Vizagapatam/Gazetteer/Vizianagram Taluk
VIZIANAGRAM TALUK.
Resembles in general appearance the rest of the low country of the district, consisting of a plain of red soil scattered with red hills. The most prominent of the latter stand just north and west of Vizianagram town.
Next to those of Vizagapatam, the people of the taluk are better educated than any others in the district and increased at a relatively faster rate both in the decade 1891-1901 and in the thirty years ending with 1901.
There are two places of interest in the taluk: —
Rámatírtham lies about eight miles north-east of Vizianagram and contains 986 inhabitants. North of it stand two hills which are in striking contrast to the rounded red heights so common in this district, and consist of bare, solid rock, dotted with tors and worn into sheer precipices like the hills of the Deccan. The nearer of these is called Bódikonda, or 'bald hill.' On the top of the western end of it is a ruined brick shrine in which stand three images of Jain tirthankaras, some 1½ to 3 feet high, neatly carved out of the local garnetiferous gneiss. They are of the ordinary nude, seated, cross-legged, contemplative type, have the usual long ear-lobes, triple crowns and chámaras, and rest one foot on a figure of the animal which is their cognizance. Higher up this hill, under an immense overhanging rock, is another much mutilated Jain image.
On the hill next to the north, known as Gurubhaktudukonda, are three more slabs (one broken) bearing other sculptures of the same class.
At the western foot of Durgikonda, the second of the bare hills above referred to, under a great overhanging rock weathered into smooth rounded curves which look almost as if they were due to the action of running water, are yet other Jain remains. On the rock is carved a small, standing, nude in^age, beside which is a much defaced inscription which the Government Epigraphist says is a record of an Eastern Chálukya king who is probably identical with the Vimaláditya who reigned from 1011 to 1022 A.D. Near it lie two slabs, on one of which is sculptured another standing Jain image, behind whom curls a cobra with expanded hood playing above the head of the figure, and on the other a greatly mutilated sculpture of the same class. Above these, in a rounded above formed by the weathering of the rock is a third and smaller slab on which is cut a seated Jain figure.
These sculptures form the only Jain relics which have so far been brought to notice in the plains of this district. No local legends connect the Jains with the place, and the village is chiefly known nowadays for its modern temple to Ráma and the sacred Rámatírtham, fed by a spring, which lies close by this.
Vizianagram, the second largest town in the district, is a rapidly growing municipality of 37,270 inhabitants, the head-quarters of the deputy tahsildar, the Divisional Officer and the Rája of Vizianagram, and a station on the Bengal-Nagpur railway which will probably be the point at which the railway from Raipur will join the coast system. A Native Infantry regiment used to be stationed there, but the cantonment was abolished at the end of 1905. The town does much trade with the hill tracts to the west and with the port of Bimlipatam, and between 1871 and 1901 its population increased by no less than 84 per cent. The improvements in the place effected by the municipal council and the Vizianagram zamindars have been mentioned in Chapter XIV, the principal medical and educational institutions in Chapters IX and X respectively, and the climate in Chapter 1.
Vizianagram consists of two parts — the native town surrounding the fort on the east and the former cantonment and civil station on the west. These are separated from one another by the Pedda Cheruvu ('large tank') which never dries up, irrigates a considerable area of wet land, supplies numerous wells sunk on its shores and is a famous sanctuary for wildfowl.
The civil station and deserted cantonment are neatly and regularly laid out with shady roads running at right angles to one another leading past numerous (often empty) bungalows in pleasant compounds. On high ground to the west of them, stands the old parade-ground, bounded on one side by ancient trees and a line of bungalows, and faced by the buildings formerly used for the unmarried lines (the married lines were to the east, near the railway) and the military hospital. The last regiment to occupy the cantonment before its abolition was the 63rd Palam-cottah Light Infantry, formerly the 3rd M.L.I. Just before it left, its meas-house was burnt to the ground and most of the regimental plate destroyed.
