VIZAGAPATAM.
Faujdar of Chicacole, who was in charge of Ganjám and Vizagapatam. He seems to have governed through local chiefs or zamindars, to whom the collection of the revenue of the various divisions of the country was delegated on a commission of ten per cent, (see p. 165) and who were expected to keep their charges quiet. Two of these chiefs were the ancestors of the present Mahárája of Bobbili and Rája of Vizianagram, who entered the district in the train of Shér Muhammad Khán (name-father of Shérmuhammadpuram near Chicacole), who was Faujdar in 1652. The Muhammadan sway seems to have been weak, and revolts of the zamindars were common.
In 1686 Aurangzeb, the emperor of Delhi, marched down to reduce the south to obedience; and by the next year he had wiped the kingdom of Golconda out of existence and brought the whole country under his direct rule. He appointed to the charge of it an officer called the Subadar of the Deccan and afterwards commonly known as the Nizam of Hyderabad under whom were a number of local subordinates in immediate control of the various smaller divisions of territory. The five 'Northern Circars' of Guntúr, Kondapalli, Ellore, Rajahmundry and Chicacole had Masulipatam for their chief town, and the northernmost of them, Chicacole, which included the present districts of Ganjám and Vizagapatam, continued to be ruled in the same manner as before by a Faujdar residing at the town after which it was named. Revolts by the local Rájas went on as merrily as ever under his government.1[1]
Meanwhile, in circumstances which will be related immediately, the English had effected a settlement at Vizagapatam town. The Dutch had likewise established a factory at Bimlipatam. The latter however (see p. 226) had no influence on the political destinies of the district and the former was of small importance until 1767; neither need therefore be further referred to for the present.
Aurangzeb died in 1707 and his death was followed by great disorder in his southern possessions. In 1724 the Subadar of the Deccan, though still continuing nominally subject to the authority of Delhi, made himself virtually independent and began appointing his own officers. His first Faujdar of Chicacole was the Anwar-ud-dín who afterwards became so famous in the wars of the Carnatic and is the ancestor of the present Prince of Arcot. His firm but kindly rule was gratefully remembered for many years afterwards.
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- ↑ 1 See the numerous instances given below in the account of the early for. tunes of the English settlement at Vizagapatam,
