GUNTUR, a town in lat. 16° 12' N., and long. 80° 20' E., which gives its name to a revenue district of the Madras Presidency. A billy tract of 1000 square miles is known as the Pained, but an extensive plain surrounds the Condaveed range of hills, rising 1725 feet above the sea. The Innaconda hills rise 1920 feet above the sea. Bellumeonda, 35 miles N.N.1V. of Guntur, is a conspicuous hill on which, as also on the Conda veed hills, are remains of fortresses. The town of Khondinipurain, at the foot of Condaveed, is a place of much sanctity. Arzampatam and Cotta pallam are seaports. A raised beach extends froin N. to S. from Chinna Ganjam towards tho Kistna, and a tradition says the sea once reached that spot, near the town of Chinna Ganjam, and that Europeans traded, in A.D. 1224, to the town of Fmngaloodinni, now in ruins. Earthquakes are of frequent occurrence. The Kistna river winds round tho Palnad, and at Bezwara it has been damrued by an anicut 3750 feet long, to irrigate 1,000,000 acres in this and the Mastilipatam distriet. Several marine lagoons run along the
coast. The Buddhist temple of Ainraoti on the Kistna is in ruins. Coinpact crystalline limestones occur. Guntur was thirteen years subject to British authority previous to the possession of the remaining four districts of the Northern Cirears, viz. Ganjam, Arizaga.patam, Rajamundry, and Masnlipatam ; these were acquired in 1765. But by the treaty concluded with the Moghul by Lord Clive, Guntur remained in the possession of Bazalet Jung, the Nizam's brother, to be enjoyed by him as a jaghir during his life, and it was not until the year 1788 that the country was finally transferred to the E. I. Company. In the district of Guntur in one year, in consequence of drought, a famine 'deatroyed one-half of the population, and caused a, loss in revenue, for ten years, estimated at £800,000. The agricultural popula tion are Teling.