An avenue of fine trees running parallel to one side of the parade-ground leads past the Roman Catholic church of St.Maurice, built in 1882-83, and the small Church of England place of worship, erected in 1902 at a cost of Rs. 5,000. The latter replaced St. Mary's church, which stood just south of the parade-ground. This was originally called Holy Trinity and was built in 1850 at a cost of Rs. 2,600 on land granted the year before by the Mahárája of Vizianagram, and was consecrated by Bishop Dealtry in 1852. The building was badly injured by the cyclone of 1867 (p. 153), afterwards cracked badly, and was abandoned as dangerous in 1899. The Protestant cemetery is not far from its site. The graves in this date from 1811 to 1876. The earliest are those of three subalterns of the 10th Regiment of Native Infantry and a cenotaph to the Colonel and a Major of the same regiment. Other tombs are those of three officers who succumbed during the operations of 1834-36 in this district and Ganjám, and of several other members of the various regiments which have been cantoned here.
Along the road to Bimlipatam are the deserted race-course and grand stand, and a dilapidated racquet-court built about 1855. Ichabod is indeed writ large all about the cantonment. Nowadays it leads only a subdued existence, but forty years ago things were very different. In 1862 the Collector strenuously opposed a suggestion that Vizianagram should be made the head-quarters of the district, on the ground that it would be impossible for the Collector to do any work in so frivolous a spot. He said it was 'a scene of endless pastime: a race-course, a pack of hounds, cheetah-hunting, ram-fights, balls, nautches, joustings, junketings of every kind.'
The native part of the town offers a marked contrast to the cantonment, and is a bustling place. One wide street, called Santapéta, leads through it, and in this are many excellent two-storeyed houses belonging to wealthy Kómatis, their wide verandahs supported on Moorish arches; a conspicuous white temple to the well-known Kómati goddess Kanyaká Paramésvari, ornamented with little domes of the Rájputana pattern; and the clock-tower and market mentioned on p. 214.
The Rája's fort lies south of this street, on the shore of the Pedda Cheruvu. It is a great square erection of brick and stone, measuring about 250 yards each way, surrounded by the remains of a ditch, and having a big bastion at each corner. Two main entrances lead into it, one from the south by the tank, and the other (the elaborate gateway over which was constructed about 30 years ago) from the north. In front of the former are now being erected, under canopies of carved Puri stone, bronze statues of the late Mahárája and his father and a fountain to perpetuate their memory. Within the fort are the apartments of the Rája and his family and a building, called the Móti Mahál, which is furnished in European style and contains portraits of several former Mahárájas. Tradition says that five ' Vijayas' or signs of victory, were present at the inception of this fortress. It was named Vijaya-nagaram ('place of victory') after its founder, Rája Vijaya-ráma (Viziaráma) Rázu; and the foundations were laid on Tuesday (Jaya-váram), the tenth day (Vijaya Dasami) of the Dasara festival, in the year Vijaya (1713-14 A.D.) of the Hindu cycle. It is stated that the present building is a reconstruction of the original edifice carried out by one of Bussy's officers in or about 1757.
The Rája has two other residences outside the town; namely, the Púl Bágh bungalow situated in an extensive garden about two miles along the road leading north-eastwards out of the town, and a bungalow on the top of the bare, rocky hill which is so prominent to the north of the place and is locally known as Chóta Himálaya.
The ancient zamindari of Vizianagram, which has been scheduled in Act II of 1904 as inalienable and impartible, pays peshkash and road-cess amounting to some Rs. 5,82,000, or much more than any other in the Presidency. The early history of the family is obscure. Mr. Carmichael's account of it is apparently based on a narrative furnished him by the then Mahárája. The only other chronicle available is one of the Mackenzie MSS.,1[1] which is incorrect in several matters admitting of check and cannot therefore be trusted. The whole subject is a material issue in the big suit about the right to the property which is now being fought out in the District Court, but no pronouncement regarding it is likely to be made for some time. Mr.Carmichael's account may therefore be followed meanwhile2.[2]
This says that the founder of the family was Púsapáti Mádhava Varma, who took his title from the village of Púsapádu,near Kondapalli in the Kistna district, where he resided. In 1652 he moved to Vizagapatam and obtained from Shér Muhammad Khán, the then Faujdar of Chicacole, a lease of the country of Kumili and Bhógapuram. He was succeeded in 1690 by his son Sítarámachandra, who secured the lease of ten additional Vizianagram, taluks and established himself at Potnúru. Five zamindars followed, each of whom added something to the rapidly growing power of the family, and then came Viziaráma Rázu I, who in 1713-14 built the fort at Vizianagram and transferred his residence thither. He and his successors all bore the title of Gajapati, or 'lord of elephants.' The assistance he gave to Bussy in 1756-57, when that officer came to quiet the Northern Circars, has already (p, 32) been referred to, as have also the attack upon the Bobbili fort which Viziarama instigated (p. 237) and his assassination in consequence. The latter was succeeded in 1757 by Ananda Rázu, son of his first cousin. The story of this man's quarrel with Bussy, seizure of Vizagapatam from the French, co-operation with Colonel Forde's expedition in driving that nation out of the Circars, a ad death at Rajahmundry in 1759, has also been recounted (pp. 33-4). He was succeeded by a boy of twelve, the second son of the late Viziaráma Rázu's cousin Rámabhadra Rázu, who had been adopted by Viziaráma's widow Chandrayya and was afterwards known as Viziarama Rázu II.
