# Gódávari/Chapter 2

CHAPTER II.
POLITICAL HISTORY.
Early History—Asoka's conquest, 260 B.C.—The Andhras, down to 200 A.D.—The Pallavas, about 200-615 A.D.—The Chalukyas—Their conquest of Vengi, about 615-Separation of the Eastern and Western Chalukyas, about 630 — Hiuen Tsiang's description of the former—Eastern Chalukya rule, 63o-999-Chola conquest, 999—Kulóttunga Chóla I—He obtains the Chóla and Vengi thrones, 1070—His viceroys in Vengi—His death in 1119 and the decline of the Chólas—The Vélanándu chieftains, twelfth century—The Kóna chiefs of the delta—Local chiefs of Ellore, Nadendla, etc.—The Kákatiyas of Warangal conquer Kistna about 1200—And Gódávari about 1300—Pratápa Rudra's viceroys—Temporary Musalman conquest of the district, 1323—The Kórukonda Reddis, 1325-95—The Reddis of Kondavíd, 1344-1422—The Rajahmundry Reddis, 1422-50—The Gajapatis of Orissa take the district, 1450—But cede part of it to the Muhammadans, 1470 —The latter ousted, 1489—Conquest by Vijayanagar, 1515—Musalman conquest of Kistna, 1540—And of Gódávari, 1571. Muhammadan Period—Weakness of their rule—Aurangzeb establishes his authority, 1687—The Subadar of the Deccan becomes independent, 1724—The Northern Circars ceded to the French, 1753—Their difificulties there—Bussy at length obtains possession, 1757—Forde's expedition against the French, 1758—His victory at Condore—The country cleared of the French—Cession of the Northern Circars to the English, 1765. English Period-Early administration—Disturbances of the peace —In 1785-90—In 1790-1800—Quieter times thereafter-Subba Reddi's rebellion, 1858—Outbreaks in Kampa.
The earliest historical mention of the Gódávari district occurs in the inscriptions of Asóka, the Buddhist ruler of the great Mauryan empire, the capital of which was at Pátaliputra, the modern Patna, In 260 B.C.1 this monarch conquered the kingdom of Kalinga (a tract of varying extent which may be taken to have comprised the country between the Mahánadi river on the north and the Gódávari on the south) and he claims also to have subdued the Andhras, a dynasty whose sway apparently extended as far north as the Gódávari river. Asóka was the great apostle of the Buddhist religion, which he extended far and wide in India, and the magnificent Buddhist remains at Amarávati on the Kistna river are proof that the faith he espoused obtained a strong hold in country even further south than the Gódávari. They contain an inscription in the Mauryan character. ​ But his conquest of the Andhras by no means terminated the existence of that dynasty. For long after his reign they retained, and probably increased, their power in this district, Pliny mentions them as a strong people with 30 fortified cities, 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 elephants. Their conquests extended far to the north, and even to the western coast of the peninsula, for one of their earlier kings, Simuka, covered the walls of a large cave at Nanaghat (50 miles north-west of Poona) with inscriptions recording his sacrifices; and his successors have left evidence by their coins and in their inscriptions in the cave temples at Nasik, Karle and Kanheri that they extended their power to Malwa and the borders of Gujarat. Towards the south their dominions included parts of Mysore. Their capital was at first at Srikakulam on the Kistna, nineteen miles west of Masulipatam, but was afterwards removed to Dharanikota, near Amaravati. From coins, inscriptions and other material have been ascertained the names and dates of kings of the line who ruled from about 110 to 220 A.D.
The next power to appear upon the scene were the Pallavas. This race, like others of the invaders of the south, perhaps passed into central India from the north-west during the second century A.D. In an inscription, the Andhra king Gotamiputra (172-202 A.D.) boasts that he defeated them, but they shortly afterwards subdued the Andhras and extended their empire as far south as Conjeeveram and the borders of the Tanjore country, and as far to the north-east as the frontiers of Orissa- Records of them are few and far between ; but the absence of inscriptions of the Andhras after about the year 218 and the discovery at Mayidavolu and Kondamudi (in the Guntur district) of two Pallava records which on paleographical grounds may be assigned to the end of the second century, go to show that their conquest of the Andhras occurred about that period. Moreover inscriptions of two kings named Attivarman and Prithivimula, who were also apparently Pallava rulers, have been found in the Godavari district and seem to belong to a slightly later period. In the fourth century, the Allahabad inscription mentioned on p. 233 refers to a chief of Pithapuram who was apparently a Pallava. Whether these Pallavas were independent monarchs or merely local feudatories of the main Pallava empire, the capital of which was at Conjeeveram, cannot be stated with certainty.
About the beginning of the seventh century, the Chalukyas, who were also invaders from the north-west and who possessed a large empire in central and western India the capital of which was Badami in the Bombay Presidency, came into ​prominence. An unusually distinct picture of them is drawn by the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang, who visited India between the years 629 and 644 A.D.:
'This disposition of the people is honest and simple; they are tall of stature and of a stern, vindictive character. To their benefactors they are grateful, to their enemies relentless. If they are insulted, they will risk their lives to avenge themselves. If they are asked to help one in distress, they will forget themselves in their haste to render assistance. If they are going to seek revenge they first give their enemy warning; then, each being armed, they attack each other with spears. When one turns to flee, the other pursues him, but they do not kill a man who submits. If a general losses a battle, they do not inflict punishment, but present him with woman's clothes, and so he is driven to seek death for himself. The country provides for a band of champions to the number of several hundred. When about to engage in conflict they intoxicate themselves with wine, and then one man with lance in hand will meet ten thousand and challenge them to fight. If one of these champions meets a man and kills him, the laws of the country do not punish him. Every time they go forth they beat drums before them. Moreover they make drunk many hundred head of elephants; and, taking them out to fight, and after themselves drinking wine, they rush forward in mass and trample everything down so that no enemy can stand before them. The king in consequence of his possessing these men and elephants treats his neighbours with contempt. He is of the Kshatriya caste and his name is Pulakési.'*
The monarch here referred to (Pulakésin II, 609-42) extended his conquests throughout the Gódávari district and into Vizagapatam, drove the Pallavas to the walls of Conjeeveram and threatened the country of the Chólas of Tanjore.
