Karaikal - Mahe - Yanam
Yanam is one of the regions in the Union Territory of Puducherry . which is 870 Kms away from it. It is situated on the East Coast of the Indian Peninsula at 16 degrees 42' northern latitude, and between 82 degree 11' Eastern longitude bounded on all sides by the East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh State.
The town of Yanam lies on the spot where the River Coringa(Atreya) branches off from Gauthami into two parts. The entire region, consisting of Yanam town and six villages is treated as Municipality for purposes of local administration. The region, which covers an area of 30.0 Sq. K.Mtr, has a population of 31,362 according to the 2001 census. The region is bounded on the east and south by river Gauthami Godavari river which discharges itself into Bay of bengal after flowing almost 14 Kms towards east from Yanam.
History
A parwana from Haji Hassan Khan authorized the French Representative Fouquet, then chief of the Company at Machilipatnam to set up a 'loge' at Yanam in the year 1731. The sovereignty of the French over the territory was confirmed by Musafar Jung, the Nizam of Hydrabad in 1750, The place was formally ceded to them only two years later. Like all other settlements Yanam too fell thrice into the hands of the British. After the Napoleonic wars, Yanam along with the factory at Machilipatnam was finally returned to the French early in 1817
Area STD Code for Yanam : 0884Alivelu Manga Sametha Shri Venkateswara Temple :
This temple is well known as "Venkanna Babu Temple", "Chaldikudu Venkanna Temple" and "Meesala Venkanna Temple".
It has been very famous for performing Child Marriages in pre independence tenure. Due to the dedicated efforts by the Social Reformer, Shri Raja Rama Mohan Roy, the "Sarada Act" (prevention of Child Marriages") was implemented by the then British Govt. in India.
As the Yanam Region is under the control of French Rule, the people from the nearby State, used to come this Temple for performing the Child Marriages.Even the People from the Madras,Hyderabad and other long distant places, also came to Yanam for their Child Marriages. Daily, some thousands of Marriages were performed in this temple.Hence, Yanam was also called as "KALYANA PURAM".
The speciality of the Temple is the Swamy Idol is having big mustaches like the Lord Sathyanarayana Swamy of Annavaram.This temple was built by the kings of Rajamahendravaram, now called as "Rajahmundry" in 15th Century. Now, We can see the sculptures of those period in this temple.
The Venkanna Festival will be celebrated in the month of March every year by the people of Yanam in very grand manner. The festival will be continued for one month.Lord Venkateswara Kalyanam is the main day of the festival. Ponnavahanam, Radha yatra and Chakrateertham are the important events of the festival. In these days nearly 1.5 lakhs of devotees will come to Yanam to take the grace of the Lord Venkanna Babu.
The Ratham festivals
The Ratham weight is around 15 Tonnes. It was built in 1950 by the then Committee. It was partially damaged to the heavy Cyclone in Nov'1996 . It was rennovated in 1998.This Ratham was carried through out entire Yanam Town in earlier days. After the Electrification Works, this route is limited from Kunameddy Junction to the New Bus Stand. It will be carried out by only the devotees with full of slogans, bhajans.
The Govt. declares Holiday for all Govt. Offices on this special event.
The Mosque
The site for the Mosque wasa dontaed by the French Government in 1848. That time small Mosque was constructed. Then in 1956, the same was remodelled. The same was demolished in 1978 and a new Mosque was constructed. Now, in 1999-2000 the Mosque was extended as the Grand Mosque in the predidentship of M.A.Sirajuddin.
The Grants for this Mosque was received from the Walf Board, Pondicherry with the cooperation of Sri M.Krishna Rao, MLA, Yanam.
At present around 200 persons can pray in the Mosque. Every Year, Ramzan, Bakrid, Milad Nabi functions will be clebrated grandly.
The Mosque covers the people of nearby villages like Thallarevu, Kolanka, Sunkarapalem which are in the adjacent State Andhra Pradesh.
There is a special importance to Pondicherry in which many religions, castes and languages are in existance, and there is another special imprtance to yanam which is physically in Andhra Pradesh state and politicially in the part of Pondicherry. Yanam is having 300 years of festivals which is being well known as a 'French yanam' This region was ruled by French People for 300 years. The monument of the Catholic Church' French rulers is the 'The rememberance of the French Rulers is linked with this church. This church was built under Eeroupian style.There is is none other church available like this church. The furniture,decoration articles were imported from France. This church was built in the year 1846 by the Franch missionarie.The foundation stone was laid down by Father Michel Lecnam and he was died in the year 1836 April 30th without completion of the church work. For his rememberance a culvert was fixed in this church.The church work was completed in the year 1846. There is another special attraction in this church is that a hill temple was built in this premises of the church by the french rulers,and there is another hill temple behind the church which was built by the English engineers.
There was an iteresting story behind this chruch that in the year 1943 a Ship named Villiam B. Augustus, was thrown to a sand island due to heavy cyclone. Though they tried hard to rescue the ship consisting of 1000 tonnes by using all manpower, it was invain. The ship stayed for one year in the same place without an inch of moment. At that time, one engineer by name E.H.Swini was deputed from America for this purpose. He also tried and came to a conclusion that this task would not be possible with manpower. And he worshipped the Lord ' Mary Maa' and all of sudden the ship moved from the sand island. In tribute of the Lord Mary Maa, the engineer and his wife constructed this church in yanam. This festivals can also be seen now in the hill temple behind this church.
From then, every year in March, a major festival is being celebrated. Devotees from various neighbouring places used to come here and worship the Lord Mary Maa. The very remarkable thing is that the devotees are not only from the Christians but also Muslims, Hindua and other religions.
