Page:Madras District Gazetteers - Anantapur.pdf/24

than a series of disconnected peaks. From a distance it shows a far more jagged sky-line than they do. Two noticeable hills in it are the Rollabetta near Rolla and the Basavanabetta further south. The former is split into three fantastic craggy peaks and the latter is crowned by a remarkable tor formed by one great rock poised curiously upon another even larger.

Besides these more or jess well-marked lines, there are numerous examples of the isolated peaks and rocky clusters which are so characteristic of the Deccan. Among the best known of these are the Gooty rock, the precipitous Kundurpi Drug, the cluster round about Kalyandrug, the hills just north of Mdlyavantam in Anantapur taluk, and the really fine group north of the Singanamalla tank, between Anantapur and Gooty taluks, the highest point of which is Gampa- malla hill, 2,510 feet above the sea.

Along the eastern side of the Tadpatri taluk runs a portion of the Erramalla or Errakonda ( ‘red hills’ ) range of Kurnool. They are hardly to be counted among the hills of Anantapur district, but are worth mention on account of their curious table-topped shape, their summits being usually perfectly level.

The chief river of Anantapur is the Pennér, or ‘great river.’ It rises in the Chennakésava hill, north-west of Nandidrug in Mysore State. It is there always called in Canarese the Uttara (northern) Pindkini, in contradistinction to the southern Pinakini, or Ponnaiyér, which rises near the same hill. The name Pindkini is probably derived! from Pinéke, the bow of Siva,—to which god Nandidrug is sacred—both rivers taking a course which forms a continuous curve like that of a bow. In British territory the Northern Pindkini is called the Pennér. It enters Anantapur in the extreme south of Hindupur and flows nearly due north through that taluk into Penukonda. Near Utakiru it is joined by the Jayamangali. The confluence is, as usual, heid to be a sacred spot and is marked by a little white temple backed by a grove of trees. Thence, flowing still northwards, the river passes on through Kalyandrug taluk and the western corners of Dharmavaram and Anantapur for some 80 miles until, near Pennahdébalam in Gooty taluk, it turns sharply eastwards and runs in a generally easterly direction for some 50 miles more through Gooty and Tadpatri taluks and so to Cuddapah and Nellore districts, in the latter of which it enters the Bay of Bengal. It thus flows through parts at least of seven out of the eight taluks of Anantapur. The only important towns actually on the river are Pamidi and Tadpatri. Its banks are usually low and its bed wide and sandy. Near Pennahdébalam the

1 Rice’s Mysore, i, 86,