His conquest of Gódávari is detailed in a stone inscription at Aihole (in the Bombay Presidency) in which he mentions the reduction of Pithápuram and Ellore.† It took place about 615 A.D.
During his absence on this campaign, Pulakésin had made his younger brother Vishnuvardhana I his regent at his capital of Bádámi, and on his return he deputed him to govern the country he had recently conquered. By 632 Vishnuvardhana had established himself in these new territories as an independent sovereign of the kingdom of 'Vengi,' the capital of which was at Pedda Végi near Ellore and which included the Gódávari district, and there he founded the Eastern Chálukya dynasty, which held that country for at least five centuries ​and remained throughout distinct from, and independent of, the Western Chálukyas.
Hiuen Tsiang visited this kingdom also. He describes it as being nearly 1,000 miles in circuit and its capital as some seven miles round, but the country was thinly populated — possibly owing to its recent conquest. The once numerous Buddhist convents were in ruins and deserted, for, though the Andhras and Pallavas had been Buddhists or Jains, the Eastern Chálukyas were Vaishnavites by creed.
The genealogy and some of the acts of the Eastern Chálukya kings of Vengi are given with great chronological distinctness in the various grants of the dynasty that have come down to us.* In the early part of the eighth century Udayachandra, the general of the Pallava king Nandivarman, claims that he subdued the Eastern Chálukya king Vishnuvardhana III (709-46);† but this reconquest by the ancient owners of the country seems to have been short-lived. Vijayáditya II (799-843) had to defend himself against his neighbours on the west, the Ráshtrakútas of Málkhéd (90 miles west by south of Hyderabad), who had subdued and taken the place of the Western Chálukyas. What was the result of the fighting is not clear. Vijayáditya II relates how 'during twelve years by day and by night he fought a hundred and eight battles with the armies of the Gangas (probably the Mysore Gangas) and the Rattas ' (i.e., the Ráshtrakútas); but his Ráshtrakúta contemporary, Góvinda III, boasts that he ordered the king of Vengi into his presence and made him assist in building and fortifying a city.
At the end of the tenth century, the mighty Rájarája I, who had laid the foundations of a great Chóla empire with its capital at Tanjore, conquered the Eastern Chálukya country. He seems to have appointed a prince of the fallen line (Saktivarman, 999-1011) as king (or perhaps feudatory) in Vengi.‡ This man's brother and successor, Vimaláditya (1011-22),§ though he had married a Chóla princess, apparently attempted to throw off his allegiance, for Rájarája's son Rájéndra Chóla (1011-14) again invaded the Vengi country and advanced as far as the hill called Mahéndragiri in Ganjám, where he planted a pillar of victory. Vimaláditya was not deposed, however, and was succeeded by his son ​Rájarája (1022-62), who also married a princess of the Chóla royal house. This king fixed his capital at Rajahmundry, and it was during his reign that the Mahábhárata was translated into Telugu.*
His son Kulóttunga was afterwards the famous Kulóttunga Chóla I, who, though belonging on his father's side to the ancient line of Vengi, claimed to succeed to the Chóla throne at Tanjore through his mother and his grandmother, and ultimately founded a new Chóla dynasty in the south. While heir-apparent to the Vengi throne he distinguished himself by capturing elephants and defeating a king, but when his father Rájarája died he was ousted from the succession by his paternal uncle Vijayáditya VII.
The latter's rule appears to have been disturbed by invasion. The Western Chálukya kingdom had revived after the fall of the Ráshtrakútas, and its great monarch Vikramáditya VI (whose capital was at Kalyáni, north-west of Hyderabad) was by this time harassing both the Chóla and the Vengi countries. He twice invaded the latter,† but was, however, defeated by the Chóla king, who re-established his authority in Vengi and restored Vijayáditya VII to his throne there.'‡ ' His elephants drank the water of the Gódávari. He crossed even Kalingam, and beyond it despatched for battle his invincible army as far as the further end of Chakrakótta. He reconquered the good country of Véngai and bestowed it on Vijayáditya, whose broad hands held weapons of war and who had taken refuge at his lotus feet.'§
About 1069 the then Chóla king died, and his son secured the throne with the help of the Western Chálukya king Vikramáditya VI. The Kulóttunga already mentioned claimed, however, to succeed as both grandson and adopted son of a former Chóla ruler. He took up arms, slew the new king, and entered on a fierce conflict with Vikramáditya VI. The accounts given by the two monarchs of the events which followed are widely different; but victory finally rested with Kulóttunga, who made himself king of the Chóla country and overlord of Vengi, and ruled till II18 with the title of Kulóttunga Chóla I.
He magnanimously allowed his uncle Vijayáditya VII, who had before supplanted him, to continue in charge of ​Vengi, and appears to have treated him with cordiality. When this man died in 1077, Kulóttunga appointed his own second son, Rájarája II, as viceroy of Vengi. The latter seems to have been uncomfortable and insecure in his position. An inscription of this date says that finding ' a kingdom not such a pleasure as the worship of the illustrious feet of the elders, he returned to his parents, after having ruled over Vengi for one year.'* He was replaced (1078) by his younger brother Vira Chóda, 'the brave prince, the incarnation of valour,' who ' joyfully put on the tiara of the world.' This prince was superseded in 1084 by Kulóttunga's eldest son Rájarája Chóda Ganga, but was reinstated in 1088-89 and continued to rule till at least 1092-93. He was then succeeded by another and better known brother, Vikrama Chóla, who ruled the Vengi country till about 1118. The reasons for these constant changes are nowhere stated; but it would appear that Kulóttunga placed no great reliance on his sons' loyalty to himself.
