A Family History of Venkatagiri Rajas/27th Generation
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Raja V. Kumara Yachama Naidu Bahadur, c.s.i. (27th Generation).
Twenty-seventh Generation.
Rajah Sree V. Kumara Yachama Naidu Bahadur Varu.
Born 1831 A.D., installed 1848 A.D.,
died 1892 A.D.
Hangaru Yachama Naidu = Ammakkamma.
Akkalla = Jupalli Dharma Naidu.
Kumara Yachama Naidu.
Being aged only seventeen at the time of his father's demise, the management was left in his hands and the matter reported to the District Collector of Nellore. The same year the formal Installation took place and he received the honour of Government Khilat.
In 1854 he celebrated with great pomp the marriage of his sister Akkalla Garu with Jupalli Dharma Naidu Garu. The next year saw his marriage with Lakshmi Narasamma Garu, daughter of Vellanki Surya Rau, Zemindar of Tiruvur, which took place at Venkatagiri with usual pomp and presents.
It was in the year 1860 that the minor Rajah of Pittapur paid a halting visit to Venkatagiri on his return from Tirupathi. In January 1871 the Rajah of Bobbili came to Venkatagiri and requested the Rajah Bahadur to grant his third son Rangamannar Krishna Yachendra in adoption. The request was complied with, and the adoption ceremony was duly performed with a present of valuable jewels and an elephant and two horses with ornaments by the father. In 1873 while on his way to Bobbili to see his son, he received a message from the Rajah of Pittapur requesting him to hand over the second son in adoption to him. The consent was given and similar observances made in this case also.
The year 1875 witnessed some important marriages. The first was the marriage of Pittapur s adopted son with a sister of the Zemindar of Nuzvid, Narayappa Rau. The Rajah visited both Pittapur and Nuzvid with his family and returned with a present to himself of two elephants and four horses from the Rajah of Nuzvid. The second is the marriage of his elder sister Lakshmi Venkamma with Raja Gopala Rau, son of Rajah Chelikani Jagannatha Rau, Zemindar of Somavaram. This took place at Venkatagiri when the Raja made to his daughter a gift of Rs. 50,000 worth of jewels, of Gopa Naidu Gari Palace for dwelling, and of the Muttha of Tiruvur in Chingleput district which he bought at a price of 1 ½ lakhs; the third is the Royal wedding of his eldest son Sree Raja Gopala Krishna Yachendra and Lakshmi Venakamma Garu, the second daughter of Simhadri Appa Rau, Zemindar of Thangellamudi. It was attended by several friends and relatives and Rajah Jagannatha Rau Bahadur of Jatprole, was one among the chief guests.
It was in 1877 that the third ceremony of adoption took place, the fourth son Navanitha Krishna Yachendra being granted as son to the above-mentioned Rajah of Jatprole, with the usual presents and formalities.
For his personal qualities and skill it may be mentioned that he was an adept in the art of native gymnastics and hunting.
Public. — The first event of public importance is his attending the installation ceremony of the Rajah of Pittapur. While going on his first pilgrimage to Benares in 1863, he received the invitation. So he halted for a time and then continued his journey. This first pilgrimage is described in detail elsewhere. In 1866 he was granted the title of C.S.I, by Her Majesty and the next year he was invited to Madras in February by His Excellency the Governor and was presented the badge in the banqueting hall. On the occasion of this visit to Madras came into vogue the practice of reception and farewell by His Excellency the Governor's Aide-de-Camp accompanied by His Excellency's car and troops (of Bodyguard) and also the honour of visit and return visit with the Governor. Also visits were exchanged mutually with Azimya Bahadur, the Nawab of Carnatic. In Madras a choultry was built next to Monegar's Choultry for feeding a hundred poor persons and giving alms to another hundred every day and the charity thus started this year became permanent when the Rajah invested a lakh of rupees in Government Securities on 28th June, 1870, for its up-keep. The Rajah saw for the first time the Rajah Surabhi Venkata Jagannatha Rau Bahadur, Rajah of Jatprole in the Nizam's Dominions, who had now been to Madras and who strengthened the acquaintance by paying a visit to Venkatagiri a few days later and proving his skill as a rider. The same year occurred an incident about the Rajah's titular address. He was being addressed by the Government for some time past as the Zemindar of Venkatagiri instead of the usual Rajah and the matter was taken to the notice of the Government. Whereupon the honours and titles bestowed on members of his family by the Delhi Emperors or Carnatic Nawabs were scrutinised and proceedings gazetted that the Rajah thenceforth be addressed as Rajah Velugoti Kummara Yachama Naidu Bahadur, C.S.I., Raja of Venkatagiri. This order was communicated by the Collector of Nellore in letter No. 212, dated 25th July, 1867. A little later His Excellency the Governor-General in Council passed proceedings No. 25, dated 19th August, 1867, that Panchahasar and Munsubdar be suffixed to the title of Rajah of Venkatagiri and this matter also was communicated by the Collector. All this can be verified with No. 4203, dated 5th September, 1867, of the Gazette of the Government of India.
