Page:The Aristocracy of Southern India.djvu/112

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
79i
The Aristocracy of Southern India.


His Highness the Nizam has the highest respect for the Rajah Sahib, and on every important state occasion he is invited and his nazar accepted. He is honored by presents of costly apparel and jewel by His Highness. On the occasion of the installation of the Nizam in 1886, the Rajah's nazars were accepted, and he was presented the usual khillat (paga, sallas, a hlieenkhahtan, a pair of yellow shawls) and jewels (a diamond kalaggee, sarpaish, a diamond garland, and a pair of diamond dast bands). The Rajah Sahib has also the privilege of offering nazars in marriage and other important occasions.

The state was owned in the beginning by the Mutyala Family, and Mutyala Aswa Rao is reckoned as the first of the line of Rajahs that had been enjoying the Zemindari from time to time. The Zemindari was then taken possession of by force, and successively held by the Jalagam, Tandra, Settipalli, Kandimandla and Damara families. Damara Aswarao adopted a son from Kandimandla family, and in the dispute between these two families for the Zemindari and the adoption, it was finally settled by the Government by arbitration, that the Zemindari should belong to the Damara Family. The last surviving male member of the Damara Family died a bachelor leaving his mother and a married sister, and the Zemindari consequently reverted to his aged mother, Ranee Lakshmeenarasamma Rao, the grandmother of Rajah Parthasarathy Appa Rao Bahadur. On the death of the Ranee, Rajah Parthasarathy Appa Rao Bahadur, who is her daughter's son Dawhitra became the heir to the Zemindari according to Hindu Law of Inheritance, and has been in possession and enjoyment of the same.