Yanam has got a very beautiful view. It is covered withful of coconut trees. We can have fresh iodinised air since it is located over the Banks of the Gauthami Godavari River. Humidity is high in this region.
Yanam consists of 8 villages namely, Kanakalapeta, Mettakur, Kurasampeta, Farampeta, Dariyalathippa, Dommeti Peta, Guireyampeta and Savithri Nagar.
This is actually the river bank road of Gauthami Godavari. This road was constructed by the Andhra Road & Buildings Dept. They had given the maintenance of this Road to Yanam Public Works Dept. This road ends with SavithriNagar village. After Savithri Nagar, the river goes into the Sea.
During 1995-96 Cyclone, the road was badly damaged. Almost 50% of the road was destroyed due to heavy tides of the sea. The road is having 8 mts. width and 16 Kms.The total cost of the construction of the road was nearly 3 crores.
Now the Govt. has taken steps to make this area as one of the tourist spots of Yanam Region because it has a very good River View. There is a proposal to have a boat house in this area. The Agriculture Dept. has already started the Afforestation programme along this Road side.
Yanam Ferry Road
The Yanam Ferry Road was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Pondicherry Shri R.V.JanakiRaman on 11.1.2000. Now, there is a proposal for making the Ferry Road very beautiful by putting important person's idols on the footpath of this Road.
The New Yanam - FerryRoad
Daily above Ten Thousand passengers are travelling to and fro on this part. The people from Konaseema area under the Amalapuram Constituency of East Godavari District are mainly using this river way for reaching Kakinada, the District Head Quarters.
This river called Gauthami Godavari is one of the branches of the main river Godavari. It enters the Bay of Bengal after crossing around 12 Kms.
The minimum capacity of the Panti can hold is 15 Tonnes. It supports the two wheelers, three wheelers as well as four wheelers excluding heavy vehicles.
Per trip, it carries roughly 200 passengers along with vehicles. The time of journey depends on the river flow. Generally, it takes 15 minutes to cross from one end to another.
Now, the Govt. of AndhraPradesh with the assistance of ONGC, WorldBank Funds, Pondicherry Govt., Central Govt. and the donations from the farmers & markeing committies, is constructing a Bridge across this river.
The estimated cost of the construction is roughly 120 crores.
The Navayuga Engineering Constructions(NEC) of Visakhapatnam has taken the contract to build the bridge in the stipulated time of 36 months. The foundation stone was laid by Shri G.M.C.BalaYogi, Hon'ble LokSabha Speaker.
The New Bridge - Balayogi Varadhi was inaugurated by Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, CM, AP in 2002.
Important Temples nearer to Yanam
The Lord Satyanarayana Swamy's Temple is located in the Annavaram. It is around 80 Kms from Yanam towards East. It is very famous for performing Vrathams especially for newly married couples for getting blessings from the Lord Satyanarayana Swamy. It is the second important Temple in AndhraPradesh after Tirupathi.
It is one of the Jyothirlingas in India. The Shiva here is called Bheemeswara Swamy. The height of the Linga is around 14 Ft. and it is one of the oldest temples in India. People say that it was constructed by the Devathas. There is one more temple called Manikyamabika Devi Temple in the campus of this Temple. It is one of the Ashtadasa Pithas in India. It is very famous as it has the Sakthi Chakra and the Parvathi Goddess is sitting on this Chakra. It is around 16 Kms from Yanam. There are frequent buses running from Yanam to Draksharamam.
It is one of the oldest temples in India. It is also called Second Kasi. The Shiva is in the form of Cock shape. We can see the padas of the Gaya Rakshas here. It is very famous temple. The shiva is called "Kukkuteswara Swamy" and the Parvathi is called "Raja Rajeswari". The Nandi infront of the Shiva Linga is vert famous and it has the liveness in it. There is one Durga Temple in the campus of this temple which is also one of the AshtaDasa Pithas of Durga Goddess. The Pitham of the Lord Goddess is lying here and hence the name comes "Puruhuthika Devi" and the town is called as "Pithapuram". There is also one more temple of Shri Dattatreya Swamy in this Temple Campus. It is very famous as the Dattatreya's next incarnation is Shri Pada Vallabha Swamy was born in Pithapuram only. It became very famous and people from all over India especially from West and Notheren side of India used to come Pithapuram to have the Darshanam of these Lords. It is around 50 kms from yanam Region.
Cheeramenu
The scientific name of the Cheeramenu is sarida gracilis, soridatambil,sarida Ambo scamis.It is available at the Brackish water area where the godavari river and sea water joins.
This special kind of fish lays eggs here as there exists plenty of oxygen available in this area.
When the breeze comes from the East Side of the Ocean, this fish comes out towards the bank side of the river. This will be idnetified when the birds fly down towards the river bank to catch hold of the fish from the water.
There is a lot of demand for this fish item during the season. You can see the demand for this item in the market in the picture.
Then the fishermen come to know that the Cheeramenu is avilable in that area and catches the fish using the saree which is called CHEERA in Telugu. Hence it is called as CHEERAMENU.
It is available in the months of August,September and October. It is very tasty and people will make different type of foods using this fish. The items will be exported to outside areas from here.
These will be exported to France country also. Though it will be vey costly, people are very crazy to buy this fish. There will be great demand for this fish in the market during the season.
Pulasa
It is a special kind of fish which is avilable only in Yanam Region. When the sweet water coming through Godavari river from Maharastra joins the salt water of the Ocean, Brakish area will be formed in the Yanam Region.This will be very fertile and make the fish become fatty. Before coming to this area, the fish will be called as Ilasa and after coming to this area, it becomes PULASA.It is available only in the months of August/September.The curries made using this PULASA will be exported to outside areas during the season.It is being exported to France also.