In 1869 the Rajah was invited to Madras by the Governor of Madras on account of the visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. This time also he got the usual honours of reception and send-off and exchange of visits with the Governor of Madras. He had an interview with the Nawab of Madras and another with Salvarjung Bahadur, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad. The Rajah's interview with Lord Napier, the Acting Viceroy in 1872, and his interview with the successor a few months later are both described in another place. On 8th September, 1875, in honour of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales landing in Bombay, grand celebrations were held in Venkatagiri and a Poor-house was established for feeding and clothing the poor. Subsequently he received the invitation to go to Madras when the Prince came to Madras and he went there accordingly followed by his eldest son. Both on the occasion of the Prince's alighting from the train in Madras and in the Durbar the Rajah had his usual honours. He made a present to the Prince of an ancient sword, a dagger and a copy of his family history. The Rajah was presented by the Prince, a medal in memory of His Royal Visit to India. It must be noted in this connection that in the reception meeting of the Prince held at Rayapuram, the Rajah had the privilege of occupying one of the seven seats reserved on the dais of the Prince. The other six being His Excellency the Governor of Madras. His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, the Maharajah of Travancore, the Rajah of Cochin, The Nawab of Banganapalle and the Maharajah of Vijayanagram. All other Zemindars and ruling chiefs were arranged on the next floor.
Visits were also exchanged with the Maha- rajah of Travancore and the Rajah was thus highly honoured in Madras.
In January 1876 a big bungalow was purchased on the Mount Road and was well improved into Mothi Mahal.
In 1879 he handed over the administration of his estate to his eldest son, Gopala Krishna Yachendra Bahadur Varu, who was duly annointed and installed the next year. The installation was attended by the several sons given over in adoption, the relations Vellankivaru, the Rajah of Jatprole and G. Narayana-gajapathi Rao, a Zemindar of Vizagapatam district. After this year he visited Benares, Bombay and Madras several times. And during one of his visits in 1880 he exchanged interviews with the Maharajah of Kasi. Items of notable and public importance of his time are —
Literary. — The Rajah was not only a great patron of letters but was himself too a man of letters. He patronised Tharkabhushanam Venkatachariar in his composition of Sringari- kalpavalli in 1851, and gave him a reward of an agraharam by name Vedurugunta in Venkatagiri taluk.
Gopinadham Venkatakavi was a great Telugu poet of his court. He translated Ramayana of Valmiki ; Krishna Janma Khandam (the section about the birth of Krishna) from Brahmakivarta Puranam and the Bhagavadgita, from Sanskrit to Telugu verse, and dedicated them to the Rajah for which he was given as reward, in 1860 the village of Perugupalli in Marella taluk of his estate. During the celebrations of Sri Rama Navami, the anniversary of the birth of Sri Rama, the same poet was asked to read out the full text of Ramayana and the religious ceremonies connected with such general reading were duly observed. The Rajah himself wrote a book called Gitarthasara Sangraham an exposition on Bhagavadgita closely following the original text, was also the author of a book called Sabharanjani, which is a pamphlet on the art of music and dancing, and of another book on philosophy called Manassakshi, philosophy of conscience. Arrangements were made for weekly lectures on this book of philosophy by building a house on the bund of Venkatagiri pond and making a deposit of 14,000 rupees to meet the expenses thereon. Besides, he got a treatise pubHshed as a Narhunar which treats of the Hunar system of Native gymnastics. Several other books were also printed and published under his kind care besides the publication of Ramayanam and Krishna Janma Kandam dedicated to him.
