BEZWADA  , a

town of British India, in the Kistna district of Madras, on the left bank of the river Kistna, at the head of its delta . Pop . (1901) 24,224 . Here are the headquarters of the Kistna canal system, which irrigates more than 500,000 acres, and also provides navigation throughout the delta . The anicut or dam at . Bezwada, begun in 1852, consists of a mass of rubble, fronted with masonry, 1240 yds. long . Here also is the central junction of the East Coast railway from Madras to Calcutta, 267 M. from Madras, where one branch line comes down from the Warangal coalfield in the Nizam's Dominions, and another from Bellary on the Southern Mahratta line . Ancient cuttings on the hills west of Bezwada have been held by some to mark the site of a Buddhist monastery; by others they are considered to have been quarries . At Undavalle to the south are some noted cave-shrines .