Goddess in Residence

Rajahmahendri was one of the ancient towns of our land, and this town was written about from the days of Raja Raja Narendra. Most of the temples on the banks of river Godavari had famous Sthala Puranas. Several myths of this town were unknown even to its natives. There were several legends popular with the older generation about the village deity of pastoral Rajahmahendri—Somalamma. She was the Goddess in Residence for the people of Rajahmahendri. The temple of this deity was in Kothapeta, a place that was never got inundated even when river Godavari went into spate every year. People of this area attribute this occurrence to the grace of the Godden in Residence. Kothapeta may be the most densely populated locality in the town. I did not realize the rich culture and camaraderie this locality was known for in my early childhood. The place was known for the annual Somalamma Jathara, a colourful carnival celebrated by the locals combined with a large number of populace from the neighbouring villages. There were occasions when outsiders from large towns, like Bezwada and Vizag, visited Sri Shyamalamba Devi Temple for the annual religious ritual. Somalamma was known as Sri Shyamalamba Devi in more formal pronouncements.

Somalamma was the only daughter of a poor farmer who lived in an indistinct lowly farmhouse bordering the line of entry to the village. The hut of his family was isolated from other huts in that area. There was vast uninhabited land thrown between one hut and another. Somalamma’s mother discovered, soon after giving birth, that her child had strange habits. She witnessed several events that could be understood only as miracles. The child could walk without fear in stark darkness, and could see things and describe the colour and shape of them. She could pick up burning cinders from fire and hold them in her palm as an act of play. The mother was convinced that her daughter possessed extraordinary gifts. But she did not speak of these gifts to anyone, not even to Somalamma’s father. Unlike other children of the neighbourhood, Somalamma was silent most of the time. She used to select a place under the shade of a tree, and would go into a blissful state.

The farming community of the Rajahmahendri town, built on the banks of Godavari, engaged only in rain-fed cultivation for several centuries. The irrigation canals that Raja Raja Narenrda built had disappeared, and the water they carried had evaporated on the sands of time. The waters of river Godavari were not available for cultivation even in the nineteenth century. There were neither bridges nor dams across rivers in the land. The parents of Somalamma tilled their land, and it was the only occupation they knew. Life was very simple and other vocations did not find their way into the lives of those undemanding rustic folk. Their livelihood depended basically on the annual farm produce. What their land would produce in a year depended on the grace of the Rain God. The Rain God, most of the years, was unkind to them. If people could raise good crops in a year, farmers had a cause for genuine celebration of life. But such events were very rare. In one year there were no rains, and all the farms in the village did not yield any crop. The farmers could only pray to the Rain God and looked persistently into sky with helpless eyes. The womenfolk took holy dips in river Godavari with pleas to protect them from starvation.

Somalamma also went into river Godavari and cleansed herself with an innocuous expectation of approaching rains. She remained still in the waters, being oblivious to the outside world, for a long time. It did not rain. She prayed in great reverence to the river to save them from an intimidating famine. Nothing happened. She continued her penance. No cloud appeared in the sky. It did not rain. All the eyes of the folk on the bathing ghat were on Somalamma. They waited for hours watching the unmoving girl in the river water. Somalamma’s mother did not disturb her daughter, and had shown great restraint until sunset. She told Somalamma that they were going home. Her words did not reach Somalamma who was in a trance. She was brought out of the water and was taken home. The girl continued to be in a state of stupor. She did not eat anything on that day, and their family did not eat anything. There was nothing to eat in their hut except for a few wild nuts and well water.

Her father was deeply worried. He went to the Durga temple in their vicinity and slept at the feet of the goddess. He had a strange dream. His own daughter appeared in the form of Durga and told him that it would be raining by morning. He awoke in astonishment, and was surprised to see that it had already been raining heavily. It was not even day break. He went home drenched in water, and told his wife that their daughter was not an ordinary child. He told her of his dream and his wife nodded her head in agreement.

