Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/290

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

VIZAGAPATAM.

which aims at the same completeness as prevails in our oldest provinces.'

Vikrama Deo's son RámaChandra Deo III held the estate until his death on 27th August 1889. • He was a man of much character and considerable ability, and though his property was incredibly mismanaged in some respects, in others he showed prudence and foresight. Had his education and training been such as to allow of his going into details, he would probably have administered his estate admirably. He was immensely popular with his people, with whom he mixed very freely and to whom his great liberality justly endeared him.' His son, the present Mahárája, Vikrama Deo III, was born in 1875 and so was a minor at the time of his father's death, and the estate was taken under the management of Government under the agency rules. The taluks above the gháts were put in charge of Mr. H. D. Taylor, I.C.S. (who held the post until the property was eventually handed back) and the others were managed by a Deputy Collector. The minor was educated under the care of Dr. J. Marsh, who had already been his tutor for some time, and in February 1893 married the eldest daughter of the Rája of Udaipur, a native state in Chota Nagpur. A son, Rámachandra, was born to him on the last day of the same year and is now being educated at Jeypore by Dr. Marsh.

Tho estate was handed back on the 27th November 1895 with a balance of some 7½ lakhs in Government paper and another lakh in cash, besides Rs. 1,05,000 which had been lent to the Sálúr estate and Rs. 3,53,500 secured by the mortgage of half of Mádgole. The accounts had been systematized, the forest revenue increased, saw mills put up at Mattupáda near Rámagiri, granaries built to receive the large amount of rent which is paid in kind, nearly a lakh spent on improving communications, the 'new Mahál' in the palace completed, the other palace above referred to practically finished, the tána establishments reorganized, and the former guards replaced by a small body of well-drilled and well-armed men. The minor's mother's eyesight was also restored by a successful operation on the cataract from which she was suffering. The title of Mahárája was conferred on the Rája as a personal distinction in 1896.

The Jeypore zamindari is scheduled as impartible and inalienable in Act II of 1904 and is divided for purposes of administration into the upper (or Jeypore) and the lower (or Gunupur) divisions, which are each administered by a manager (stationed at Jeypore and Párvatípur respectively) subordinate to

270