The only event of importance in this period is the conquest of Kalinga which was achieved by Kulóttunga some time before 1095-96. Kalinga was feudatory to Vengi and had withheld tribute for two years. Vikrama Chóla also claims to have effected this victory, and it was perhaps achieved during his viceroyalty. He governed the Vengi country for some 20 years, and in 1118 he was called to the south to become co-regent with, and shortly afterwards the successor of, Kulóttunga, who seems to have died in that or the following year. On his departure a certain Chóda, the son of Gonka, was appointed as viceroy of Vengi, and was even honoured with adoption into Kulóttunga's family. His descendants (see below) long played a prominent part in the history of the district.
The Chóla supremacy in Vengi was at this point disturbed for a few years by the aged Western Chálukya king Vikramáditya VI, who took advantage of the departure of Vikrama Chóla and the death of his old enemy Kulóttunga to invade this northern province of theirs. Their viceroy Chóda submitted to him, and from 1120 to 1124 Vikramáditya was undisputed king of Vengi. His rule cannot have lasted long, as inscriptions of Vikrama Chola, dated 1127 and 1135 respectively, occur in Kistna. After the latter of these years, however, neither he nor his successors took an active part in the government of Vengi. Occupied with their own troubles in the south, the Chólas gradually lost their influence in that province, and, though they were recognized as overlords by ​the various petty rulers who now divided the country, even down to a time when their power in Tanjore was shattered, they had little, if any, real influence in Vengi after the death of Vikrama Chóla.
Of these petty rulers, the most important (and apparently the admitted suzerains over the others) were the Vélanándu family, to which belonged that Chóda who was adopted into Kulóttunga's family and left as viceroy of Vengi when Vikrama Chóla went in 11118 to join his father in the south. Vélanándu is said* to be 'an old name for the Chandhavólu country' (i.e., the western part of the Kistna delta), where the family appear to have been long established and to have ruled as feudatories of the Eastern Chálukyas. Chóda's father, Gonka I, seems to have ruled 'the Andhra country' under Kulóttunga I, and is mentioned in an inscription at Chebrólu in the Kistna district dated 1076. A cousin of his named Vedura was a minister of Kulóttunga's son Víra Chóda when viceroy of Vengi; and, in recognition of his services against 'a Pándyan king,' was given by his master the overlordship of the country between the Kistna and the Gódávari. It was however under Chóda that the Vélanándu family first attained the position of viceroys of the Vengi country. He and his successors wielded considerable power. Chóda, as has been seen, bowed the neck to Vikramáditya VI, but his son Gonka II (alias Kulóttunga Chóda Gonka) claims to have ruled from Kálahasti in North Arcot to Ganjám. The queen of the latter's grandson, Gonka III (1137-56), covered with gold the idol at Simháchalam near Vizagapatam. The family seems to have been suppressed by the Kákatíyas of Warangal, in what is now the Nizam's Dominions, who forced their way into the country south of the Gódavári at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The last of them who is known to history was Prithísvara, the son of Gonka III, who ruled from 1163 to at least 1186.
Meanwhile another family, the Haihiya chiefs of 'the Kóna country,' were in power in the delta of the Gódávari. The delta taluk of Amalápuram is still known as the Kóna country. These people were apparently hereditary chieftains subordinate to the Vengi viceroys and the Vélanándu family. Their inscriptions in this district range from 1128 to 1206.
Other local rulers were the chiefs of Nadendla in the Kistna district, who seem to have recognized the authority of the Vélanándu line and have left inscriptions ranging from ​1130 to 1232; the chieftains of Ellore, whose records date from 1139-40 to 1211-12; a family whose inscriptions are found in several places in the delta, who claim descent from the Eastern Chálukya king Amma I (918-25) and the best known of whom is Mallapa III who seems to have ruled from 1173 to at least 1223; and Annala Reddi of Kórukonda (in Rajahmundry taluk), who is stated in one of the Mackenzie MSS. to have ruled over the greater part of the lowlands of district 'for a long time' till he was 'succeeded' (i.e., ousted) by king Pratápa Rudra of the Kákatíya line of Warangal.
These Kákatíya kings had by now begun to lay the foundations of their empire on the ruins of the western Chálukya kingdom. As early as 1162 their king Rudra Déva boasted* that he had conquered the whole country as far as Srísailam (in Kurnool) in the south, and up to the salt sea on the east. The first indubitable inscription of the dynasty found in the Vengi country is one of Rudra Déva's son Ganapati at Chebrólu (in the Kistna district) dated 1213-14;†and that this king overcame the Vélanándu chieftains is indicated by the existence of an inscription of his at Chandhavólu, their capital.
When the Kákatíyas first crossed the Gódávari is doubtful. An inscription at Drákshárámam mentions king Ganapati (1213-53), but it is fragmentary and undated, and may belong to the time of his successor; and the first record in this district which can be unhesitatingly ascribed to the dynasty is one of Pratápa Rudra, dated 1317, at Palivela in the Amalápuram taluk. Ferishta moreover speaks of the king of Rajahmundry as an independent prince in 1295.‡ It would thus seem that the Kákatíyas did not cross the Gódávari till some time after their conquest of Vengi proper, and that this district did not fall under their dominion until the end of the thirteenth century.