The fortunes of the house of Púsapáti under the administration of this chief and his brother Sítaráma Rázu have been sketched on pp. 46—53, where it is shown that from the date of the expulsion of the French they rapidly became more and more powerful until they controlled almost all the district, so abused the authority they had acquired that the Company was compelled to intervene, and so defied that body's authority that Sítaráma Rázu was eventually deported to Madras and his brother was slain at the fight at Padmanábham in 1794. The latter's son, Náráyana Rázu, succeeded in the circumstances related on pp. 54-5.
In 1817 he was twelve lakhs in debt and agreed to mortgage his property to Government until this was cleared off. Government paid off the debts so as to make themselves the sole creditors, gave Náráyana Rázu an allowance of Rs. 80,000 a year, and in 1822 returned the estate to him free of arrears. In 1827 he again made over his zamindari to the Collector and went to Benares on an allowance of a lakh a year. He died there in 1845 and his debts then amounted to eleven lakhs, a considerable portion of which had been contracted in the sacred city.
He was succeeded by his son Viziaráma Rázu III, a boy of nineteen, who at first showed no alacrity to return to the district when Government insisted, came back at last in 1848. His Estate was managed at first by a Special Agent, Mr. Crozier, who handed it over to him in July 1852 clear of debt and with a surplus in hand of over two lakhs. His subsequent management of the property was excellent and his public liberality most marked, and he became a Member of the Viceroy's Council, was granted in 1864 the personal title of Mahárája, and was created a K.C.S.I. in 1876. He died in 1879 and was followed by his only surviving son Ananda Rázu. The latter was also granted the personal title of Mahárája, was a Member of the Madras Legislative Council for many years, and was created a Gr.G.I.E. in 1892. He died without issue on the 23rd May 1897 and by a will made in July 1896 appointed the present Rája, Viziaráma Rázu IV, his mother's brother's son, as his successor. His mother adopted this lad in December 1897, and as he was a minor the estate was managed by an Indian Civilian appointed under the Guardians and Wards Act until he attained his majority in August 1904,and has since been administered by a Civilian whose services have been lent for a limited period. The zamindari (including the tracts belonging to it in the Ganjám and Gódávari districts) comprises thirteen tánas, the area under cultivation in which aggregates some 289,000 acres assessed (including land-cess) at about 18½ lakhs, while the receipts from inam and dévastánam land, forests, house property, the estate in Benares (157 villages)and other items bring the total income to about 22½ lakhs. While the zamindari has been under management, a survey and partial settlement have been carried out and the irrigation works have been greatly improved.
In 1903 four dáyádis of the late Mahárája brought a suit in the Vizagapatam District Court against the present Rája, questioning the validity of his adoption, and claiming that he had only a life interest in the estate, which on his death should revert to them. This suit is now being heard.
- ↑ 1 Local Records, iv, 1-441. Mr. Grant's 'Political Survey of the Northern Circars' appended to the Fifth Report on the affairs of the E. I. Co., 1812, also contains a few particulars.
- ↑ 2 A statement on the matter compiled (mainly from official records) for the purposes of the suit by Mr. H. W. F. Gillman, I.C.S., has since become available.This differs from Mr. Carmichael's version in saying that Mádhava Varma died in 1685 and that Sitarámachandra was followed in turn by his son Annama Rázu (killed without issue near Rajahmundry in 1696), the latter's brother Tammi Rázu (died without issue in 1698 or 1699), Tammi's adopted son Ananda Rázu (who founded Vizianagram in 1713 and died about 1731), the latter'a first consin Sitaráma Rázu (poisoned in 1740) and then by Viziaráma Rázu I(Ananda Rázu's son) who was assassinated at Bobbili in 1757.