Koneru Center

Admittedly i did "nt travel much and could hardly be called an expert on that sort of thing, but i will still go and say that i had never seen anything like it....Sure there are centers at all places, squares and even water fountains....but never all the three combined in one.....For,...Koneru center is actually a center of four roads,...made to look like a square with four blocks of shopping complexes,... the KONERU in the middle of it all, encircled by a barricade and a water fountain in it's midst......In my time,....when i was a child, the fountain started playing as soon as it became dusk and for our childish eyes, it looked like a heaven on earth...Sooo thrilling to see the strong water jets sparkling and dancing in the lights of the brightly illuminated,little stretch of park around and the surrounding shops....That was in sixties....not the world of today....we were young, innocent , rather country-bred for the know-alls of today"s kids and it used to be an awesome sight at which we stared with our tongues hanging out...When it became twilight and kids became restive as they usually do at the time, men in the house used to take us out on shikar..(that was how we called it in those days....Only later, when i grew up, i found out that SHIKAR meant big-game hunting)..to see the fountain and the square...

The square used to be the pride of Bandar....It still is...The hub of businesses, the heart of the town, it witnessed many a sensational event in the history of the town....The famous ladaais of Deepavali,...The skirmishes between police and people during Salt satyagraha and the legendary flag hoisting by Sri.Thota Narasayya Naidu...

Till the early parts of 1700"s, there was never any Koneru(tank) at this place....The french, who ruled Bandar at that time and who reportedly built the fort, also were said to have dug out a tank for the drinking water purposes of the fort here....It is stated it used to hold a massive 4,400 gallons of water ....In 1759, colonel Port of the British army defeated the French , occupied the fort and made further developments to the Koneru by laying pipelines from it to the fort....But somehow in the passage time,--nobody knows why---the tank became neglected....It almost dried up...with only some small puddles left here and there , bushes and weeds encroached upon, and the poorest of castes lived there,pitching their pitiable huts....

But,....good times had returned to the place in 1814 with the posting of Asst.Collector Robertson to Bandar...He was of a rare kind,a people-friendly officer, liked by the natives immensely , and one who took interest in the welfare of them...He noticed the bad state the koneru had fallen into, and amazingly for a govt official , strived to develop it with his own money, by restoring the tank, clearing the place of weeds, and personally invited Zamindars and businessmen to set up establishments around it....He even personally supervised over the foundation stone ceremony of it...

Robertson caused some beautiful budhist sculptures to be imported from Amaravathi.... These statues adorned the center, and it was stated that Governor Of Madras,Frederick Adam once came down to see and admire them.... Later, however, they were taken away and some of them were stated to be in the Madras Museum , still being preserved and some went into the custody of somebody called Alexander...a trusted lieutenant of the then collector Goldingham....

It is said that people of Bandar loved Robertson so much that the square itself had been named after him, in recognition of his services....Another interesting fact is that two temples...both starting with the letter R.....Sri Raganayaka Swamy gudi and Sri Ramalingeswara Swamy Gudi had been built here with a lot of encouragement from him...

Years later, another British collector by the name of George Thorn hill, won over the eternal gratitude of the Bandar citizens with his exemplary support and services in the most tragic and critical hours their city faced.....That was during the infamous VUPPENA...People voluntarily erected an edict amidst the koneru in his memory, eulogising the help he rendered them....

At the heights of salt satyagraha movement,and freedom struggle, meetings and public demonstrations used to be held regularly at the square....It was there, on 9-4-1930, that a defiant Dr. Pattabhi publicly auctioned a small packet of salt ,he and his comrades had brought from the seas of Chinnapuram....Sri.Puranam Suri Sasthry garu was stated to have bought it with a gold sovereign....

Another interesting event was the proposed re hoisting of the congress flag at the center...On, the 6 th May, 1930,morning..... the country woke up to a very surcharged atmosphere...News broke out that Gandhiji was arrested and congress workers at the salt satyagraha camp at Bandar were in no mood to take things lying down....They were further incensed by another news that the congress flag, Sri.Veerabhadracharyulu previously hoisted at the center, had been taken down by the police and desecrated.....A large contingent of agitated congress workers proceeded there with even a orchestra band in their wake, and tried to hoist it again, by the same Acharyulu garu...but were forced back...A lathi charge was then issued on them by the police, and some of the leaders had been roughed up ruthlessly...Then Sri.Thota Narasayya, a wrestler himself, took charge and single-handedly carried the flag through the police cordon , crept up the pole and hoisted the flag, all along receiving the police blows and lathis....It is stated that 15 policemen accosted and beat him unconscious...but could not stop him till he hoisted it...

Till 11-2-1951,..most of the shops at the center ran under thatched pandals, while a few had pucca buildings....On that day, a foundation ceremony had been conducted grandly by the municipal authorities for a proposed pucca building complex...Then governer of Madras, Sri.Bezawada Gopala Reddy, who was an erstwhile student of National College came down expressly to lay the stone...Four blocks had been constructed around the center and named after great local leaders of the place ie....Cherakuwada Narasimham Panthulugaru,..Sri. Koka Ahobala Rao garu,..Kopalle Hanumantha Rao garu,..Seelam Jagannadha Rao garu...

Sadly the koneru itself is getting smaller and smaller, due to the on going road widenings and extensions but undoubtedly it still retains it"s lovely looks and is the sun of Bandar"s solar system...

REF;Machilipatnam Charithra