One of the Mackenzie MSS.¶ which (where it can be checked) agrees in its facts and dates with local inscriptions and is thus presumably trustworthy, throws an interesting side-light on Pratápa Rudra's rule of the district. His local viceroys were two brothers named Pedda Malla Rázu and Chinna Malla Rázu, who held their court with great pomp and luxury at Bendapúdi in the Tuni division. They were most oppressive in their rule, and a long list is given of the enormities they perpetrated. Finally, in 1322-23, Pratápa ​Rudra had himself to interfere, since 'the cultivators refused to follow their occupation and fled the country.' The MS. describes at length the rules he then laid down for the revenue administration of the province. The two viceroys eventually fell foul of the 'Rája of Cuttack' (the Ganga king of Kalinga), Pedda Malla Rázu having kidnapped the bride of one of that potentate's relatives as she was passing through the district. The Ganga king sent an expedition to revenge the affront; and, after a long siege, Bendapúdi was taken and the two brothers were captured and beheaded.
The Mughal emperor of Delhi had long been jealous of the growing power of the Kákatíyas. In 1303 he had unsuccessfully attempted to crush their kingdom; in 1310 his general Malik Káfur captured Warangal, but Pratápa Rudra soon recovered his independence; but in 1323 the Delhi heirapparent, Muhammad Tughlak, took the town again and carried off its king to Delhi.
Muhammad Tughlak seems to have penetrated as far as Rajahmundry itself, for an inscription, dated 1324, on a mosque there describes its erection by him in that year. The tide of Muhammadan invasion receded almost at once, but from this point the influence of the kings of Warangal in the Telugu country disappears, and Vengi was ruled by the Reddi chiefs of Kórukonda, Kondavid and Rajahmundry.
A history of the Kórukonda Reddis is given in the Mackenzie MS. already quoted. The founder of the line was Kóna or Kúna Reddi, 'a good Súdra,' who built the fort at Kórukonda and made the place into a big town. His son Mummidi Reddi succeeded him, and (along with his two brothers) is said to have ruled as far as Tátipáka (either the village of that name in Nagaram island or its namesake in Tuni division) and to have founded one of the Kórukonda temples in 1353. Mummidi Reddi was followed by his son Kúna Reddi, and he by his two brothers Anna Reddi and Kátama Reddi, one after the other. Their reigns are said to have lasted 40 years. The latter was succeeded by his son Mummidi Náyak, by whom another of the Kórukonda temples was repaired in 1394-95.
The Reddis of Kondavíd were Súdra cultivators; but the family seems to have been in the service of the kings of Warangal and no doubt derived the beginnings of its power from this circumstance. They apparently ruled side by side with the Kórukonda Reddis, for the inscriptions of the two overlap. Their earliest extant record is dated in 1344. Their original capital was at Addanki in Guntúr, but they subsequently moved to Kondavid. The founder of the dynasty ​was Véma, the son of Próla, who boasts that he conquered Raichúr and defeated certain kings, calls himself 'the lion to the elephant which was the Pándyan king' (whatever that may mean), and was a great patron of Telugu and Tamil literature. Of his successors, two are stated to have fought against the Musalmans and three were men of letters. His grandson Kumáragiri placed his minister and brother-in-law, Kátaya Véma, in charge of the eastern portion of his dominions and made Rajahmundry the capital thereof. Kátaya Véma's dates range from 1385 to 1422 and an inscription of his occurs in the Simháchalam temple in Vizagapatam.
On the death of Kátaya Véma, one Alláda the son of Dodda Reddi obtained (it is not clear how) the throne of Rajahmundry, and founded a new, though short-lived, dynasty. His inscriptions appear as early as 1415-17 in the delta (at Pálakollu, Palivela, and Drákshárámam) and he is represented therein as being the friend or servant of Kátaya Véma, whose enemies he claims to have 'uprooted.' His military operations were extensive. He says that he 'befriended' the Gajapati of Orissa and the king of Karnáta (i.e., the king of Vijayanagar, in the Bellary district) who was allied with the Gajapati, and defeated a Musalman general called Alpa Khan. He also claims to have defeated the Reddis of Kondavíd. His sons Allaya Véma and Vírabhadra ruled jointly; and members of the family are mentioned in the Drákshárámam inscriptions until as late as 1447.
In 1434 the Gajapati dynasty of Orissa was founded by Kapilésvara, the minister of the last Ganga king of that country.* Kapilésvara had shortly before been in alliance with the Rajahmundry Reddis and the Vijayanagar king against the Muhammadans, but he none the less obtained the assistance of the Báhmani king of Kulbarga, then the most powerful Musalman chief in the Deccan, in establishing himself in his new position. By 1454 he was recognized as suzerain as far south as Kondavíd, and a minister of his was ruling at Rajahmundry in 1458; so, though the details of the conquest are unknown, he had apparently seized the whole of this district.
In 1470, however, his successor Purushóttama applied to the Báhmani king of Kulbarga, for help against a rival claimant, and was forced to cede to that ruler, as the price of his assistance, the districts of Rajahmundry and Kondapalle in Kistna. The Hindu inhabitants of Kondapalle, however, soon afterwards revolted, murdered the Muhammadan governor, ​and called for help from Purushóttama, who accordingly came and besieged Rajahmundry. A Musalman army relieved that place, and about 1478 the Kulbarga king Muhammad took terrible vengeance on the Orissa country and forced Purushóttama to purchase his withdrawal by a present of valuable elephants. Kondapalle was retaken, its temple destroyed (the Bráhman priests being massacred), and a mosque erected on the site. The Kulbarga king remained three years at Rajahmundry, expelling or reducing refractory zamindars and establishing military posts. He appointed one Málik Ahmed as his viceroy, and at the end of 1480 left the district to prosecute his conquests in the south.