Bright Lamps on Tall Lampposts

Janardhanam and his carpenter friend Brahmam opened a small workshop in Dondaparthi in Visakhapatnam district. They had friends in Visakhapatnam harbour who used to sell them refined tools for carpentry and masonry imported from Germany and Rangoon. Those were the times for skilled artisans to migrate to Rangoon to make fast money. Carpenters were in good demand in Rangoon. Rangoon was the capital of Burma and it was the place where the entire world looked for quality furniture made to suite different tastes. Brahmam started saving money for his voyage to Burma, and asked Janardhanam to save money too. Janardhanam was not averse to this plan but he was inclined to erect tall buildings. He had a curious fascination to work on scaffolds. He saw people working on risky fearsome scaffolds in Visakhapatnam. Those peoples were heroes to Janardhanam.

He asked his friend Brahmam whether they could build tall buildings with stone and mortar in Rangoon. Brahmam did not know. They asked people who went to Rangoon earlier. They told them that such tall buildings were not preferred in Rangoon. They told them that they had to save quite a large amount to reach Rangoon. Janardhanam did not show much interest in Rangoon. They gave up their plans to go to Rangoon for the time being. They did not have sufficient money to cross the ocean and reach the shores of Burma.

The forthcoming bridge on river Godavari filled Janardhanam’s heart and soul. The workshop in Dondaparthi fetched them good money and they renovated their workshop into a good dwelling place. The house had two portions to be shared by them. They were bachelors and their parents died long ago. Elders of their trade developed a soft corner for the hard-working upright young men, and offered to choose brides for them. Janardhanam was already in love with Ramanujamma, and his marriage took place in Dondaparthi. The marriage of carpenter Brahmam had to wait since he had ambitions to go to Rangoon.

Bicycles and human-drawn rickshaws were popular in those days. So were kerosene lamps. A bright kerosene lamp in the house was a sign of prestige in those times. Electricity was unknown to all. Janardhanam and Brahmam together made huge kerosene lamps that could brighten large areas during night time. They displayed tall lampposts in front of their workshop and lit them with their lamps in night time. The bright lamps on tall lampposts became a wonder of Visakhapatanam. The two imaginative friends became famous overnight. Most of the offices in Visakhapatnam wanted those lampposts in front of their offices. The two friends worked hard and made good money. Their zeal to reach Rangoon reappeared, and they were in Rangoon a few weeks later. Janardhanam left his wife in Visakhapatnam as he was trying to test his fortunes in a foreign land.

The Land of Destiny for Janardhanam

Janardhanam did not move into Rajahmundry district when he heard this news from Ramanujamma. He made his own enquiries to confirm the news. Anyway the words of the girl were only half-true. By the time she told Janardhanam of the great bridge, the project had already been executed to a great extant, and much water had flown down river Godavari, and the actual bridge had already taken a clear shape in stone and mortar.

Sir Arthur Cotton presented the Godavari Bridge Project before the British Parliament and sought its approval. He also contemplated an anicut at Dhavaleswaram to go with this project. The members of the parliament questioned Sir Arthur Cotton what benefit The British Raj would gain by spending such huge funds on a strange project meant mainly for providing irrigation to Indian farmers. Sir Arthur Cotton convinced the Parliament that the irrigation canals that flow from this project would provide inexpensive transport for farm and forest produce. These irrigation canals can function where construction of roads could hardly be contemplated. The Parliament saw a point that Sir Cotton did not think of. It felt the irrigation canals could be used to transport the entire wild life produce under the Godavari river basin to Britain. The Parliament granted its seal of consent once the usual debates and skirmishes over pros and cons over this project were duly concluded.

Several unverified stories about Sir Arthur Cotton were in good circulation in Rajahmundry district. It seems that Cottons did not have children. Lady Cotton used to ask her husband to find a small child from Rajahmundry for adoption so that she could spend her time in their large bungalow in Dhavaleswaram. She was afraid of being alone. Her husband used to spend most of his time outside on the field surveying for a suitable place where the construction of the dam on Godavari would take shape. Arthur Cotton used to go on his horse for the task of surveying the land where he intended to erect an anicut. One day he could not sleep, and woke up several times in the middle of the night. Madame Cotton remembered in the morning that she hid a coin under his bed. They understood that the presence of a small coin made Sir Cotton restless for the entire night. That was his sensitivity to objects and their shapes. His sensitive mind would easily detect even a small unevenness in any material, and he would not rest until he set it right. Madame Cotton complimented her husband about his keen sensitivity, and told him that she was convinced that the projects that he undertook would be totally flawless. She handed over him the coin that was lying under his bed, and pleaded with him to find a child in Rajahmundry to keep her company. Sir Cotton went to Rajahmundry as usual to supervise his work. Those were the days of a great famine in Rajahmundry district, and people were starving for lack of food. He found several women selling their children openly in the market. He thought that only a dam would help raise crops in the Rajahmundry district, and the famines made his resolve to erect an anicut stronger. He thought of the loneliness of his wife at his Dhavaleswaram bungalow. He purchased a girl child with the coin his wife gave him that day. That anonymous girl child became the legal heir of Cottons. Several decades later, the daughter of that girl child authored the biography of Sir Arthur Cotton.

