ABSTRACT
O u r district is the smallest in the province; even so it is about as big as Yorkshire. But in population it does not reach three-quarters of a million, being dry and arid and stony. We have no cities to boast about; our largest towns-even the headquarter station I live in-have no more than ten thousand inhabitants, and of towns of this size there are scarcely half a dozen; the rest of us live in villages.The town second in importance in this district is Penu-konda. It is described (inaccurately, as events turned out) in an old inscription as “a god-built city, the surrounding fortifications of which no man could boast of conquering.” 1 Here, over three hundred years ago, the last kings of the now forgotten Hindu empire of Vijayanagar made a stand against Mohammedan invaders. Venkatapa Deva Raja of Penukonda inflicted a crushing defeat on Mohamed Shah of Golkonda on the banks of the Penair river. But he could not stay the oncoming hordes, who eventually swept through the pass, stormed the great fortress rock of Penukonda and fell upon the temples and shrines dotted about on it; the gods and goddesses were wrenched from their niches and pedestals and thrown down the hill by the idol-hating Moslems. To this day the traces of their destructiveness remain. On my walk from the station I came across defaced and broken stone images lying about in ditches-they are to be had for the picking up, but their weight ensures their being left where they are.The Mohammedan conquerors passed in their turn. Old victors and vanquished now live side by side under the British raj. To-day Penukonda consists of two parts: the fort where Hindus live, chiefly Brahmins; and Babai Pet, Quoted from a T elu gu brochure, Venkata II , by T . Siva Sankaram.