A few years afterwards, however, the Kulbarga kingdom was dismembered by revolutions which resulted in the formation of the three Muhammadan kingdoms of Bijápur, Ahmadnagar and Golconda in the years 1489, 1490 and 1512 respectively; and the kings of Orissa recovered this district.
In 1515, Krishna Déva, the greatest of the kings of the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar, the capital of which was at Hampe in the Bellary district, and which was now at the zenith of its power, marched northwards in great strength. He took the strong fort of Udayagiri in Nellore after a siege of a year and a half, and then invested Kondavid. The king of Orissa, Pratápa Rudra, came south to relieve the latter place, and Krishna Déva quitted the siege and advanced to meet him. The two armies came face to face at 'a large river of salt water crossed by a ford' (presumably the Kistna), and Krishna Déva offered to retire six miles so that his adversary might cross the river unmolested and they might then fight on equal terms. Receiving no reply, he forded the river himself in the face of the Orissan army, losing heavily in the operation; engaged the enemy on the other side; and won a complete victory. He took Kondapalle after a siege of three months, escaladed Kondavid (capturing there the wife and son of the Orissan king and many of his nobles) and then advanced as far north as Potnúru in the Vizagapatam district, where he set up a pillar of victory. From this place he despatched several challenges to Pratápa Rudra, daring him to come and fight, and when these met with no response he eventually returned south to his own capital. He subsequently sent back Pratápa Rudra's queen and married his daughter.
Before many years had passed the Muhammadans again attacked the country. The invader this time was the first king of the new dynasty of Golconda, Qutb Shah (1512-43), and the cause of the war was the assistance given by the house ​of Orissa to a rebellious feudatory of Golconda. The large forces of the Hindus were routed by the fanatical courage of the Musalmans, who took Kondapalle and won a battle in the neighbourhood of Rajahmundry. The king of Orissa sued for peace, and consented to surrender to Golconda the whole of the territory between the Kistna and Gódávari rivers.
Meanwhile domestic revolutions had weakened the kingdom of Orissa. Two sons of Pratápa Rudra succeeded him one after the other, and ruled for a year or two till they were both murdered in 1541-42 by a minister named Góvinda Déva, who took the kingdom for himself.* He and his sons ruled till 1559-60, when a Telugu named Harichandana raised a revolt, killed two of the sons of the usurper, and himself ruled till 1571, when the kingdom fell finally into the hands of the Muhammadan kings of Golconda.
This conquest had not been effected without severe fighting. The Hindu Rája of Kondavíd attacked the Musalman garrison of Kondapalle, and the chief of Rajahmundry, one Vidíadri, who was apparently† a prince of the house of Orissa, laid siege to Ellore, which was also held by the Muhammadans. The latter was signally defeated and fled to Rajahmundry. The Golconda troops laid waste the country round that town and were then called away (1564) to assist the other Musalman kings of the Deccan in the joint attack on Vijayanagar which resulted in the overthrow of that empire in the great battle of Talikóta, north of the Kistna river, in 1565. That decisive campaign won, Golconda's conquest of Gódávari soon recommenced. The forts of Peddápuram and Rájánagaram (from which reinforcements and provisions were being sent to Rajahmundry) were first taken, the latter with difficulty because of the narrowness of the paths and the thickness of the jungles which had to be traversed. Rajahmundry was then attacked. The Hindus were defeated in a desperate battle outside the walls (though they broke the left wing of the invader's army) and the fort was then invested for four months, when it surrendered. This took place in 1571-72. The Muhammadans then marched north, reducing the fortified places on the way, and finally conquered all the country of Orissa as far as Chicacole in Ganjám.
Their control of their new possessions was apparently far from firm, and disorders and outbreaks were continual. The Reddis of the hills, for example, plundered Ellore and ​Nidadavólu, and for some time kept up a desultory resistance against the forces sent to suppress them. When attacked, they dispersed, only to reassemble in difficult passes and ravines, and it was with difficulty that tranquillity was restored. A standing militia appears to have been maintained; but its efforts to keep order were not always successful, and its exactions from the inhabitants increased the miseries of the country.
It was during the Golconda rule that the earliest English settlements on this coast were made. Masulipatam was first visited in 1611 and the factory at Madapollam near Narasapur (also in Kistna) was founded about 1678. Of the settlements in this district, that at Injaram near Yanam was established in 1708, and that at Bendamúrlanka in 1751. The Dutch had several important outposts in the neighbourhood, but the only one in this district was Jagannáthapuram, now a part of Cocanada. The French started a factory at Yanam about 1750. None of these outposts had at this time any influence worth mentioning on the history of the district, and it is sufficient for the present to chronicle the fact of their existence.
Meanwhile, in 1686, Aurangzeb, emperor of Delhi, marched to reduce the south of India to his authority. In the next year he overthrew (among others) the kingdom of Golconda, and the country passed under the direct rule of Delhi. He appointed to rule his new territories a viceroy who was known as the Subadar of the Deccan (and later as the Nizam of Hyderabad) and resided first at Aurangabad and afterwards at Hyderabad. The subadari consisted of 22 provinces, of which Rajahmundry and Chicacole were two. With the provinces of Kondapalle, Ellore and Guntúr they formed what were known as 'the Northern Circars,' a name which still survives. The system (or want of system) of administration remained unchanged, and disorders continued as freely as before.
In 1724 the Subadar of the Deccan (Nizam), who had long been virtually independent of Delhi, became so in fact, and appointed his own nominees as Nawábs of the provinces under him. Rustum Khán was appointed to Rajahmundry and is still known to local tradition as Háji Hussain.
