. These wells are expensive stone structures and the water had to be lifted from the stream. The Board decided that no water rate should be levied. The survey and Settlemtnt so introduced is in vogue in this district. Under the Madras Estates Land (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1949 the Zamindari Estates and Inams were abolished and taken over by Government paying due compensation to the Zamindars, Estate holders and Inamdars concerned. Survey and Settlement was also made in the taken over estates wherever found necessary and ryotwari settlement has been made in all parts of the district. Revenue Administration of the district is now controlled by the Collector with headquarters at Guntur and he is assisted by three Revenue Divisional Officers stationed at Tenali, Guntur and Narasaraopet. The headquarters division (Guntur) comprises Guntur and Sattenapalle taluks while Tenali, Bapatla and Repalle taluks are included in the Tenali Revenue Division. Narasaraopet division comprises Narasaraopet, Vinukonda and Palnad taluks. With the separation of Judiciary from Executive in this district the functions relating to the trial of criminal cases etc., have been transferred to the Judicial Department. The Revenue Officers now exercise functions under the Criminal Procedure Code with reference to matters relating to the maintenance of Law and Order and keeping of peace etc. (ii) Administrative Set-up Changes in the Administrative Unit: In 1985, the then existing 21 Taluks were reorganised into 57 Mandals. Corresponding to the Revenue Mandals, Mandal Parishads were also formed which are co-terminus with the Revenue

Mandals in all cases except that the Statutory Towns are not included in the jurisdiction of the Mandal Parishads. 28 Mandals have been carved out by taking villages exclusively from each of the 16 erstwhile Taluks (i.e. without including villages from a second taluk). The remaining 29 Mandals have been formed by taking villages from more than one erstwhile taluk. While comparing the list of villages at 2001 Census with that of 1991 Census there is an increase of 2 villages in total number of villages due to following changes. Four towns namely Vijayapuri South, Phirangipuram, Bhattiprolu and Tadepalle C.Ts. are declassified in 2001 Census. These four villages now became Revenue Villages.The rural portion of Vinukonda existed during 1991 has been fully included in Vinukonda (CT) during 2001. As per 2001 Census this district has 57 Mandals, 717 Villages, 10 Statutory Towns and one Census Town. These 57 Mandals have been grouped into three Revenue Divisions in the district as shown below: (1) Narasaraopet Revenue Division: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) Macherla Narasaraopet Chilakaluripet H/o Purushothapatnam Vinukonda Veldurthi Durgi Rentachintala Karempudi Gurazala Dachepalle Machavaram Piduguralla Ipur Bollapalle Nuzendla Savalyapuram H/o Kanamarlapudi

Sources: 1.Manual of the Krishna District by Gordon Mackenzie,1883. 2.Imperial Gazetteer, Madras East Coast Districts, 1906.

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DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK : GUNTUR

(17) (18) (19) (20)

Rompicherla Nekarikallu Nadendla and Edlapadu.

(18) (19) (20)

Amaravathi Chebrolu and Pedanandipadu.

(3) Tenali Revenue Division: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) Tenali Ponnur Bapatla Repalle Bhattiprolu Duggirala Vemuru Amruthalur Kollipara Tsundur Kollur Kakumanu Pittalavanipalem Karlapalem Nagaram Nizampatnam and CherukupalleH/o Arumbaka.

(2) Guntur Revenue Division: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) Guntur Sattenapalle Mangalagiri Tadepalle Phirangipuram Bellamkonda Rajupalem Krosuru Muppalla Atchampet H/o Chamarru Pedakurapadu Medikonduru Pedakakani Prathipadu Vatticherukuru Thullur Tadikonda

12