Anakapalli
Town
Anakapalli district
Andhra Pradesh
86,519 in 2011
Headquarters of the new Anakapalli district. Wikipedia states the municipality was merged into GVMC in 2015 as zone-07. HIGH RELEVANCE: the town holds what the article calls India's second largest jaggery (bellam) market, named Gandhi Market after Mahatma Gandhi assented to farmers' request; a documented wholesale merchant market of exactly the kind Arya Vysya families traded in. Molasses and small-scale cotton export are the other trades named. Madras District Gazetteers, Vizagapatam Vol. I (1907), Occupations and Trade, p.130-131: 'In the plain taluks, the greater part of the trade is in the hands of the Komati caste' (Komati = Arya Vysya), with Kapus, Balijas, Pattu Sales and Devangas taking a smaller share and a few Marwaris in the bigger towns financing operations. The gazetteer (p.123) also records handloom jute gunny woven round Anakapalle by Perike weavers being sold to Komati gram-traders who stitched it into grain bags.
Community institutions
Anakapalle dharmasala (1907)
Choultry ·
high confidence
The 1907 gazetteer's Anakapalle town entry (municipality of 18,539) records a hospital, a school, a travellers' bungalow and 'a dharmasala', plus a large Sunday market. The endowing community is not named.
Anakapalle jaggery (bellam) market - official district confirmation
Market ·
high confidence
The official Anakapalli district portal states the town has the second-largest jaggery market in the country and records 'Bellampatnam' among the town's historic alias names.
Anakapalle jaggery market
Market ·
high confidence
The 1907 gazetteer (p.126) names Anakapalle as 'the chief centre of the jaggery trade' in the district; Messrs Parry & Co. advanced money to cane growers and bought jaggery there by polariscope grade. The market survives as the Gandhi jaggery market, described by Wikipedia as India's second largest.
Sri Kanyaka Parameswari shrine, Anakapalli
Temple ·
high confidence
The official Visakhapatnam district portal names 'the shrine of Kanyaka Parameswari' at Anakapalli, alongside Nookalamma, as famous and drawing large numbers of devotees. Kanyaka Parameswari is the Arya Vysya kuladevata.
Anakapalle Merchants' Association
Sangam ·
medium confidence
Trade body representing roughly 100 traders and 300 allied workers of the jaggery market, which the report describes as over 100 years old. NOTE: the report does not state any caste basis for this association - it is recorded as a merchant body, not as an Arya Vysya institution.
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