The country was in great disorder. Zamindars, or farmers of the revenue, had generally availed themselves of the late political disturbances to usurp the rights and feeble authority of their Muhammadan superintendents. They defrauded the public treasury and squeezed with an iron hand the husband-man and manufacturer. The new ruler set himself to suppress ​them. 'Those who escaped the sword were proclaimed as traitors; and, a reward being offered for their own with their adherents' heads, a sufficient number was soon collected to erect two shocking pyramidical monuments, called kulla-minár, near each of the provincial capitals.'* Temporary ámins were for a time appointed in place of the refractory zamindars to collect the revenue; but the indolence and depravity of the ruling nation soon made it necessary to revert to the ancient system, and new zamindars were appointed. These quickly became guilty of the same outrages as their predecessors; and in later years their descendants caused constant disorders throughout the Northern Circars.
In 1748 the Subadar of the Deccan died; and a great Struggle followed for his place. The events of this contest relate less to the history of Gódávari than to that of the southern districts, and it is sufficient to note here that the French and English (who were now powers of importance) each took different sides, and that after many vicissitudes Salábat Jang became Subadar in 1751 through the influence and aid of the former. In his gratitude for their help, Salábat Jang ceded the Kondavíd country to them in 1752 and four of the Northern Circars (not Guntúr) in 1753. They had already (in 1750) been granted Masulipatam and the adjacent country; and Bussy, the French general, sent M. Moracin, the officer in charge at Masulipatam, instructions to take over the newly ceded territory.
Jafar Ali, governor of Chicacole, was however in no way disposed to surrender his position quietly to the French, and conspired with the Rája of Vizianagram, the most powerful of the renter-chiefs who had come into existence during the Musalman rule, to oppose M. Moracin's entry. The latter seduced the Rája from the compact by offering to lease him the Rajahmundry and Chicacole circars at a rate much below their value, and Jafar Ali then called in the aid of the Maráthas of Nagpore, who crossed the gháts with a large force, devastated both circars from end to end, and regained their own country by way of Ellore with an immense booty.
In July 1754 Bussy went in person to Masulipatam and Rajahmundry and restored order there. Some of the trouble-some zamindars were dismissed; efforts were made to ascertain the real revenue collections made by these renters and on this datum to found an adequate assessment; and they were required to maintain a sibbandi, or militia, of 12,000 men to keep the public peace, collect the rents, and, when called upon, to repel invasion. ​ Soon afterwards, however, relations between Bussy and the Nizam became strained, at last an open breach occurred, and for six weeks in 1756 the former had to entrench himself near Hyderabad against the latter's troops.
He was eventually relieved by reinforcements from Masulipatam and taken back into favour, and at the end of 1756 he went to Rajahmundry with a strong force to re-establish his fallen authority in the Circars. Aided by the Rája of Vizianagram, he soon reduced the country to obedience; and a force from Rajahmundry took the three English factories at Madapollam, Bendamúrlanka and lnjaram. Except for twenty men at the last-named, these places had no garrisons, and resistance was out of the question.
In January 1758 Bussy returned to Hyderabad, and in July he was summoned by Lally, the new Governor of Pondicherry, to proceed south, with all the troops that could be spared, to assist in the operations against Madras. His departure was a fatal blow to the fortunes of the French, who within ten months were driven out of the Circars.
Almost as soon as he had gone, the new Rája of Vizianagram, who was dissatisfied with the arrangements made by the French at the time of his predecessor's decease, seized Vizagapatam, hoisted the English flag there and made overtures to the English in Calcutta and Madras, offering to render them every assistance in his power if they would send an expedition to invade the Northern Circars.* Clive, who was then at Calcutta, determined, despite the unanimous opposition of his Council, to fall in with the Rája's proposals; an expedition was at once arranged; and the command of it was conferred on Colonel Forde. His force consisted of 500 Europeans, including artillerymen, 2,000 sepoys and 100 lascars. It reached Vizagapatam in October 1758, marched thence in November, effected a junction with the levies of the Rája of Vizianagram, and then proceeded southwards into this district.
The French had assembled in force at Rajahmundry and moved thence to Gollaprólu, a few miles north-east of Pithápuram. Their force consisted of 500 Europeans, 6,000 sepoys and a great many local troops, of whom 500 were cavalry. The whole was under the command of the Marquis de Conflans, Bussy's successor. The opposing forces came in sight of each other at Gollaprólu on December 3rd. Nearly a week elapsed before they joined battle; but at length on the 9th a most ​decisive action was fought near the little village of Condore (Chandurti) a few miles north of Gollaprólu. The result was a complete victory for the English, the French losing all their baggage and ammunition and nearly all their artillery and retreating in confusion to Rajahmundry. The battle is described in more detail in Chapter XV.
Forde at once sent forward a force of 1,500 sepoys to occupy Rajahmundry; and the garrison there, imagining that the whole of the English force was upon them, abandoned the fort on l0th December and retired to the south. Forde again advanced on January 28th and reached Ellore on February 6th. Thence he detached a force to occupy the French factory at Narasapur, which was abandoned on its approach.
De Conflans had retired to Masulipatam, and at his earnest request the Subadar of the Deccan, Salábat Jang, marched to assist him down the valley of the Kistna. On the 6th March Forde appeared before Masulipatam and, after a month's siege, carried that fort by a brilliant assault. On the 14th May 1759 he concluded a treaty with Salábat Jang (who was so awed by his successes and harassed by disputes with a brother that he made no attempt to assist the French) by which the country round Masulipatam and Nizampatam was ceded as 'inam' to the English, and the Subadar promised to renounce all friendship with the French and prohibit them from ever again settling in the Circars.* By this treaty the whole of the country north of the Gódávari returned again to the dominions of the Subadar of the Deccan.
