Jaggayyapeta

Jaggayyapeta is a town in what was Nandigama taluk of Krishna district. It stands on the Paleru river, a tributary of the Krishna, about four miles above the point where the two rivers meet.¹ It is some thirty miles north-west of Amaravati.¹ The Imperial Gazetteer gives its position as 16° 54′ N, 80° 7′ E and its population in 1901 as 8,432.²

The town

The town was formerly called Betavolu. Raja Vasireddi Venkatadri Nayudu rebuilt it, enclosed it with a wall and invited merchants to settle.¹³ He was the zamindar (landholder) whose workmen destroyed much of the Amaravati stupa (relic mound).¹³ He renamed the town after his father, Jaggayya.¹³

In the late 19th century the town was a depot for the trade between the coastal districts (the Northern Circars) and the Nizam’s Dominions.⁴⁵ It also had a small silk-weaving industry, using thread brought from the Central Provinces.⁴⁵

The Buddhist site

About a mile east of the town is a low hill called Dhana Bodu, “hill of wealth”.¹ For many years villagers had dug into the brick mounds on its south-west side for building material.¹ In 1881 they uncovered some carved slabs, and a local official reported the find to Madras.¹

James Burgess examined the hill in February 1882.¹ He found traces of a group of mostly small stupas and other early buildings.¹ Only one stupa was well enough preserved to be studied.¹ Its inscriptions run from letters of Mauryan type, perhaps of the 2nd century BCE, to an image inscription of about 600 CE.⁶ Among them is a dedication of pillars in the reign of an Ikshvaku king.⁶ See Jaggayyapeta stupa.

Burgess blamed Venkatadri Nayudu’s rebuilding of the town for much of the damage.¹ He found part of an inscribed pillar from the stupa reused in the roof of a small temple at the foot of the hill.¹ The 1883 district manual noted many stone circles in the taluk.⁴ It also recorded several other places nearby that Sewell had listed as possible Buddhist sites, Bidavada, Mulkapuram, Kokireni and Nelamarri among them.⁴