Dowleswaram

Dowleswaram is a town on the Godavari, at the head of the river’s delta.¹²³ In 1907 the Godavari gazetteer said it “is now widely known as the site of Sir Arthur Cotton’s great anicut” (a dam that feeds canals) “across the Godavari”.¹

According to the gazetteer, Dowleswaram lies “four and a half miles south of Rajahmundry”.¹ It had 10,304 inhabitants.¹ It was the headquarters of two Executive Engineers and of the Public Works workshops.¹ It had a local fund dispensary founded in 1892, and an endowed choultry (rest house for travellers).¹

The Imperial Gazetteer places the head of the Godavari delta here, 40 miles in a straight line from the Bay of Bengal.²³ This is just above the point where the river divides into the Gautami and Vasishta branches.²³ See Rajahmundry.

The anicut

The gazetteer explains why Cotton chose a site just below Dowleswaram.⁴ The river was nearly four miles wide there, but it was broken by islands.⁴ A hill of coarse sandstone close by gave stone “of a degree of hardness exactly suited to the case”.⁴

Work began in April 1847 with 10,200 labourers.⁵⁶ At the entrance to the town there is what looks like a town wall.⁵⁶ The gazetteer adds that it “is really only the bank of the old railway constructed to bring materials from the quarry to the river for the building of the anicut”.⁵⁶ The dam and its history are described on the page Dowleswaram anicut (dam). See also Arthur Cotton.

A holy bathing place

The gazetteer says that the name comes from the nearby hill of Daulagiri.¹⁶ The sage Narada is said to have founded the temple of Janardhanasvami there.¹⁶ Two footprints in the rock at the Anjaneya temple are believed to be those of Rama and Sita.⁶ So the place is called “the holy place of Rama’s feet”.⁶

Dowleswaram is “the last place at which the waters of the Godavari flow down united and undiminished”.⁶ For this reason it is one of the holiest bathing places on the river.⁶ Great crowds come to bathe there at the pushkaram festival.⁶ The town also had a small European church and cemetery, and brass-workers and wood-carvers.⁶

Footnotes

1. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 240, s.v. Dowlaishweram (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

2. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 164, s.v. Godavari Canals (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 165 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 80 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 82 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 241 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