The district was not at once cleared of the French. A small force of about 250 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys had remained between Masulipatam and Rajahmundry to cut off the supplies of the English troops from that direction. This proceeded to Rajahmundry, where only a very small garrison had been left, and compelled the place to surrender. Soon afterwards, however, it left the district with the object of joining Salábat Jang.
M. Moracin, who had been sent from the south with reinforcements for Masulipatam before its fall was known, landed on November llth at Cocanada (which was still in the possession of the Dutch) and endeavoured to foment disturbance by intriguing with Jagapati Rázu, a cousin of the Vizianagram Rája, who had assisted the French in the recent campaign and was still under arms. His efforts were unsuccessful, and he soon re-embarked and sailed for Pondicherry. ​In December of the same year a small French force of 50 Europeans and 100 sepoys landed at Cocanada with the object of entering into negotiations with this same Jagapati Rázu. By this time the English army at Masulipatam, now under the command of Captain Fischer, had commenced its return march. Learning on his arrival at Rajahmundry of the presence of the French at Cocanada, Fischer proceeded thither at once and found the enemy posted in a village two miles from the Dutch fort. They fled at once inside the fort and eventually surrendered, and thenceforth no French forces set foot in the district.
The country north of the Gódávari was now nominally subject to the Nizam, but he was too busy with other affairs to attend to its administration, and the consequence was that 'for seven succeeding years, the completest anarchy recorded in the history of Hindustan prevailed over all the Northern Circars. The forms, nay even the remembrance, of civil government seemed to be wholly lost.'* The provinces had been leased to one Hussain Ali Khán, but his authority was little more than nominal, and an English force despatched to establish it was interrupted by the invasion of the Carnatic by the Subadar. A small body of 200 sepoys and twelve artillerymen under Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Henry) Cosby did, however, reach Rajahmundry, was instrumental in saving Hussain Ali from a conspiracy formed by a disappointed rival to seize the town, and remained there till the Northern Circars were eventually ceded to the English.
This event occurred in 1765. Lord Clive, who had returned to India, entered into negotiations regarding the cession, and on August 12, 1765, received a grant of the Circars from the emperor of Delhi. The Madras Government hesitated to avail themselves at once of this grant of country which the Subadar of the Deccan considered to be his own property, alleging that there was no immediate necessity for taking possession, since Hussain Ali Khán had already collected the revenues and but little more could be obtained that year. In the following March, however, they published the emperor's firman and sent General Calliaud to take possession. The Nizam threatened to retaliate by invading the Carnatic; and Calliaud was ordered to meet him at Hyderabad and negotiate a cession from him. The result was a treaty dated November 12, 1766, whereby the whole of the Northern Circars with the exception of Guntúr (which was not ceded till 1788) was handed over to the English. The ​latter on their side engaged to pay the Subadar a tribute of nine lakhs of rupees per annum, and to furnish him with military assistance whenever required. The treaty made no mention of the previous free grant of the country by the emperor.
Almost immediately afterwards the Subadar faithlessly joined Haidar Ali of Mysore against the British; but the success of the latter nation in the south and an invasion of his country from Bengal brought him to his senses; and, by a second treaty dated February 23, 1768, the tribute was reduced and the imperial grant was acknowledged. Tribute continued to be paid until as late as 1823, when it was capitalized by the payment of a lump sum of Rs. 1,66,66,666.*
The country was not at once administered directly by the English, but was leased out to native renters. The Gódávari district continued to be under Hussain Ali Khán. His lease expired in 1769, and then the system of Provincial Chiefs and Councils described in Chapter XI was introduced, this district being placed under the Chief and Council of Masulipatam.
It only remains to refer to the various disturbances of the peace by the rebellions of zamindars or the outbreaks (fitúris, as they are locally called) of hill tribes which have occurred since the English occupation. The powerful zamindars of Pithápuram, Pólavaram and Peddápuram occupied most of the centre and north of the district, while beyond them ruled the untamed mansabdars of Rampa, Tótapalli and Jaddangi. At first, the latter recognized no authority whatever; while the former maintained large bodies of troops and did much as they liked. Constant attempts were made to reduce the power of both, but for a long time in vain. 'It has been the object,' wrote the Board of Revenue in 1794, 'of every new settlement with the zamindars to endeavour to reduce their military force, and a clause has been inserted in their cabooliats binding them to keep up only such sibbendy (militia) as may be indispensably necessary for the purpose of collection and (in some situations near the hills) for protection; but a clause so vague and indefinite, it may easily be supposed, has never met the smallest attention from the zamindars.' Considerable difficulty was consequently experienced in keeping the hill men and the zamindars from breaking the peace.
The first disturbance appears to have occurred in 1785, and was due to disputes about the division and management of the property belonging to three brothers who owned, ​respectively, the zamindaris of Gútála, Pólavaram and Kottapalli. A hill zamindar of Nágavaram took a part in the English quarrel and opened hostilities by capturing Gútála in 1785. Troops had to be moved up to restore order, and some fighting took place. Somewhat similar disorders occurred in 1786, 1787 and 1790, and are described in more detail in the account of Pólavaram in Chapter XV.
These troubles were really in the nature of a family quarrel, and only incidentally involved resistance to Government. In 1794 Collectors replaced the Chiefs in Council, and since a famine had depopulated the country, the revenue due by the zamindars had been raised, and Government had resolved to be more stringent in the collection of its dues than hitherto, these new officers met with considerable opposition in the discharge of their duties. Difficulties in Peddápuram and Pithápuram were solved without bloodshed; but the renters of Mogalturru estate (near Narasapur in Kistna district) raised a serious outbreak.
