Akkana & Madanna (Tunnel of)

General information

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An unspecified -cave- entrance (unidentified shape, unidentified dimensions, unidentified orientation, unidentified characteristics) is said to give access to a fabulous tunnel leading from the Telegraph Hill (note 1) above the town of Vijayawada to the court of the Mughal emperor at Hyderabad (note 2). CULTURAL HISTORY - fabulous tunnel: In the seventeenth century Akanna and Madanna, ministers of Abul Hasan, the last of the Kutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda [note 3], fixed their headquarters at Bezwada [renamed Vijayawada] … There is a popular legend to the effect that from the Telegraph Hill above the town a subterranean passage led to Hyderabad, by which the ministers could perform the journey to court and back in a single day (IMPERIAL GAZETTEER 1907-1909, 8: 19). CULTURAL HISTORY - fabulous cave: Without identifying their source of inspiration, JUBERTHIE et al. (2001: 1785) reveal that the apparently two distinct -caves- or grottes d'Akanna et de Mandanna [sic! qua: Madanna] (note4) have been reported from an unidentified hill in an unspecified spatial relation près (near) the town of Vijayawada (note 5).