Religion. — The religious charities and activities of his time are manifold. In 1855 he went with family to Tirupati and on his way back he was received by the Zemindar of Kalahasti Damarakonda Venkatappa Naidu at Yerpedu and was highly honoured. In 1856 he made a pilgrimage to Rameswaram. In his forward journey he halted at Conjeeveram and other places of import. At Dhanushkodi a gift was made to Gannavaram Anantha Krishna Sastri of the village of Kasavareddipallam in Polur taluk. A choultry was built at Rameswaram for feeding the Brahmin pilgrims and on the occasion of the same pilgrimage a gold shatagopuram (crown) was offered to Viraraghavaswami of Tiruvellore. In 1855 he went on a formal pilgrimage to Conjeeveram to witness the annual festivity of Varadaraja-swami and then made a promise to meet from year to year the expenses of the third day Garuda Vutsavam and Hanumanthuseva of the festival which had to be celebrated in his own name. He also paid a visit to the Siva's temple there and made a present of a garden, his two other gardens and one peta being dedicated to Varadarajaswami. It was in the year 1863 that the Rajah started on his first pilgrimage to Benares. Certain events connected with this pilgrimage such as his visit to Pittapur at the time of the Rajah's installation there and his interview with the Governor of Bengal at Calcutta had already been mentioned in their proper places. The East Coast Railway had not yet been opened. So he started on foot and on his way he halted at Jagannad. In Benares at the time of his plunge into the Ganges some parts of Vinnamala village in Sagutur taluk were charitably given to meet the daily worship of Sree Viswanadha at Nayudupet. A big choultry was built at Hanumathghat for lodging and feeding mendicant pilgrims. In the name of his revered father an idol of Svarnesvvara was set up in the temple of Kedaraswami. He next visited Prayag, Matra, Brindavan, Gokula, Govardhana and other holy places. From Brindavan he returned to Benares with the holy feet of Radha Krishna and from Ayodhiya he received the holy feet of Sita Rama and with these he marched to Gaya, on the occasion of the unique ceremony known as Gayasradha the annual income of Hastakaveri was transferred to the name of Sankarlal. With this Ganges water he started in 1868 on his second pilgrimage to Rameswaram. On his way he presented a diamond necklace to Rajamannarswami. He reached Dhanushkoti at the time of a solar eclipse. While returning, he met the Rajah of Jatprole who accompanied him to Kalahasti. In 1871, he went to Kasi for the second time on the 7th August, and on 11th October of the same year he made the third pilgrimage to Benares and he visited Harihara, Bombay and Poona. He bought two elephants in the Fair held at Harihara which was attended by His Excellency the Viceroy and the Dewan of Nepal. The Rajah had given large sums of money to Sri Venkateswara of Tirupati on previous occasions and this year he gave the village named Maddali in Gudur taluk worth 30,000 rupees. With the income of this village it was intended to feed thirty people every day. In 1872, he went to Benares for the fourth time. It was then that he met in Calcutta, and had exchange of visits with H. E. Lord Napier, the Viceroy, and his successor. This had already been mentioned under events of public importance. This time he built a choultry in Benares to feed twenty persons every-day. He also bought the big building in Dasa Asvamedha Ghat. In 1876 in his fifth pilgrimage to Benares he was invited by the Governor of Madras which he first accepted but he could not subsequently attend on account of the great famine in his estate. After handing over charge of the estate to his son he spent his time mostly in visiting such sacred places.
These several pilgrimages are not only numerically important, but bore also good result in the form of public charities, religious improvements and the like. In 1857, the village of Lingasamudram in Venkatagiri taluk was made a free religious endowment to Varadaraja Swami at Venkatagiri, besides the silver kite and others presented for the annual festival. In the chief temple of Kasi Viswanatha in Venkatagiri he got two idols of Mathrubhutheswara and Sree Rama set up by his mother. In 1859 he gave substantial help to one of his court pandits Garudachala Somayajulu for performing a religious sacrifice known as Athirathra Yagam. In 1861, he gave four villages to the four temples of Manner Polur, respectively. In 1863, the Rajah's attention was turned to the improvement of the local Viswanatha temple. A mandapam, a stone-built hall was built in the south-west of the main streets for His festival. A silver-plated horse, a peacock, and a Yali were added to the list of Vahanams. The chariot-ropes were replaced by big iron chains. A music-hall (Naupat-khana) was also added to the temple. The choultries at Nayudupet and Benares were soon discontinued as they were not working properly and the choultry at Venkatagiri improved in their stead. In 1873 and 1874, there was the big famine in Bengal, and the Rajah being invited to attend the meeting held with the idea of affording relief to the famine-striken, gave a liberal donation of Rs. 20,000. Like his father and grandfather he also gave during his life-time five villages as Endowments to temples and eleven as agraharams to Brahmins besides those mentioned already. In 1876 at the time of great famine at Venkatagiri he spent nearly one-and-a-half lakhs on famine relief works and tank improvements in his taluk and thus supported the poor.