This property had been administered by Government since 1787, and a petty insurrection occurred there in 1791. At the end of that year it had been resumed by Government and leased out to renters. These people would not pay their dues, and were imprisoned and sent to Conjeeveram. They escaped thence and made their way to Hyderabad territory, their families also flying from Mogalturru to Bhadráchalam. The zamindar of that place and the amildar at Kammamet in Hyderabad assisted the fugitives, who succeeded in collecting a force of 2,000 peons and making an incursion into the district in July 1795. They marched by way of Yernagúdem to Mogalturru. The Collector was nearly surprised in his house; and was unable to attempt an armed resistance. The party, however, behaved with great moderation, committed no excesses whatever, and, on being assured by the Collector that a memorial of what they considered their wrongs would be forwarded to the Board of Revenue, returned to Bhadráchalam. Little further came of this disturbance; the memorial was dismissed, and the malcontents (who continued at Bhadráchalam) made no further incursion. In September of the same year some of their peons attacked Chagallu, on the other side of the river facing Rajahmundry, but were easily dispersed. A petty disturbance was also created in 1798 by a revenue defaulter who had fled the country along with the Mogalturru renters. He proceeded with 200 or 300 pikemen as far as Undi (near Bhimavaram), where he brutally murdered the tánáhdár; but he retreated into Hyderabad territory on the arrival of troops. ​The most serious outbreak of this period occurred in the Gútála and Pólavaram estates, and involved something in the nature of a campaign. It is described in the account of Pólavaram in Chapter XV.
After the permanent settlement, things quieted down, and there have been few important outbreaks since. The pressure of that settlement and the enforcement of decrees against defaulting zamindars occasionally caused disturbances. It is to these that Munro refers in his minute of 1822 quoted in Chapter XI 'We are every day liable,' he wrote, 'to be dragged into a petty warfare among unhealthy hills, where an enemy is hardly ever seen, where numbers of valuable lives are lost by the climate, and where we often lose but never gain reputation.' He deplored the want of respect and loyalty to Government in the province, which he ascribed to the prevalence of the zamindari system. It was no doubt largely due to the gradual downfall of that system that the increased peace and order of the country were due.
A petty disturbance took place in 1858 among the hills north of Yernagúdem, which is of interest as having been indirectly connected with the Mutiny. It originated in a private dispute among some hill chiefs about a woman; but the leader of the affair, Subba Reddi, pleaded that he had heard that Nána Sáhib was advancing with his victorious army and that 'whoever did most against the English would be rewarded most.' At the head of a large body of Kóyas he killed the village magistrate of Buttayagúdem, who kept as his mistress a rich widow whom Subba Reddi wanted to marry to his son, plundered some villages, and successfully resisted a body of 60 or 70 peons led against him by the Head Assistant Magistrate. Two companies of Sappers and Miners were sent to Yernagúdem and thence marched against the rebels. The only place where they made a stand was Jílu- gumilli (Pólavaram taluk) but their resistance was brief and they dispersed into the jungle. They were pursued by a force of armed peons embodied for the purpose, and Subba Reddi and seven other ringleaders were ultimately captured and hanged.
The Rampa country was a continual source of trouble. The disturbances there were not generally in the nature of a revolt against supposed oppression, since no revenue was collected in the country till towards the end of the century. They were either plundering raids or internal feuds. Government became involved in the latter by championing the mansabdar against his muttadars, and it was his abuse of this support which ultimately led to the Rampa rebellion of ​1879 and the removal of the mansabdar. The chief disturbances which occurred were the mansabdar's incursion of 1813 into the plains; the trouble consequent on his expulsion in 1840; the resistance to him in 1858 and 1862, and the 'Rampa rebellion' of 1879. These are briefly described in the account of Rampa in Chapter XV.
* ↑ 1 Indian Antiquary, xx, 247.
* ↑ * Bombay Gazetteer (1896), i, pt. 2, 353.
* ↑ † Indian Antiquary, xx, 94.
* ↑ * Indian Antiqury, xx, 93 ff. and 266 ff.
* ↑ † South Indian Inscriptions, ii, 364.
* ↑ ‡ Epigraphia Indica, vi, 349.
* ↑ § There is some doubt about the duration of his reign, for though the dates of his and his successor's accession are given as in the text, his reign is generally represented as having only lasted seven years.
* ↑ * Ep. Ind., V, 31. He is well known to local tradition to this day under the name Rajaraja Narendra. Cf. Mackenzie MSS., Local Records, ii, 231; xix 75; and Ix, 24.
* ↑ † S. Ind. Inscr., iii, 37.
* ↑ ‡ Dr. Hultzsch in S. Ind. Inscr., iii, 128.
* ↑ § His inscription quoted in the Government Epigraphist's report for 1898.
* ↑ * S. Ind. Inscr., i, 60.
* ↑ *Ep. Ind., iv,33. and Manual of the Kistna district, 214. The Velinádu Smárta Telugu Bráhmans have a tradition that Vélanándu is a name for the country near Kondavid. See Chapter III, p, 52.
* ↑ * Ind. Antiq-, xi, 9 ff.
* ↑ † Ep. Ind., V, 143.
* ↑ ‡ Scott's Ferishta Introduction, p. Xii.
* ↑ ¶ Wilson's Catalogue, p. 396, 8, 3,
* ↑ * Babu Man Mohan Chakravarti's paper in J.A.S.B,, Ixix, pt. 1, No. 2.
* ↑ * Mr. Chakravarti's paper already quoted.
* ↑ † Grant's Political Survey of the Northern Circars, appended to the Fifth Report on the affairs of the East India Co. (1812), Madras reprint of 1883.
* ↑ * Grant's Political Survey, etc., 143.
* ↑ * Orme's history (Madras, 1861), ii, 355.
* ↑ * Aitchison's Treaties, etc. (1892), viii, 278.
* ↑ * Grant's Political Survey, etc., 146.
* ↑ * Aitchison's Treaties, etc. (1892), viii, 269.