Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/240

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

to visit the Governor on a superb Arabian horse, and was introduced without a single attendant. We accompanied him on his return to Anakápalle, and he conducted us to his garden, which was laid out in a most beautiful style, rich with indigenous and exotic plants and trees.' He also assisted in the capture of the notorious rebel Páyaka Rao (p. 313) in 1834. He had no son. His younger daughter married M.R.Ry. G. L. Narasinga Rao.

Jagga Rao's second son. Súrya Náráyana Rao, had two sons named respectively Venkata Jagga Rao and Náráyana Gajapati Rao. In those days there were few colleges at which a boy could be given an English education, and the alternative was a private tutor. Venkata Jagga Rao was accordingly sent all the way to Madras to be under the tuition of Mr. T. G. Taylor, F.R.S., then Government Astronomer. There he imbibed the keenest interest in astronomy (again a rare accomplishment in men of his position), writing, to the now defunct Madras Journal of Literature and Science, papers on points connected with that science and being on one occasion recommended to act for Mr. Taylor. On his return to Vizagapatam he built, in 1841, in the family residence there, Dábá Gardens, the well-equipped observatory which still goes by his name and [is referred to in the account of Vizagapatam below (p. 332). He died in 1856 at the early an;e of 39 without male issue. His only daughter married M.R.Ry. Ankitam Venkata Narasinga Rao, a Deputy Collector (who continued and extended the meteorological observations which were being carried on at the observatory and became an F.R.A.S. and F.R.G.S.), and their son, M.R.Ry. A.V. Jagga Rao, who inherits a taste for science, is now in enjoyment of their share of the family property, including Dábá Gardens.

Súrya Náráyana Rao's second son, Náráyana Gajapati Rao, was born in December 1828; educated at the Hindu College, Calcutta; succeeded to his share of his father's property in 1853 ; took a prominent part in the founding of what is now the Mrs. A. V. Narasinga Rao College, in the erection of the civil hospital in Vizagapatam and in numerous other public benefactions; was a member of the Legislative Council for sixteen years from 1868; and was granted the title of Rája in 1881, a C.I.E. in 1892, the title of Mahárája in 1898, and a K.C.I.E. in 1903. He died in the same year and his widow, the Maháráni Lady Gajapati Rao (who was his cousin and the adoptive daughter of M.R.Ry. G. L. Narasinga Rao above referred to) survives him. He was the last of the family in the direct line- Of his two daughters one married