The following are some of the important suits filed by the Rajah successfully. No. 10 of 1865, No. 24 of 1872 and Nos. 103 and 104 of 1873 are four disputes with the Zemindar of Kalahasti, in the first three of which the Rajah was a defendant and in the fourth the plaintiff. They are cases relating to boundary and choultry building disputes in which able lawyers like Mr. Maine and Mr. Norton appeared on opposite sides. The cases went through all courts of appeal.
A few more points from the Modern History of Indian Chiefs, etc.. Part II, by Loke Nath Ghose, are intended to supplement. "On 1st May, 1864, he voluntarily condescended to offer Rs. 1,800 a year for feeding and clothing the patients of the Nellore Dispensary. In 1866 he was created a companion of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India." With a view to impart education to the Public, the Rajah had established two Anglo-Vernacular schools, one at Venkatagiri and the other at Nayudupet, and had them in his own management for ten years till 1872. But on the 1st April of that year, they were made over with the buildings and furniture to the Local Fund Boards, established under the Madras Act IV of 1871. The Rajah is an excellent Telugu scholar and has produced two philosophical works in Telugu prose Githartha Sangraham and Saramsa Panchakam.
A short description of the Venkatagiri Estate in general and of Venkatagiri town in particular will not be out of place in this history. This Estate is one of the oldest in India. It is mostly situated in Nellore district of the Madras Presidency. It is bounded on the east partly by the Bay of Bengal
and partly by certain Government tracts of Nellore district, on the south by Kalahasti Zemindari, on the west by the Eastern Ghats, lying as boundary between Nellore and Cuddapah Districts, and on the north by Kurnool and Guntur Districts. The Estate comprises two divisions, northern and southern, each consisting of five taluks. The taluks of the southern division are Venkatagiri, Sagutur, Mallam, Polur and Manubole, and those of the Northern Pellur, Podili, Darsi, Kocherlakota and Marela. Each division is in charge of a Peishkar, while each Revenue Taluk is managed by a Tahsildar with his Sheristadar, Revenue Inspector and other staff. The Dewan's Offtce with a Manager, and a Dewan is at the head of the whole management. The extent of the Estate is about 2,117 square miles. There are about 800 villages, belonging to the Estate proper, 625 hereditary enjoyment villages, 215 Agraharams or Shrotriems, 10 Amarams or personal Inams and 12 temple Agraharams. The total income comes to about eleven lakhs, of which one lakh and seventy three thousands come from Agraharams, of which Rs. 19,000 go to the temples. The annual Peishkist is three lakhs and sixty-nine thousands and with road-cess and other charges the total amount due to the Government is about four lakhs and forty thousands. This amount is much more than that of other Zemindaries as in this case it has been fixed on terms of Military Tenure. The Swarnamukhi, the Musi and the Gundlakamma flow through several parts of the Estate. The chief products are corn, cholam, varigi and castor-seed. There were some ancient stone fortifications here and there but they had all gone to decay, and only relics are seen in places like Pellur, Pothakamur, Kurchedu .png)
Venkatagiri Mountain Fort (near-view).
Town Hall at Venkatagiri. Foundation-stone laid by H.E. Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, g.c.i.e. on 22nd July, 1883.
Venkatagiri town is the Headquarters of the Rajah and the capital of the Estate. It is nearly 100 miles north-west of Madras and 50 miles south of Nellore. Eight miles to the west of this town is situated on the hills a strong Durg. On it are built some Palaces and Water-sources. In the ancient days of fighting it was the seat of all records and treasury. It was also a place of shelter for Zenana ladies. Some buildings on the Durg had been repaired from time to time, and they are visited in summer for the cool weather by members of the Royal Family and Europeans. The name of the Durg is Kalimili Durg. Venkatagiri itself had a fort in the olden days and what now remains is a trace of the filled-up ditch. That part of the town is still called Pathakota meaning 'the Old Fort.' There were several big cannons in the possession of the Rajahs, but they had all been removed except four which are retained for honour and show. The town extends one mile south of Pathakota and is half-a-mile across from east to west. A stream popularly known as the Kaivalya flows close by to the east and another the Versh bounds it on the north. In the west of the town there is a fresh water pond named after its founder Polisetti who
lived 200 years ago. That is the main source of fresh water-supply for the townsmen. It was considerably improved by the heads of the Estate and is now in charge of the Local Board. Floating festivals are conducted in it annually. In the heart of the town are several nice buildings and Palaces. The Rajah's Palace is the first. It is called Indra Mahal. Even within its premises are situated, besides the Harem and Durbar Hall other new halls and extensions, certain offices, such as Taluk Office, Bakshi Office and Treasury Office. Around the Palace are other construc
European Guest House, built in 1870 A.D.
Temple of Sree-Varada-Raja Swami at Venkatagiri.