Paritala is a village in the

NTR district NTR district is a district in coastal Andhra Region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative headquarters is located at Vijayawada. The district is named after former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N. T. Rama Rao. History ...

of the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

. It is located in Kanchikacherla mandal of Vijayawada revenue division.

History

When the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

achieved paramountcy over

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the Nizams were allowed to continue to rule their

princely states A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...

as client kings. The Nizams retained internal power over Paritala village until 1948 when Paritala was integrated into the new Indian Union.

Temples

A statue in depicting

Hanuman Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine '' vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

called Veera Abhaya Anjaneya Hanuman Swami is located in the village. It was installed in 2003 and stands tall. It is probably the tallest statue of Hanuman in the world. Hanuman-vijayawada-paritala

Diamonds

Paritala and the nearby villages such as Gani Atkur formed the area of rich diamond mines called Kollur mines (Gani Kollur). The Kollur mines were visited by Tavernier and William Methold who recorded that bullock cart loads of diamonds were being unearthed by 60,000 workers (1618 A.D.). Some of the most famous diamonds mined in Kollur mines, Gani Paritala and gani Atkur are: *

Koh-i-Noor The Koh-i-Noor ( ; from ), also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The ...

(186 ct) – British Crown Jewels, London *

Great Mogul The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers sty ...

(787 ct) – Lost after Nadir Shah sacked Delhi * Pitt or Regent (410 ct) – Apollo Gallery, Louvre Museum, Paris * Orlov (300 ct) – Diamond Treasury, Kremlin, Moscow *

Nizam Diamond The Nizam Diamond, also known as the "little Koh-i-noor", was a famous diamond in the 1800s. Its whereabouts today are unknown. It was named after its original owner Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. The diamond is said to have bee ...

(440 ct) – Nizam's Treasury, Hyderabad *

Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is a diamond originally extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur, India. It is blue in color due to trace amounts of boron. Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. ...

(67 ct) – Smithsonian Institution, Washington * The Golconda (135 ct) – Dunklings Jewellers, Melbourne, Australia. * Kolluru (63 ct) – Purchased by Tavernier and unknown location During medieval times and British rule, Paritala-Kollur mines were famous for diamond mining. Diamonds such as Pitt and Regent diamonds were mined here. Other famous diamonds of Paritala mines include

Darya-i-Noor The Daria-i-Noor ( fa, , lit=Sea of light), also spelled ''Darya-ye Noor'', is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing an estimated 182 carats (36 g). Its colour, pale pink, is one of the rarest to be found in diamonds. The diamon ...

, Dresden Green and Legrand Conde.

References

{{reflist Villages in NTR district Diamond mines in India