When Janardhanam looked at river Godavari he was filled with a marvellous feeling. He had seen several narrow streams and could visualize the bridges over them. These bridges merely helped people to cross the streams. He was told that Sir Cotton was going to construct an anicut at Dhavaleswaram to stop the waters of Godavari and use them for irrigation. He could not comprehend the shape, breadth, and length of the river. He thought that only angels could build such bridges using their divine vision.

Sir Arthur Cotton was the hero of those times. His fame extended far and wide cutting across geographical barriers. Janardhanam could find several construction workers from his district migrating to Rajahmundry to work under Sir Arthur Cotton. Janardhanam did not want to work as a construction worker for any one. He wanted to build tall buildings with Godavari Bridge as his inspiration. He wanted to come back to Rajahmundry after making money to be a builder on his own.

Janardhanam felt that Rajahmundry was the land of his destiny

We Know Very Little About His Early Life.

One has to believe that Janardhanam hailed from Visakhapatnam district. We do not have any documentary evidence to support this claim. He belonged to a time that is more than one century old to our time. We hardly find any record of ordinary people who lived in these times. One has to collect pieces of data obtained orally and join them together to get an insight into those lives. Most of his relatives have names originally belonging to this district. We do not know much about his family, since he lost his parents when he was very young, and he could not recall much about his ancestors. His mother died of a jungle fever, and his father groomed him to be an able-bodied young man. Janardhanam was strong and intelligent. He was a master of several skills that were normally known only to nomads frequenting forest areas. He learnt cultivation from his father. He was well-versed in all farm activities: tilling, casting seeds, and harvesting. He could climb tall trees for collecting toddy, hunt for wild animals in deep forests, and swim in fresh water lakes with ease and grace. He used to participate in all the martial arts events for the Dasara festival every year in his village. He had his own set of kingly weapons like bow and arrow and a country-made gun. He and his father used to cut wood from the forest for cooking. They used to sell some of the excess wood to outsiders in the weekend-bazaar at a fair price There is enough evidence to show that Janardhanam came from a well-to-do respectful family, and never had to face the pangs of poverty due to any of the famines in that area.

Janardhanam was the only child of a farmer living in a forest village bordering on the areas connecting Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry districts. His early childhood was spent in forests, hills, and sea coasts. He led an adventurous life in the wilderness of deep forests. He accompanied his father to the weekend-bazaar where they sold the food items they collected from land and forest. His father seems to have contacts with some low-level English officers.His father seems to have friends who loved books. Janardhanam never went to school. There were no schools in his time. He faintly recalls having learned to write by tracing letters in sand under the guidance of an old Brahmin. He learned to read and write before he came to Visakhapatnam town. He could sign in English though he did not know any English. Janardhanam could read sign boards written in Telugu script and interpret their meaning.

He had a house of his own. Everyone had a house in his time unless one chose to be a nomad. There was no dearth for good food and other creature comforts unless a famine did violence to their area. Unlike the dwellers of the plains, people of his area could feed themselves with forest produce even during times of intense famine. His father died of some unknown jungle ailment when Janardhanam was about 15. He was comforted by his neighbours and some distant relatives. He learned to live alone. He befriended a boy from Visakhapatnam and learned the basics of carpentry. He made a few simple household furniture items and sold them to the English. Janardhanam and his carpenter friend worked with an English family for a year. Wooden items did not interest Janardhanam. He believed that big is beautiful. He wanted to build big houses like those he saw in Visakhapatnam. He wanted to build tall erect houses with brick and limestone. He succeeded in building a small brick house for an English man with the help of his carpenter friend. If things had gone this way, he would never have left his own place. One day he met a young girl Ramanujamma in the weekend-bazaar. She told him of a great bridge being constructed on river Godavari in Rajahmundry district.