VIZAGAPATAM.
his own. The Marlboroughi having auchored at the Dutch factory of Bimlipatam, 12 miles to the northward, he permitted the chief, Mr. Poreival, Captain Campbell, and several others, to proceed in her to Bengal.'
The subsequent history of the Vizagapatam settlement — its seizure from the French by the Rája of Vizianagram in 1758, the expulsion of that nation from the Circars by Colonel Forde's expedition in the next year, the eventual cession of the country to the English in 1765, and the elevation of Vizagapatam from the position of an isolated factory to that of the capital of a district in 1769 — all these events have already been shortly sketched above.
The twelve years of anarchy which followed Bussy's departure had enabled the Rája of Vizianagram to make himself more powerful than ever, and he was by far the most prominent person in the new territory. The Rája, Ananda Rázu, who had accompanied Forde's expedition died of small-pox at Rajahmundry shortly afterwards. He had no son, and the widow of his predecessor Viziaráma Rázu adopted Venkatapati Rázu, a boy of twelve and the second son of her husband's cousin Rámabhadra Rázu, and caused him to assume the name of Viziaráma Rázu by which he was afterwards so well known. This lad had a half brother, considerably older than himself, named Sitaráma Ráza, who (though the adoption of an eldest son is discouraged by Hindu law) cherished considerable resentment because of his apparent supersession. Owing to the new Rája's minority, all authority and state fell naturally into Sitaráma's hands and for very many years he succeeded in maintaining the position of superiority over his younger brother thus accorded him.
The two brothers were very powerful. They controlled almost all the district except the havíli land round about Vizagapatam, Kasimkóta and Chicacole(i.e., the old demesne or household land of the sovereign, and tracts resumed by the Musalmans and appropriated to the support of their garrisons and establishments); in 1761 they also seized by force much of the estate of Parlákimedi in Ganjám; while later, it is said, they even possessed themselves temporarily of the Rajahmundry Circar. When the English came into possession of the country they persuaded the brothers to relinquish Parlákimedi and settled a peshkash of three lakhs annually on the rest of their estate. This latter included the indefinite rights in Jeypore referred to on p. 266 below.
Soon afterwards the various zamindars formed a strong confederacy to throw off the Vizianagram yoke. Sitaráma Rázu, however, was equal to the occasion. 'He persuaded the Chief
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