Page:Gódávari.djvu/311

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
GAZETTEER.
285

sortie of theirs was also repulsed by him. Detachments were then hurried up from various quarters, and the station was relieved (without opposition) on the 25th of June.

Anigéru: Two miles north-east of Addatígela. Population 211. Is the chief village of a mutta consisting of six villages and paying a quit-rent of Rs. 80. The muttadar's family is descended from the old mansabdar of Jaddangi who (see the account of that place below) was deposed in 1846. His infant son had in later years immense influence with hill people; and at the time of the Rampa rebellion he exerted it entirely in the favour of Government and materially to their advantage. It was decided to reward him by giving him the six villages of this mutta. They had formerly belonged to Dutcharti; but the holder of that mutta had not behaved well in the disturbances, and deserved no consideration. The grantee was succeeded by his son in 1887 and the latter was followed by his mother, who died in 1904.

Dutcharti: Ten miles nearly north of Addatígela; population 308. It is the chief village of the hill mutta of the same name which pays a quit-rent of Rs. 1,200. Till 1881 this was a part of the Golgonda taluk of Vizagapatam district. It was originally held on service tenure under the old Golgonda zamindar. His estate was sold for arrears and bought in by Government in 1837; and the muttadars under him thus became direct holders under Government on a service tenure.

This seriously lowered their status, as they were directly subject to the surveillance of the Collector's native ámin; and several disturbances followed.1[1]

At the time of the outbreak of the Rampa rebellion of 1879 in this district the Golgonda muttadars had no such grievances against Government as existed in Rampa; but they still fretted against the restrictions which had been placed upon their powers, and the more daring spirits among them were moved by solicitations from across the border, by a hunger for loot, and by a desire to pay off old scores against the police.

The chief of the malcontents was Chekka Venkan Dora, muttadar of Dutcharti, whose grandfather had been manager of that mutta, and, on the death of his master without issue, had obtained a sanad for it himself. The first outbreak was caused by the action of one Dwárabandham Chandrayya, a man of some substance, who afterwards became one of the chief leaders of the rebellion. His house was searched,

  1. 1 These are referred to in the account of Golgonda taluk in the Vizagapatam Gazetteer.