Rajahmundry - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

RAJAHMUNDRY, or Rajamahendri, a town of British India, in the Godavari district of Madras. Pop. (1901) 36,408. It stands on the left bank of the river Godavari, at the head of the delta, 360 m. N. of Madras, and has a station on the East Coast railway, which is here carried across the river by a bridge of 56 spans. The government college is one of the four provincial schools established in 1853. There are also a training college and high school. Carpets, rugs and wooden wares are manufactured.

Tradition divides the merit of founding Rajahmundry between the Orissa and Chalukya princes. In 1470 it was wrested from Orissa by the Mahommedans, but early in the 16th century it was retaken by Krishna Raja. It continued under Hindu rule till 1572, when it yielded to the Moslems of the Deccan under Raf at Khan. It passed into the possession of the French in 1753, but they were driven out by the British under Colonel Forde in 1758.